He likes honesty and wishes he could be open and truthful, but his fear of being socially ostracized prevents him from telling the truth.

''At last—at last—I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood.'' Dimmesdale's dying words reveal his regret for not confessing his ... Who is Dimmesdale in The... · Dimmesdale Quotes

“The heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, must perforce hold them, until the day when all hidden things shall be revealed.” Nathaniel Hawthorne. author.

“It is the unspeakable misery of a life so false as his [Dimmesdale's], that it steals the pith and substance out of whatever realities there are around us.”

"Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside ...

if he discern such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!” The minister well knew—subtle, but remorseful ...

Let me now do the will which He hath made plain before my sight. ... Given that he is dying, Dimmesdale asks Hester whether confession is better than fleeing.

21 февр. 2022 г. · “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13)

Dimmesdale did wrong doings; never owning up to them instead he decided to desert the women he sinned along with, and act as if he never taken part in it.

This is illustrated when Dimmesdale says, “then and there before the judgment-seat, thy mother and thou, and I must stand together” (Dimmesdale 139).