Is it okay to overlook your crimes and move on, or is it better to openly confess to your peers? In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, the main character, Arthur Dimmesdale, experiences both sides of the issue. After initially ignoring the need to repent of his sin, his figure and character change radically. By repenting in the wrong way, Dimmesdale's character continues to deteriorate until he finally publicly atones for his mistakes. Hawthorne's views on the theme of repentance are embodied in the tragic and symbolic character of Dimmesdale, which he uses to demonstrate how repentance leads to a willing and free being. Hawthorne uses visual and aural imagery and metaphors in Dimmesdale's suffering to describe the emotion. , the mental and physical consequences that develop when one does not repent of one's sins. About three years into the novel, Reverend Dimmesdale's condition begins to deteriorate. People in the community noted that “his form had become emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, contained a certain melancholy prophecy of decadence; he was often observed…putting his hand over his heart…indicating pain (Hawthorne 117). The visual imagery comes from the Reverend's "emaciated" "form", representing the devastation caused on Dimmesdale's body. The word "rot" gives a connotation of rotten and dying feelings in the Reverend's voice, which provides the aural imagery. Hawthorne proves his point: because Dimmesdale chooses not to repent of his secret sin, he experiences a negative change in his figure. Along with a transformation in appearance, Minister Dimmesdale also suffers emotionally and mentally. "While...suffering from bodily diseases, eaten away and eaten away in the middle of a sheet of paper, he ends the final chapters of the novel by allowing Dimmesdale to finally atone for his long hidden secret and, ultimately, to redeem himself. Despite the At the tragic end of Dimmesdale's life, Hawthorne demonstrates his view of repentance, demonstrating that it results in a free and strong-minded character. Because Dimmesdale neglected to atone for his sins, his situation deteriorated internally and externally. outward In his attempts at atonement, he still did not truly achieve penance in the right way and continued to become unstable and weak Before Dimmesdale's last breath, he finally repented in front of his society. , freeing himself from the evils of Chillingworth and his own self-destruction, on this scaffold, in his last moment, Dimmesdale accomplished the most difficult task he had ever accomplished: incriminating himself to Hester Prynne, the public symbol of l. ignominy in the Puritan community..