Which statement about Dimmesdale's health is true after the humiliation?

Which statement about Dimmesdale's health is true after the humiliation?

• A. He grows stronger and more hopeful.
• B. Dimmesdale becomes older and more physically weak.
• C. He moves to another town.
• D. He confesses publicly.

Answer: (B)

Dimmesdale’s health deteriorates as a direct result of the guilt and emotional torment he endures after the humiliation. Hawthorne blends moral suffering with physical decline, showing that the burden of secret sin ages a person and drains their strength. After the humiliation, Dimmesdale grows older in appearance and becomes physically weak, his vitality sapped by inner anguish. He does not become stronger or more hopeful in that moment, and there isn’t a relocation as an immediate consequence of the event. His public, full confession comes later in the story, not right after the humiliation, so the best description of his condition immediately afterward is that he ages and wanes physically.

Dimmesdale’s health deteriorates as a direct result of the guilt and emotional torment he endures after the humiliation. Hawthorne blends moral suffering with physical decline, showing that the burden of secret sin ages a person and drains their strength. After the humiliation, Dimmesdale grows older in appearance and becomes physically weak, his vitality sapped by inner anguish. He does not become stronger or more hopeful in that moment, and there isn’t a relocation as an immediate consequence of the event. His public, full confession comes later in the story, not right after the humiliation, so the best description of his condition immediately afterward is that he ages and wanes physically.