only for people who have read the scarlet letter. 10 points for the best insight?

Question

what did both dimmesdale and chillingworth both failed to realize. must be an insightful and thoughtful (no plot answer or obvious one)

Answer 1

I would say they failed to realize that Hester was a person and she had real feelings. They both acted as though what was happening to Hester didnt effect them--even when Hester was bearing the burden of the crime all alone. However I also think they failed to realize that Hester was a much stronger woman than they gave her credit for. Hester was able to accept the A and the scorn of the people and live her life anyway just as she wanted to. She raised a wonderful beautiful daughter in Pearl. Neither Dimmesdale or Chillingworth deserved Hester and Pearl - they were both unworthy of such a wonderful woman and child. Pax - C.

Answer 2

Both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth failed to realized that by deceiving the entire town (Chillingworth about his real name and his marriage to Hester; Dimmesdale about his connection to Hester) that they ultimately damaged their entire life. Dimmesdale drives himself to the point of illness and eventually death with the burden of hiding this secret from the Puritan society he lives in and his guilt over not being strong enough to admit that he and Hester were lovers. Chillingworth ends up alone and miserable. There are significant differences between them however. Chillingworth never feels any guilt for deceiving an entire town, while Dimmesdale's only coping mechanism is self-flagellation. Also, neither man would have withstood life in the fishbowl, so to speak, if they revealed their secrets. Chillingworth hides for self-preservation, while Dimmesdale keeps his secrets in an effort to protect his parishoners.


I just wrote an essay about this (and got an A) so it's all very fresh in my memory.

Answer 3

Neither Dimmesdale and Chillingworth recognizes what the thoughtful reader eventually realizes: to the degree The Scarlet Letter is about sin, the sin is not adultery.

Answer 4

This was an essay question on my exam 2 years ago in 9th grade.
I said that the unrealized truth of the doubt was that in chillingworth's own fury and dire madness, he did not realized what who his was looking to torture was right under his nose. Dimmesdale out of his own cowardly acts did not reveal himself out of fear of what chillingworth would do and also what the public would think. (this mostly takes place in chapter 13 in the version i read when Rev. dimmesdale became sick and was forced to live wit chillingworth) Dimmesdale's cowardly acts leads him to be utterly blind to the fact that he himself has a Scarlet Letter. In conclusion, I think that both of these two sided characters played a huge role in the major conflict of the novel. The same twisted pleasure that brought them up, also took them both down.

Answer 5

They both failed to realize that you have to let go of the past. They're both totally obsessed with what happened with Hester - Dimmesdale because he can't let go of his guilt, and Chillingworth because he can't get over the fact that he was wronged and his wife cheated on him while he was being held prisoner. So they both ruin their lives over what happened.

Both of them have the potential to do a lot of good (being a priest and a doctor), but they don't ever fulfill their potential because they're totally consumed by their failure to deal with the past and move on-

That what separates them from Hester. She DOES move on. She enjoys having her child and doesn't just see her as a reminder, and she continues to be friendly and helpful to the townspeople, to the point where they almost forget why they ever didn't like her. (That's what the book means when it talks about the A almost changing it's meaning to "angel".)

Hester has made her peace with the past and lives on happily, being useful to others and fulfilling her potential. D and C both fail to do all of these things, because they can't get past what happened.

Answer 6

i would say, and i know this is a bit of a stretch, but, they are connected in more ways than just hester and pearl. i mean, if dimmesdale leaves or dies...then chillingworht doesn't really have anybody to wish revenge on. and if chillingworth weren't there, then i believe dimmesdale would not torture himself the way he did (though i could be wrong) just a though...but it's been a while since i read that book, and i have more insight into heter's character than the other 2 (in my class we had to write a character journal...and i wrote as hester, since we weren't allowed to write for pearl...:P)

Answer 7

I'm not doing your schoolwork for you.