The Scarlet Letter: Hester's Advice to Dimmesdale After committing the sin of adultery, Dimmesdale’s physical and mental condition begins to deteriorate. When Hester asks him to run away from the situation they are in, he begins the final descent to his demise. Initially, the idea lifts his spirits. Eventually he feels compelled to confess when he realizes that the act of fleeing demonstrates his own moral weakness and compounds of his sins. Hester’s advice acts as a catalyst to propel him from a state of self-loathing into a state of self-destruction. This destruction also serves as his only means of moral salvation. In the initial chapters of Ha