Dimmesdale, in my opinion, seems to be quite pitiful so far in the story. The conversation held between Dimmesdale and Chillingsworth shows how guilty Arthur Dimmesdale feels for the sin he committed. Chillingsworth's revenge comes in the form of emotional torture and mind games with the reverend, which strongly strengthens his feelings of guilt and self-condemnation. These events lead to the occurrence where the Reverend , who may have been sleep walking, visited the scaffold in the middle of the night, where he lets out a shrieks because of his germinating guilt that comes from the "...Remorse which dogged him everywhere" . His suffering still does not allow him to confess like he would like to, and it even gives him hallucinations. For example, he envisions Hester and Pearl coming to see him upon the scaffold, and Pearl "points and pointing her forefinger, first, at the scarlet letter on her bosom, and then at the clergyman’s own breast." If a man is losing sleep and actually sleep walking because of the stress over one secret he is keeping, is that not something that is pitiful? I do feel bad for him since it feels as though it is eating him emotionally and making his physical condition worse, which could lead to his death in future chapters. It doesn't help that he preaches about immoral acts in front of the Puritans, who have condemned Hester for the same sin he had committed. What about his belief in God? He can not be happy knowing that he is a preacher of God's will, and God, like the Puritanical people that surround him and "falsely" believe in his goodness, would condemn the act he committed with Hester. It must suck to be him, since his one mistake literally puts him through a living hell where a man subtly plays mind games and psychologically tortures him and is smacked in the face everyday with the reminder of his inner guilt because of his job and religion.
--Stephanie Tran
--Stephanie Tran