Chapter Seventeen
Entry Thirty-Five
Dimmesdale and Hester begin to talk to each other again after seven years. She realizes he had changed a lot during this time. The pain he had to endure made him weak and unable to go on in his life. He is trapped in his embittered soul that is angry at the Puritan's (for not letting him love the way he wants to) and at himself (for not being able to change his situation). So she starts to build him up again. She tries to draw his attention to the good actions he does. He is allowed to use them to make himself feel better, as signs for repentance and then as guerdon. She tries to show him they have suffered enough now; now it is time to go on.
“You wrong yourself in this. You have deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you, in the days long past. Your present life is not less holy, in very truth, than it seems in people’s eyes. Is there no reality in the penitence thus sealed and witnessed by good works? And wherefore should it not bring you peace?”She tells him what she did for herself. She worked so much for other people until she feels like she atoned enough. Now she wants him to do the same thing, because then they are able to live together in happiness. But Dimmesdale does not deal as easy as she does with his sin. For him it is not that uncomplicated to forgive himself.
In fact, he has a big problem with forgiving - although he is a priest of christianity and one of Jesus' "rules" is to forgive other people. So why does Dimmesdale have such a hard time with that?
He cannot live up to his own standards. It a common trait for perfectionists/leaders.
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