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By: Valerie The Cowardice of Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, behavior is centered around a rigid Puritan society that leads to great consequences in the lives of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Their act of adultery greatly effects their lives and its result greatly alters their presence in the community. Hester handles her situation with as much dignity and pride as possible while Dimmesdale, the minister, acts in a different and cowardly manner. Hester openly confesses her sin and bears the punishment, while Dimmesdale does not even contain the strength to confess and tolerate the results that could be thrust upon him.
Arthur Dimmesdale's inability to confess is strictly due to his fear of confrontation thus characterizing him as a coward. The fact that Dimmesdale does not publicly acknowledge or reveal his sin only contributes in denouncing himself as well as his courage. His lack of a confession solely results in the loss of power, self-esteem, and dignity. His great lack of inner strength is easily grasped due to the lies he preaches every week for seven painful years about truth and in the manner in which he avoids confrontation. He spreads the word of holiness and goodness, yet he himself does not abide these simple laws of the Puritan lifestyle. The minister can only extol Hester when she refuses to reveal him as the father by expressing the wondrous strength and generosity of a womans heart! (Hawthorne 69) rather than confess his own half of the sin.
He can only praise a woman who has more strength and power than himself, for degrading her would be extremely hypocritical for a man in his position. For seven years, Dimmesdale withers in his own cowardice while wearing a mask of purity. By being the highly acclaimed preacher of his community, Dimmesdale feels it is his duty to represent the model of a good citizen. His high position only invests higher quantities of dread and fear within, digging Dimmesdale farther into a hole of shame and failure.
The ministers meager attempt to admit his part of the sin seven years after it has occurred is yet another representation of his weakness. When he collects the courage to confess, he chooses to do so at night when no one is around to witness his confrontation, and cannot even remain solitary, but requests the presence of Hester and her daughter, Pearl. It is not even possible for Dimmesdale to hold his own composure, as he is carried away by the grotesque horror of this picture... and to his own infinite alarm, burst into a great peal of laughter (151).
He is unable to acknowledge his sin during the day due to his fear of the reaction of the community in dealing with the fact that their well-respected minister has been a part of a great sin. When the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, does finally reach a point of confession, he does so in the manner of a weak and cowardly person. He holds his sin for seven years seven years of silence and sinning, seven years of inflicting pain and torture. Once he reaches a point near death, he chooses not to confess out of goodness, but out of the knowledge that if he does, he will have a chance of forgiveness from God. His confession does not contain even a slight shred of dignity or courage he has to coerce Pearl and Hester to join him on the scaffold for fear of being alone.
Dimmesdale completely avoids confrontation by confessing before death. He does not suffer any public humility or embarrassment as does Hester, does not witness the reaction of the community, and escapes punishment. Upon the scaffold is the only place where Dimmesdale hast escaped (253) the probing curiosity of Roger Chillingworth. The confession of Arthur Dimmesdale only exposes his cowardice to his community and denounces his position, rather than strengthens him. Arthur Dimmesdale can evidently be characterized as a coward and false, not only to himself, but to his congregation as well.
The fact that he his held above the rest in his community leads him to believe he is a model for those to follow, and he is not able to deal with the fact that he has broken the mold. Dimmesdale is aware that he has to still the voice of his conscience in order to make peace with God and himself, yet fails to do so out of fear and anxiety, thus becoming a servant of the devil (220). Due to the high pedestal on which he is placed because of his part in the Puritan community, Dimmesdale is invested with fear, cowardice, and inability to confess his sin, leaving him a powerless and weak man.
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