The Scarlet Letter: Dimmesdale's Suffering Of Pain And Guilt

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doing seven years
ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me! Thy
strength, Hester; but let it be guided by the will which God
hath granted me! This wretched and wronged old man is
opposing it with all his might!- with all his own might, and
the fiend’s! Come, Hester, come! Support me up yonder
scaffold!”’(p.235)

Dimmesdale also felt guilt and pain about not admitting the sin that he is
Pearl’s father. He was afraid that Pearl would not like him because he had
not accepted her as his child.
“Dost thou thinkest the child will be glad to know me?” (p.193)
“So thou thinkest the child will love me?” (p.237)

Arthur Dimmesdale felt so much guilt that he became a masochist,
and used chains and whips to beat himself in his closet:

“His inward trouble drove him to practices more in accordance
with the old, corrupted faith of Rome than with the better light
of the church in which he had been born and bred. In Mr.
Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and ...

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