Essay Database

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, uses physical appearance to mirror a characters physiological or spiritual state. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, whom the reader may remember as having taken a brief part in the scene of Hester Prynne’s disgrace, is a complex character. “The young minister, whose health had severely suffered, of late, by his too unreserved self-sacrifice to the labors and duties of the pastoral relation.” Hawthorne is making the reader aware of …

…his figure more misshapen, - since the days she had familiarly known him.” Roger Chillingworth is looking to seek out whom Hester had slept with. He loved her and the pain of not knowing who committed this crime with her was eating at his soul and tearing away his physical appearance. There are hints that the author leaves to let us think about each individual character and the hidden meanings behind them. Bibliography n/a