Dimmesdale and I are not friends.

I would just like to rant for a minute. To begin with some pretence of fairness toward Dimmesdale, sin isn't something anyone wants to own up to, especially the sins that the church seems to look down on the most and talk about the least. As a man in a position of spiritual leadership, it would be incredible difficult to open up about that kind of sin; furthermore, he seems to dread what it would do to his congregation: understandable. The harsh side of me kind of wants to say "Maybe you should have thought of that first bucko." Regardless, sin happens and even ministers are people; I just really struggle with the deep hypocracy and weakness in his actions. He had ample chance to take his place beside Hester; to his credit, he defended her a few times. I don't think defending her was enough though. Not only did he abandon someone he apparently loved deeply, he abandoned his child as well. He chooses to punish himself secretly instead of freeing himself by admitting to sin. At one point in the forrest, he openly acknowledges that Hester is much stronger and begs her to make decisions for him. Running the risk of sounding heartless, his death was almost a cop-out (not that he actually had any control over it). He admitted his sin and died; even in his death, people tried desperately to preserve the reputation he gave up love and family to protect. End rant.