Changes of Reverend Dimmesdale's Character Throughout The Scarlet Letter "Life is hard, but accepting that fact makes it easier." this common phrase has been proven true in many people's lives, but is also a harsh fact that Boston's Rev. Dimmesdale, a key character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, had to face. In this story of deception and adultery set in the Puritan era, Hawthorne introduces Dimmesdale as a weak and cowardly man who refuses …showed first 75 words of 884 total…

…showed last 75 words of 884 total…for not only his, but also Pearl's impish condition he finally gave her what she had been yearning for all along, recognition, "Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken" (Hawthorne 251). And in attaining his peace and happiness, he dies. Nathaniel Hawthorne's major theme in the book was that people are only human and nothing else, and a character other than Dimmesdale could not have painted such a vivid, and memorable picture in one's mind.