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Post by sandych116 on Dec 16, 2012 17:30:26 GMT -5
What I don't understand is why Dimmesdale just doesn't blatantly say "I committed adultery with Hester" if he's so eager to confess. It would be the rational thing to do, or did he not say it because he was still too scared?
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Post by idach116 on Dec 16, 2012 21:31:36 GMT -5
Like in the beginning of the novel in "The Market Place," Dimmesdale urges Hester to reveal him as Pearl's father because he could not bring himself to say it himself. Despite the extreme guilt displayed on the scaffold at night with Hester and Pearl, he still couldn't bear himself to face his sin in public. Even in "The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter" he couldn't directly confess, but he drops obvious hints that the Puritan could not pick up on due to their "kangaroo court" situation where they only see what they want to see. I think that Dimmesdale, though obvious that he wants to confess, thinks it would be too powerful on the Puritan society. He is considered the most sacred in the society and for someone like him to commit such a sin would devastate the people and result in pure chaos. Aside from preventing ultimate destruction of the society, Dimmesdale probably has personal reasons as well. "[Hester] thought of the dim forest, with its little dell of solitude, and love, and anguish, and the mossy tree-trunk, where, sitting hand in hand, they had mingled their sad and passionate talk with the melancholy murmur of the brook. How deeply had they known each other then! And was this the man? She hardly knew him now!" (Hawthorne 235) describes how Dimmesdale has two sides: the cliche clergyman in public and the caring lover in the forest. He is afraid that if he reveals directly, which is a force all at once, both sides of him would conjoin. The idea of a flawless and Devilish man all in one prevents him from directly confessing due to hesitation from fear and guilt.
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Post by annata112 on Dec 18, 2012 18:04:52 GMT -5
I agree with Ida that because he is such an important religious figure, if he were to insensitively blurt it out, it would cause a lot of problems and result in an almost nihilistic frenzy. At the same time, however, I think he also wanted the Puritans to learn from his sermon. Had he started by confessing directly, the Puritans would have been outraged and not listened to anything else he said. This way, Dimmesdale can still effectively provide the Puritans with one, last, good sermon that teaches them what he wished he had known.
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