"A bloody plague... rigorously, and till his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance." (Hawthorne, 141) In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Minister Dimmesdale starved, whipped, and tortured himself to rid himself of the guilt caused by his sin with Hester Prynne. Hawthorne describes the minister's guilt as the evil that has anchored him and shows how Dimmesdale tortures himself but can never free himself from it. His guilt came from many things. The first was his guilt for committing the crime with Hester Prynne. The second is his guilt for not being with her when she was put on the gallows. Last was his sense of guilt for not revealing himself to his daughter and for having had to stay out of her life for fear of being shamed by the community. Hawthorne's views on guilt and Dimmesdale are primarily that his guilt completely controlled his life until the end, when the power of sin and guilt took over to the point where he could not control himself. Hawthorne uses imagery to highlight the darkness and darkness of The Guilty Heart of Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale says this about himself when speaking to Chillingworth he says that men, meaning himself, “shun themselves from showing themselves black and dirty to the sight of men… they go about among their fellow men appearing as pure as new-fallen snow; while their hearts are all stained and stained with iniquity from which they cannot free themselves.” (Hawthorne, 129) Hawthorne uses dark imagery and contrasting terms such as “spotted and mottled heart” versus “pure as new-fallen snow” to show how the guilt in a man's heart stays with them inside even if they don't show it at all 'external. Hawthorne alludes to Dimmesdale and how he... middle of paper... gets himself together. He was torturing and starving himself because of his one mistake. His guilt stemmed from his conformity to society, his unwillingness to tell the truth and reveal his sin, and for making his family experience pain and suffering without him. Even though he suffered all the torture, he was still loved by everyone and ended up happy, in the arms of those he loved, and away from those he didn't love. This was shown to him when he was in the forest: “The moment he did so, there came what seemed like a tumultuous rush of new life, a life different from his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart and flowing through all his veins , as if the mother and child were communicating their vital warmth to his semi-numb system. The three formed an electric chain." (Hawthorne, 149) He and his family were inseparable and will live in memories forever.