Is Dimmesdale's final confession a courageous act?

[ashley15]

please help!!

[Quark]

please help!!

I always thought of it more as a capitulation to the mental anguish within him.

[ashley15]

so you would say no? i am sooo confused

[mosimo]

FYI capitulation means to give up or surrender.

His connfession could have also stemmed from his disire to not leave anything undone. His main reason for wanting to preach on Election sunday was to terminate his career and not leave it unperformed. Obvously he liked bringing things to an end. The same with the confession, he knew he was going to die so he wanted to confess before he died and therefore also bring his life to a clean end.

Therefore it could be considered either way. Either he was capitulating to his anguish and just wanted to bring his life to an end and thereby be at ease. Or he was Courageously and intentionaly bringing his life to a clean end.