Is Arthur Dimmesdale a remarkably strong character to have carried his burden of guilt for so many years? Or was he weak for not having the courage to confess? Given what we know about him, would he have been able to “run away” with Hester and Pearl and start a new life? Discuss these issues with other members of your class. Cite evidence from the text to
support your opinions.
7 Comments
Abbey
1/6/2009 12:42:56 am
I personally think this question could potentially go either way. Having to choose, I will go with saying he is strong for carrying his burdon for so long. I think that having a burdon as heavy as his, would be worse punishment than the punishment that he would have received for telling. I also think he is a strong man to mount the scaffold in chaper 12, to let himself feel the pain that Hester went through. He tells Hester and Pearl to come mount the scaffold with him. He is very brave when he says to them, "Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you." (pg134) He is now coming out and is not hiding from his past. I don't think that at the beginning of the book, Dimmsdale would have been able to run away with Hester. Near the end he starts to become a father figure to Pearl and it would have been easier for them to run away.
Danae
1/8/2009 07:07:33 am
I think Arthur Dimmesdale was weak and strong. He was weak in the way that he feared telling the truth about his sin, and how that fear and worry slowly killed him. Ironically though, he was strong in that same situation to keep his position as a minister every day, with the constant guilt and agony his secret sin caused him. Knowing that Dimmesdale's body is growing decrepit, and the constant burden of his sin is driving him mad, I don't think he would have left with Hester and Pearl. I really don't think he would have made it! In chapter twenty-three, Dimmesdale is in his last moments and he says, "...I am a dying man" (p. 179).
Danae
1/8/2009 07:10:05 am
Abbey, I agree with you when you said he was strong in carrying his burden. He definitely had to be to have that gnawing at him for seven long years!
Samantha
1/10/2009 06:45:40 am
To start off- I agree with about everything that Danae and Abbey has already pointed out! I believe that the question could easily go either way too. So, I think I will take the opposite argument of Abbey to make it interesting. From all that I know about Dimmesdale, it seems to me that there really was nothing to hold him back but his wonderful occupation as a minister that almost makes it look like he held more importance than Hester Prynne! But eventually it is made clear that he regrets putting himself first when he says, "What can a ruined soul like mine effect towards their purification?...Canst thou deem it, Hester, a consolation, that I must stand up in my pulpit, and meet so many eyes turned upward to my face, as if the light from beaming from it!" (page 175). Another thing that showed Dimmesdale's weakness was how he did not stand up as the man and be responisble for the sin and let Hester Prynne take everything by herself while Dimmesdale was quite frankly living a lie.
Danae
1/11/2009 09:56:55 am
I agree with Samantha too! Great job ladies!
Seth
1/24/2009 05:03:56 am
I believe that Arthur was in a way weak, yet he was strong. He was not wise-that's what made him weak-however, he held himself up and kept others still moving. You can never trust a deceitful man.
Seth
1/24/2009 05:04:21 am
slacking????? Leave a Reply. |  B-BlogOne of your first assignments is to come up with a better name for this blog. We will take a vote on the best name in class! ArchivesFebruary 2009 Categories |
RSS Feed