Discussion Topic
The transformation and redemption of Hester, Dimmesdale, Pearl, and Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter
Summary:
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester transforms through her strength and charity, achieving a form of redemption. Dimmesdale's redemption comes through his public confession and subsequent death. Pearl, initially a symbol of sin, becomes a symbol of hope and redemption through her eventual happiness. Chillingworth, consumed by revenge, fails to achieve redemption and deteriorates morally and physically.
How are Hester, Dimmesdale, Pearl, and Chillingworth redeemed by the end of The Scarlet Letter?
With Dimmesdale's confession in the third scaffold scene of The Scarlet Letter, the spiritual triangle is completed for Hester, Pearl, and the minister, while the devilish Roger Chillingworth, who attempts to stop Dimmesdale, is defeated. Rather than dying for others' sins as Christ did, Dimmesdale dies for his; however, in so doing, like a Christ, he does ask God's forgiveness for Chillingworth's sin ["forgive them Father....], and he allows Pearl to become fully human as she kisses his lips, then weeps in true human compassion.
This kiss of Pearl is highly symbolic, for hitherto Pearl has washed away Dimmesdale's kiss at the brook because the minister "was not true," she now returns her father's kiss, symbolizing her acceptance and forgiveness. Moreover, this action of Pearl transforms her from a "sprite" and "imp" into a human being who sheds tears for the first time in the narrative. That she is no longer a symbol of...
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Hester's and Dimmesdale's sin is evinced in Hawthorne's narration, "A spell was broken."
For her sin of adultery, Hester has already been redeemed by her full admission of the sin (she embroiders a brillant A and performs good deads). Still, Hester's sin of having allowed Roger Chillingworth to "violate the sanctity of the human heart" has, at last, been revealed so that she, too, can "be true" as Hawthorne urges in his statement of theme in the Conclusion. And, so, she is finally truly redeemed.
After the final scaffold scene, Chillingworth
...withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun.
If Chillingworth is redeemed at all, it is in finding some humanity in himself by bequeathing his property, both in England and in Massachusetts, to Pearl. Thus, his hatred is converted to love, expelling his sin, just as sin is expelled in Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl as the incarnation of her parents' sin.
How do the personalities of Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Hester, and Pearl in The Scarlet Letter change from the beginning to the end?
The character who changes the most dramatically is Hester. As she stands on the scaffold at beginning of the novel, her attitude is haughty and she seems oblivious to the consequences of her "crime". However, as soon as she spots Chillingworth in the crowd, her behavior begins to change. She uses the scarlet letter and her position as an outcast to learn. She helps the poor, acts as a midwife and generally does such good work that the meaning of the letter "A" changes from adultery to able and finally to angel.
Dimmesdale, while trying to hide his sin, suffers tremendous guilt.He mutilated himself an his guilt causes him untold mental pain. By the time he confesses, the stress of the confession causes him to die.
At the beginning of the novel, Chillingworth was described as a good man. However, his search for revenge, turns him into a deformed "leech". When Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold, Chillingworth has become so dependent on his revenge that he tells Dimmesdale, "thou hast escaped me." A year later, the "leech" has shriveled up and died because he has nothing to live for.
After seven year of being denied by by her father, Pearl is finally acknowledged by him. Before that, she is known as an "elf-child" whose behavior is so odd that people think her father is really the devil. However, at the end of the novel, she inherits Chillingworth's money, goes back to England with Hester and marries well. Thus the trauma of her childhood ends and she lives a happy life.