Subtle, but remorseful hypocrite': Dimmesdale's moral character
1993; University of North Texas Press; Volume: 25; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1934-1512
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval Literature and History
ResumoThe Reverend Mister Arthur is usually understood to be guilty of two sins, one of commission (his adultery with Hester) and one of omission (his cowardly and hypocritical failure to confess). This is his state through most of The Scarlet Letter; but when meets in forest (Chapters 16-19), he agrees to flee Boston with her, to seek out a new life in Old World, and, presumably, to live with her in adultery. By lights of his community and his profession, this resolution is a far more serious sin than any he had committed to date, but most critics have agreed that is not primarily responsible for his actions in forest. Both Michael Colacurcio and Terence Martin have written that seduced in forest,(2) and Darrel Abel argues that Dimmesdale could not resist for in entering forest Hester means to persuade to elope with her and Pearl, and agrees to elopement after only a feeble show of conscience.(3) The forest scene is crucial in narrative of The Scarlet Letter, and a proper understanding of what happens in forest is necessary for any interpretation of Dimmesdale's last days of life and his final confession. will argue in this paper that reading of forest scene sketched above is mistaken; that in fact it is Arthur and not Prynne who is activating agent(4) in forest, increasing Dimmesdale's culpability for his most serious fall. Previous critics seem to think that Dimmesdale's much-vaunted skill as a speaker abandons him when he enters forest with Hester, but will show that talks into talking him into fleeing, and so Dimmesdale's gravest sin cannot be laid at Hester's feet at all. manipulates in forest by exploiting same discursive strategy which allows him through years to buttress his congregation's belief in him as a saintly minister while avoiding telling any outright lies: he plays literal meaning of his words off against context in which he speaks them. Dimmesdale's tone of voice, his position as minister, his reputation as a saintly man, and genre of sermon allow him to say, I am greatest sinner among you, but be understood to be humble, pious, and godly. Dimmesdale's first words provide one of best examples of his profoundly manipulative doubletalk. Prynne is standing on scaffold, wearing scarlet letter, enduring disdainful glance of people of Boston. The Reverend Mr. Wilson, the eldest clergyman of Boston,(5) enjoins to |exhort [Hester] to repentance, and to confession' (p. 66). responds thus: Hester Prynne, said he, leaning over balcony, and looking down stedfastly into her eyes, hearest what this good man says, and seest accountability under which labor. If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, charge thee to speak out name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over evil within thee, and sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips! …
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