A discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel focusing on the passion, love and suffering of the characters, specifically Hester Prynne and Minister Dimmesdale.
The paper gives a brief overview of the novel and explains that through the theme of passion the characters are made to reveal their true selves and their dual characters and reflects the kind of society these characters live in. The paper uses numerous quotes in order to prove its assertions.
One of the most important actions by Dimmesdale in the novel was his occasional act of putting his hand upon his heart, as Hawthorne described in the passage. This act by Dimmesdale can be taken symbolic in two ways: the first symbolism that this act means is that Dimmesdale, unknown to the readers, also bear the mark of the scarlet letter, and his constant act of touching it with his hand shows his passion and guilt (all the time) regarding his adultery and cowardice in admitting the immorality that he had committed with Hester.