The Scarlet Letter Group

Question:

jwj132
jwj132
Student
High School - 12th Grade

According to Dimmesdale in "The Scarlet Letter", who is the worst sinner?

I believe that it was Himself because of the sin of adultry he committed with Hester. But I'm not positive.

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Posted by jwj132 on Tuesday April 28, 2009 at 7:15 AM and tagged with characters, dimmesdale, sinner.

Answers:

  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    'I do forgive you, Hester,' replied the minister at length, with a deep utterance, out of an abyss of sadness, but no anger.  'I freely forgive you now.  May God forgive us both!  We are not, Hester the worst sinners in the world.  There is one worse than even the polluted priest!  That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin.  He has violate, in cold blook, the sanctity of a human heart.  Thou and I Hester, never did so!' (XVII)

    Thus speaks the Reverend Dimmesdale in a pivotal chapter of "The Scarlet Letter" in which Hawthorne closely examines the hypocrisy of Puritanism which allows no penitence for sin, thus almost forcing people to hide their sins.  It is the secret sins that damage the soul the most, and Chillingworth's sin of "violating the sanctity of a human heart" is the worst.  For, like the Devil himself, he would possess the soul of the poor minister.  He is, as the sensitive minister declares, "An enemy! And under my own roof!"  The "secret poison of his malignity" and his malicious attendance upon the minister have brought about the constant "irritated state" of the man's soul.  The revenge that Roger Chillingworth seeks against the minister and Hester is the worst sin.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/scarlet/chapter-17-summary-analysis

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    Posted by mwestwood on Tuesday April 28, 2009 at 8:48 AM

  2. readinglover
    readinglover Student
    College - Freshman

    Through out reading this novel, I think the worst sinner is Demmisdale,simpley,because the representative of the Deity as a clergyman

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    Posted by readinglover on Saturday June 13, 2009 at 10:50 AM