“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
The Puritans believed that God blessed the virtuous and cursed the sinful. Therefore, if you were poor or otherwise unfortunate it was easy to argue that this was the will of God. On the other hand, if you were wealthy, beautiful, or otherwise blessed it was easy to justify your status on the grounds that it was God’s will. This opened the door, as you might imagine, to a lot of hypocrisy among certain Puritan leaders. Does the outwardly blessed state of Dimmesdale, in contrast to his tormented interior, challenge that assumption? Do Hester and Pearl’s beauty and the increasing repulsiveness of Chillingworth fit in to that mythos? Is he simply hoisting the Puritans on their own petard, or is he challenging the Puritan mythos in a more fundamental way?
I think that the point the author is trying to make is that there is a suppressive force within religion, that people decide where they stand, and that it allows for more privilaged people to kick the less privilaged in the face. Also, look at how eager every was to essentially kill off Hester for one mistake, so they could take her place in society.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Dimmesdale's attractiveness is irrelevant he gains no good from it and it in fact tortures him. So "god" uses appearance to punish or reward, but "good" looking does not exactly mean a reward.
ReplyDeleteDimmesdale is tortured more than Hester only because he is a man of God. This is one of the points Hawthorne is trying to make on how the Puritans viewed religion and their reverend.
ReplyDeleteDimmesdale is a major challenge to the assumption that God blessed the virtuous and cursed the sinful. Everyone loves him, he's got a great house, but a nice appearance, but on the inside he is an adulterer. However, one could argue that God recognized the guilt he felt for his sin and forgave him and continued to bless him.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to come and confess...
ReplyDeleteDimmesdale is definitely not a hypocritical puritan leader. a reverend should never put himself outside of the sinful human nature, and therefore his commital of a sin doesn't make him a hypocrite. Truly, what would have is if he did not become internally tormented, and instead waved it off. This is his committal to God, and good, in action. How can God bless the virtuous and curse the sinful when Dimmesdale and Hester are exampels of both.
Hawethorne does challenge the puritans, though. He challenges thier dualist view of virtue and sin by showing that a person can be both, which is clear in that "all sin and fall short of God."
I agree with that because there were many people who wanted to kick Hester off so that she could be the outcast and they could be more important, like you said.
ReplyDeleteWhile most people in the society would agree that Dimmesdale is in favor of God, Hester knows that, internally, he is suffering. If one believes that power and social status are given based on God's favor, Dimmesdale's position undermines that. He may have power and status but he is tortured by guilt which would seem to say that he is not in God's graces.
ReplyDeleteI think it is quite ironic how Pearl and Hester are so beautiful,a blessing from God in the Puritan society, yet they are frowned on most by society. The "sin" that Hester committed and how Pearl is the effect of that sin mask their beauty as a blessing. The Scarlet A was meant to punish and set Hester apart from society, it would not be her beauty that set her apart from others, rather her stigma.
ReplyDeleteI think Hawthorne is simply pointing out that these blessings are subjective to the eyes of the beholder. While the women of his congregation view his good looks as a blessing he finds it as a curse because it conflicts with his interests and goals. Hester, the ultimate sinner in the mind of the Puritans, is also blessed with attractive features and is indeed a strong, honorable women as many in the community realize by coopting the scarlett "A" to represent able rather than its intended meaning.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I still think that it didn't matter if they confessed at all, the vicious people that lived with them were still trying to remove them from the hierarchy so they could claim their spots and look "rightous" in their god's eyes
ReplyDeleteDimmesdale is tortured internally for the mistake that he made while on the outside he seems blessed and holy. I think this is Hawthorne's way of showing that the Puritan idea of God blessing the righteous and cursing the sinful is wrong. He presents a character that is both of these things as an argument against this idea. Hester is also a challenge to this idea. Hawthorne says that after years of being shunned, the society begins to welcome Hester again because of the good work she does. But as she becomes more accepted, she also becomes less beautiful and is no longer the passionate woman she once was. Hawthorne is showing that God does not bless people by making them rich or powerful but that he judges them by their actions instead.
ReplyDeleteHawthorne is making a statement about human nature. He argues that people are too willing to "blindly" believe in someone with power or charisma. He uses Dimmesdale to make his argument. To the townspeople, Dimmesdale is perfect and virtuous, they all want to gather in his "light." But he is actually plaqued by sin and quilt, probably more so than any of the Puritan citizens.
ReplyDeleteHawthorne wants to show that outward appearance and action that can gain appraisal doesn't necessarily result from inward purity. Dimmesdale speaks well and imspires many people even as he is a sinner. Hawthorne may be criticizing the hypocrisy of Puritans, including Dimmesdale, because they only blatanly esteem those who appear to be pure and righteous while they repulse the sinners like Prynne. The Puritans do this while they don't actually know the true nature of their subjects of judgment.
ReplyDeletethesleepinggato: I disagree with you. I believe that Dimmesdale is more tortured than Hester because he hasn't told the truth. If he had maybe Chillingworth couldn't have tortured him. Hester on the other hand steps up to her sin and faces it so in time she doesn't feel guilty anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember, but do we get to read what the townspeople do after Dimmesdale confesses and consequently dies? If we didn't, I assume they would be fairly horrified that it was him, partly because for all this time Hester wouldn't confess who it was.
ReplyDelete@Helen Keller
ReplyDeleteClaiming their spots in God's eyes might have been a part in the reason for being so harsh, but not a large percentage. They strongly believed God was angry at Hester for what she has done because religion was such a large part of reality for them.
Confessing is important for Hawthorne. Hester confessed her sin and she was happy, Dimmesdale had to suffer way more, because he didn't confess. It seems like Pearl is trying to force him to confess when she wants him to recognize her in public multiplne times.
ReplyDelete@ Brightyellow 23
ReplyDeleteI feel that you are personally attacking all of my ideas. That's ok, but you should offer some REAL evidence to argue against
Even though Hester and Pearl are beautiful, the sin seems to cancel out anything that that might effect. I also agreed with BluePen. People are too willing to believe what they see and not the facts.
ReplyDeleteWell one thing I noticed throughout this story was that Hester and Pearl were openly known for Hester's sin. Everyone knew about what she had done and she didn't deny it. Like the prompt above, it says that Hester and Pearl were full of beauty. On the other hand, Dimmesdale and Chillingsworth both became "repulsive". Neither of them confessed their sins until the end of the book. During the story, they got worse. It sounds to me like Hester was almost blessed for confessing her sins with beauty and her beautiful Pearl. Then Dimmesdale and Chillingsworth were punished because they didn't confess to anyone and tried to hold it in for years.
ReplyDeletethesleepinggato:
ReplyDeleteIf you read the end of the book it's pretty clear that Dimmesdale is trying to repent because he hasn't told the truth. He even goes as far as carving the A into his flesh. So I do have REAL evidence to argue.