In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne establishes a duality between piety and sin that manifests itself in the character of Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the plot, Dimmesdale is presented as a faithful and religious minister. Hawthorne describes this primarily by detailing the power of Dimmesdale's sermons and the effects they have on his congregation. Additionally, Dimmesdale is depicted as a person of declining emotional stability, who sinks into a nervous breakdown as the story progresses. He becomes physically fragile and displays his inner turmoil by auspiciously placing his hand on his heart. Hawthorne further establishes Dimmesdale's character through the lens of hypocrisy, particularly through the questions presented by his illegitimate daughter Pearl. Hawthorne uses both direct and indirect characterizations to present Dimmesdale's character as pious, increasingly nervous, and hypocritical. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When Dimmesdale is first introduced to the reader, he is presented as a faithful minister who fulfills his religious duties while questioning Hester about the paternity of her child. Hawthorne establishes Dimmesdale as a deeply religious pillar of the community, whose "eloquence and religious fervor had already won him high eminence in his profession" (46). Hawthorne shows that the minister is respected and revered in Puritan society. Hawthorne most effectively displays the piety instilled in Dimmesdale by showing how his sermons affect his audience. Hawthorne writes that when Dimmesdale preaches to the townspeople, his words “affect them like the speech of an angel” (46). The intense piety with which Dimmesdale speaks shows that he is passionately spiritual and is able to use his education, eloquence, and religious fervor to influence the members of his society. Hawthorne further establishes Dimmesdale as a pious character by contrasting him with the foil. by Roger Chillingworth. The two men are both described as respected and learned. However, Chillingworth is depicted as a kind of demon, whom the townspeople come to believe to be "Satan himself, or Satan's emissary" (88). Dimmesdale, in comparison, is depicted as a saint, who is "regarded by his most ardent admirers as little less than a heaven-ordained apostle" (82). Hawthorne uses the distinction between Chillingworth, a demon, and the saintly Dimmesdale, to denounce the humility and pious nature of the minister. Even when Dimmesdale admits that he is guilty of adultery and dies at the end of the novel, many locals still wholeheartedly insist that he was only trying to create an analogy about his sin. They are unable to associate him with any ungodly transgression, because their perception of their minister as a heavenly emissary is deeply ingrained in the city's collective psyche. Hawthorne establishes throughout the novel that Dimmesdale is a man of deep religious feeling, capable of affecting his parishioners with his innate eloquence and piety. Despite Dimmesdale's inherent piety, Hawthorne also establishes him as a character with a guilty conscience. This is evident in Dimmesdale's emotional state, which deteriorates as the story progresses. Hawthorne first shows this in a physical description, when Dimmesdale stands over Hester while she is on the scaffold and tries to convince her to reveal who her fellow sinner is. The situation is not without irony, since the father is of course Dimmesdale himself. However, Dimmesdale strives.