Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter - The Burdens That Separate Us

        The burdens people carry do not allow them to form relationships together.  Dimmesdale carries the burden that he was the other person who committed adultery with Hester, but nobody knows this part of the story.  He struggles with the guilt often, but still cannot bring himself to confess his sins until the end.  Dimmesdale has his own troubles to worry about making it very hard to form a relationship with Hester.  When she asks if he has found peace, he replies “None!-nothing but despair!” and cannot seem to get better (Hawthorne, 175).  He is also constantly sick from his guilt and has to be taken care of and has serious medical issues with his heart.  Because the people like Dimmesdale so much, it made it even worse.  “It is inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him” and he even begins to torture himself (Hawthorne, 130).  He is in no state to form a relationship.  When Pearl asks “Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into town?” she knows Dimmesdale cannot be seen in public with them (Hawthorne, 194).  This is one more way in which their burdens separate them from each other, they cannot figure out how to be together.

        The characters cannot share or relieve themselves of their burdens so they persist, and in some cases get worse.  Dimmesdale’s sickness starts out relatively mild, but the guilt is too overwhelming.  He even seems to go crazy and lose his mind completely.  The “infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system” as he continues to get sicker (Hawthorne, 203).  Hester too continues to wear the scarlet letter.  This is her burden which she wears publicly throughout the book, and even though the meaning is fading, it will always be with her.  She feels as though she can’t get rid of it even though the town may be willing to let her.  Her letter of shame and Dimmesdale’s guilt stay with them forever.

        If the Puritan way of life was not so strict they may have never been in this terrible situation to begin with.  The rigid controlled lifestyle of the Puritans is what caused Hester and Dimmesdale to suffer and also prevented them from being together.  The burdens they carried were the only things causing them to struggle and the only things that separated them from having a successful relationship and raising a family together.  Instead they were both forced to live lives of difficulty and despair.