Character Development using the main theme in Scarlet Letter essays

Character Development using the main theme in Scarlet Letter essays The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne proposes many themes and morals. The most apparent theme is Be true, be true, be true. This theme connects with many details through out the novel. The characters development during the story was effected by this theme dramatically. Hawthornes theme had an impact on the characters actions and how the story ended. A character highly impacted by this theme was Arthur Dimmesdale. In the beginning of the novel, he was less than true to himself and the public, but was a respected icon in the community. His eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession. He was a person of very striking aspect, with a white, lofty, and impending brow, large, brown, melancholy eyes, and a mouth which, unless when he forcibly compressed it, was apt to be tremulous, expressing both nervous sensibility and a vast power of self-restraint. (64) He would not confess that he was the father of Pearl, a baby born out of the act of adultery. Because he did not confess he became two-faced, putting on a different face in public and another to himself and Hester. The lies ate at his conscience wearing him down which caused him to appear more frail as time went on. His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; h e was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain. (117) In the end Dimmesdale could not deal with the lies and sins consuming his life. He felt he had to do the right thing and tell the truth to the public. While he was confessing to the sin, his physical appearance changed. ...an epoch of life more brilliant and full of triumph than any previous one, or than any which could hereafter be. He stood, at this moment, on the very pro...