In chapter 8, Arthur Dimmesdale speaks up on behalf of Hester Prynne when Governor Bellingham and the other church officials are threatening to take her daughter away from her. it is reasonable to think they he does that to assuage the guilt he feels for remaining silent about being Pearl's father and doing nothing to help Hester raise their daughter.
In chapter 9, the psychological burdens that Dimmesdale carries begin to take a visible physical toll on his body. He is pale, tremulous, and thin and behaves evasively when questioned by Roger Chillingworth about what is troubling him.
In chapter 10, Dimmesdale tells Chillingworth that some men who carry guilt walk undetected because they choose to hide their sins, knowing that redemption is impossible. He is talking about himself. Dimmesdale describes these kind of men as "black and filthy" suffering "unutterable torment." Chillingworth urges him to unburden himself, but Dimmesdale says he will not allow himself treatment from an "earthly physician."
In chapter 11, readers learn that in addition to marking himself painfully with a letter A on his chest, Dimmesdale scourges himself as an act of penitence.
In chapter 12, Dimmesdale denies himself food and sleep and stands a midnight vigil on the scaffold of the pillory, the place where Hester was publicly shamed.
Overall, the events of chapter 8–12 are focused on the burden of guilt that Dimmesdale carries because of his moral cowardice. He has fathered a child with another man's wife; his sin of adultery could have been considered a capital offense in a Puritan colony, particularly for a minister. What is perhaps more reprehensible in the mind of the author is how he has abandoned Hester Prynne and allows her to bear the brunt of the punishment for their actions. The situation raises the question of whether it is better to face one's mistakes and accept the punishment for them rather than making others suffer. In this way, Hawthorne raises moral questions; the sin is not the forbidden love that Hester and Dimmesdale share, but Dimmesdale's callous treatment of her afterward.
Much of the novel's important themes revolve around conformity and individuality. Chief among these themes is the Puritan need to appear or seem to be conforming. Hawthorne is critical of Puritan hypocrisy throughout the novel. The community is quick to judge and punish Hester, who cannot hide her sins, but this same community is adverse to any kind of self-examination or grace, the hope of forgiveness for sins. In this Puritan society one is either a sinner or one is saved; there is no in-between. Therefore, if one appears to be free of sin, charitable, kind, etc., then one must be counted as saved. The cost for this keeping-up of appearances is living with tremendous guilt and never knowing true happiness.
The Rev. Dimmesdale hides his sin from the community to the point where it manifests itself as a terrible wound on his chest. The innocent Pearl asks her mother, "Why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?" He seems to members of the community to be the perfect example of a saved soul, destined for heaven, but he keeps his sin hidden as he preaches to others about salvation. Torn apart with internal conflict, he chooses to continue suffering rather than accept his failings and acknowledge them publicly. As those around him comment on his virtue, Hawthorne describes his response as "inconceivable, the agony with which this public veneration tortured him."
Hester, on the other hand, is able to turn her outward guilt into personal strength. By the end of the novel she has gained new perspective from her acceptance of her sin and hope of redemption:
The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.
Where her fellow Puritans fear their fate and hide their guilt, Hester is able to hope for grace and acknowledge true love in her life. We are left with Hester's very Puritan hope that "at some brighter period . . . a new truth would be revealed in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness."
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/quotes/theme/guilt/
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