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.Hawthorne believes that when society deals out punishment, it is dealing out God’s punishment. Both the case of Hester and the case of Dimmesdale indicate this view of Hawthorne. In Hester’s case, she confesses her crime, is assigned punishment by society and flourishes. Hester not only accepts society’s punishment, but also individually interprets it, going above and beyond it. By doing this, Hester becomes a servant of God. She abides by the standards of God and takes it upon herself to do good. She believes that she can still reach heaven if she does what she is supposed to. Hester not only takes excellent care of her child, but also reaches out to the community to help even more. She is such a figure in society that they even consider her “our Hester”(111). She is “so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted”(111). The scarlet letter, or society’s punishment, has made her a better servant of God than she has ever been. Hester’s life has been redirected, and she was able to select the path of righteousness and appears able to eventually reach salvation, thanks to her abiding by society’s punishment. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, avoids society, and hence avoids God. Dimmesdale never confesses and takes punishment into his own hands. Hawthorne portrays that had Dimmesdale gone to society, or God’s representative on earth, he would have received an appropriate punishment and not suffered. Instead, Dimmesdale struggles to his death, and while he does eventually confess, it is too late, and Dimmesdale d...
