Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter share remarkable parallels not only in their examination of Puritan America primitive, but also in the dilemma of Puritan America. two main male characters, John Proctor and Arthur Dimmesdale. These two men were in a sinful relationship with another member of the city and faced adversity resulting from their sin. Although John Proctor and Reverend Dimmesdale become hypocrites in their society, Proctor overcomes his sin and is able to redeem himself, while Dimmesdale's pride and untimely death prevent him from fully experiencing redemption. Perhaps the greatest connection between Dimmesdale and Proctor is their sin. and the guilt and self-loathing that follows. For Proctor, his entire life as an honest man of Salem is destroyed by his one moment of sin, and he later laments to his wife, "I cannot stand on the gallows like a saint." It's a fraud. I am not that man…My honesty is broken” (Crucible 136). Dimmesdale also considers himself an imposter as he reflects, “I should long ago have cast off these garments of fictitious holiness and shown myself to mankind as they will see me at the judgment seat” (Scarlet 188). The repugnance with which these men regard hypocrites is matched only by the repugnance they feel towards themselves because of their own hypocrisy. Miller, when first introducing Proctor, describes "that [he] has a sharp and biting demeanor with hypocrites", and Hawthorne emphasizes Dimmesdale's stance on hypocrisy such as when he shouts at Hester " What can your silence do for him, unless he tries it? yes, compel him, as it were, to “add hypocrisy to sin” (Crucible 20, Scarlet 65). Dimmesdale distinguishes between hypocrisy and sin, but believes they are... middle of paper... ...d is in the dark, but this only discourages him further, as the explains Hawthorne, “all the fear of public exposure, which had so long been the anxiety of his life, had returned upon him” (Scarlet 149). Because of this inability to overcome his pride, Dimmesdale does not experience Proctor's transformation into peace. While Proctor was able to put aside his pride when he saw that more than himself was at stake, not even the sight of Hester on the scaffold. can get Dimmesdale to confess. At the moment he confesses, his death removes him from any result or consequence resulting from this confession. At the end of the novel and play, John Proctor and Reverend Dimmesdale are dead. . While Proctor dies a hero defending the truth, Dimmesdale dies a martyr, a testament to the destructive nature of hypocrisy and pride..