The Scarlet Letter?

Question

Anyone know any examples of how Hester moves on with her life while Dimmesdale held everything in????

Answer 1

I also read the book in high school, loved it. While the answer above me is best, in lamest terms:

Hester accepts her sins and moves on with her life, Dimmesdale fails to accept his sin and lives in regret and sorrow.

The puritans were going to let her remove the scarlet letter but Hester decided that when she was ready she would remove it herself.

Answer 2

I read that book in high school. It's been a few years, but here's what comes to mind: doesn't Dimmesdale just sit in his house a lot of the time? He's hardly moving on with his life--he's living a lie, not telling anyone the truth. He's holding his big secret inside, and it's eating him up from within.

Hester, on the other hand, does what she can with a bad situation. She can't hold the secret in, since she's been "branded" with the scarlet letter (so to speak), so she makes a life for herself. She deals with the consequences of her actions, while Dimmesdale does not. In fact, the book speaks of her walking around the town and (I think?) the woods--just that physical act of getting out rather than staying in her house, hiding, is an act of motion. She finds a way to make a living for herself and her child rather than just moping around. She doesn't stay stuck in the past, or let guilt or other's opinion of her drag her down.