Scarlet Letter 6: 126-144

129..130

"But this very burden it was that gave him sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrated in unison with theirs, and received their pain into itself, and sent its own throb of pain through a thousand ofter hearts, in gushes of sad, persuasive eloquence" (129).

Because Dimmesdale has sinned, he now knows what all other sinners feel like and he can still feel their pain, and they can feel his. He now has sort of a sense of who has sinned. This could foreshadow that the people of Boston will be more lenient with the sinners because they know that they have sinned to, just no one knows it, just like Dimmesdale. He knows he has sinned, but no one but Hester's knows it, but now he feels all the pain of other sinners because he is keeping it a secret. Do you think anyone else will come forth with a sin that they have committed?

"When poor Mr. Dimmesdale was thinking of his grave, he questioned with himself whether the grass would ever grow on it, because an accursed thing must there be buried!" (130)

This quote brings up how sin is extremely bad to the people of Boston. They live in the Obedience model or morality. They see sin as breaking the law, it is that high for them. They do not sin, or do not tell that they sin, because they do not want to break the law. It also brings up the black weeds that Chillingworth was talking about. Since Chillingworth told Dimmesdale of that, now he thinks that the grass will not grow on his grave and that maybe black weeds will, so even if he does not tell that he has sinned, the people will know when he does. They will know when the black weeds grow on his gave.
Do you think sin is too bad to the people of Boston, with all the internal and external punishment going on ?