Reverend Dimmesdale's misery

In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is discovered that Hester Prynne had an affair with the highly respected Reverend Dimmesdale. Mr. Dimmesdale, after hiding his sin from everyone for almost seven years, makes this statement to Hester, “ But, as matters stand with my soul, whatever of good capacity there originally was in me, all of God’s gifts that were the choicest have become the ministers of spiritual torment. Hester, I am most miserable!” The Reverend was basically saying that because he typically had a clear conscience, and constantly strove for perfection, this one deep hidden sin was tearing him apart. He even mentions that if he was an atheist and constantly sinned, this one sin of adultery would not be a big deal to him and he would be able to just brush it off, but since he was a pure man, the guilt of this sin was unbearable.

When Arthur Dimmesdale said this, he allowed the reader to get a deeper understanding of the way he really felt on the inside. None of the townspeople had any idea that the reverend, who they adored, had the most detestable of sins hidden within his heart. Every time he gave a sermon he continued teaching and advising people with a mask of purity on. The people almost worshipped the ground he walked on and yet he wasn’t any less of a sinner than they. Even though the Reverend had the people fooled, he could not fool himself. The sin that was hidden in his heard tortured him day after day and never gave him rest. He was even physically ill because of the filthiness of his hidden sin. Dimmesdale was absolutely miserable because he was trying to live with double standards, being one person in one setting and one person in another setting. Once he realizes that he has to confess this sin, and starts to plan on the day he will do it, he had already caused himself to suffer for over seven years. If Reverend Dimmesdale would have confessed the sin right away, although people would look at him in the same way they did Hester, he would have been much better off; he wouldn’t have been half as miserable.