Literary Analysis Of The Scarlet Letter

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Literary Analysis of The Scarlet Letter

    In chapter 20 of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave the colony on the fourth day en route for the Old World. Dimmesdale's decision to leave with Hester fills him with a sense of freedom from his place of torture, Boston. By creating false hopes for the future, he relinquishes his suffering from his guilt conscience.

    When Dimmesdale returns from the forest, he is not sure that the recent event with Hester and Pearl was really true. But seeing and Hester and Pearl revives his dreams of a better future together. Their meeting has changed him; he sees everything differently. Suddenly he feels the freedom to do things that he might have done before. He meets several people along the way home in which he has impulses to do wick and evil things. The first person he meets is the one of the oldest Deacons of his congregation. He is tempted to say evil things about the Communion Supper, one of the most scared of Puritan churches.

    Dimmesdale continues onward and meets the eldest female member of his church. He again is tempted to tell her an unanswerable argument against the immortality of the human soul. The next person he meets is the youngest female member of his parish. He has to restrain himself from whispering wick and evil things that might mislead her. Next, he meets a group of young Puritan children. He must stop himself from teaching them "evil words." He walks onward a...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 03-15-06 12:18am
Category: English
Words: 464
Pages: 1.86