s a very respected member of the community. Arthur Dimmesdale Dimmesdale is presented as a young quiet Puritan minister with a tragic flaw. His flaw is that he is unable to publicly admit that he committed adultery with Hester. In many of his sermons he preaches about the importance of admitting sin, yet he finds himself unable to. He rationalizes his secrecy by claiming that it would ruin his reputation as a minister and he would no longer be able to carry out the work of God. "It may be that they are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or-can we not suppose it-guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God's glory and man's welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them." At times he realizes his hypocrisy and comes to the verge of confession, only to retreat into vague proclamations of guilt. This inability to confess causes Dimmesdale great anguish and self-hatred. At one point he lashes himself with a whip, and at the end of the book we find that he has inscribed the letter "A" into his own chest. After seven years of suffering in denial of his guilt, he finally triumphs over his weakness. On Election Day, after delivering a moving sermon, he ascends the scaffold and admits that he committed adultery with Hester and that Pearl is his daughter. His confession marks the climax of the novel. After it is done, he dies in Hester's arms, freed from the debilitating burden of his secret. Roger Chillingworth Like the two other main characters, Chillingworth is both a victim and a sinner. He is a victim, first of all, of his own physical appearance and self-isolation. He is small, thin, and slightly deformed, with one shoulder being higher than the other. This, coupled with the fact that he has devoted himself almost entirely to his studies, serves to cut him off from the rest of humanity. He is also a victim of th...
