The Influence Of God In The Characters Of The Scarlet Letter

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made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer" (67). Chillingworth's first reaction is one of shock, but he quickly suppresses it (61). Since his first sight of his wife in two years is of her being punished for being unfaithful to him, he is naturally surprised. It does not last for long though, because it is his nature to control his emotions (61). Pearl's very existence in this scene is the largest immediate effect of her parents' crime (52). She obviously would never have been there had her parents resisted their love for each other.
The second scene occurs several years later and shows the effects after time has had a chance to play its part. It begins with Dimmesdale climbing the stairs of the scaffold in the middle of the night because it is the closest that he can come to confessing his sin (152). This scene is especially important because it shows how pitiful he has become. Dimmesdale shows just how irrational ...

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contempt for Dimmesdale is so acute that he risks his cover when he gives him a look so vivid as to remain painted on the darkness after the bright meteor that just passed, vanishes (161).
The third scene is very critical because it is the last glimpse into every character’s mind and the last time that everyone is alive. At this point in time, Dimmesdale's fixation on his sin has utterly corroded him to the point of death. After he gives his Election Day sermon, he goes to the scaffold and asks Hester and Pearl to join him because he is so weak that he can hardly support himself (Bloom 265). He finally exposes the truth and tells his followers of how he deceived them (267). The only ...

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