Hypocrisy In The Scarlet Letter

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What is Hypocrisy? Hypocrisy are just cases that are both obvious and subtle, it shows the danger of creating and maintaining illusions by forcing people to comply with the rules and laws in order to reach the society’s expectations. In the book The Scarlet Letter the main characters Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are full of hypocrisy in many different ways.
One way the book shows hypocrisy is through the character Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne is committing hypocrisy by not revealing the true identity of the father of Pearl and her lover, Dimmesdale. She has to openly embrace the sin of her adultery with the scarlet letter embedded on her breast, while Dimmesdale does not tell the public about his own acts of sin. Another example of …show more content…
Dimmesdale is one of the many great examples of how Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism when creating the names of his characters. The “Dim” in Dimmesdale’s name is a symbolic representation of his own acts stupidity. "Dim”, as in not very bright, represents how Dimmesdale is not very bright at the study of the nature of God but instead, a great hypocrite. At the beginning of the novel, Dimmesdale knows that the sins he will endure privately will be substantial but he is too weak to admit and own up to his actions. Dimmesdale loves to openly preach about the evils involved in the committing of sins, yet he himself is one of the worst sinner of them all. Dimmesdale’s love for his community is the same as Hester’s love for Pearl, he loves his community only enough to preach to it, but within his preaching is a deeper sin inside of himself no willing to come out. Dimmesdale only wants to be rid of his sin privately, that is why he whips himself to provide small sense of relief from the sin, but then the sin comes back and he feels like he should publically reveal it. Dimmesdale pretends to be good and wise minister but the Puritan values and morals on the idea of adultery see him to be bad and foolish. He is too weak though to avoid the pitfalls of hypocrisy, despite the fact that he knows that they are
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