How does Dimmesdale feel about his role as the much-respected minister in the community, and why doesn't he thrive amid the people who admire him?

feels terrible about
himself, and so the community's adoration and love for him only makes him feel so much more
hypocritical and sinful. When they hear him talk about his sinfulness and guilt, they talk about
him as a "saint on earth." The narrator says that Dimmesdale

well knewsubtle, but remorseful hypocrite that he was!the light in
which his vague confession would be viewed . . . He had spoken the very truth and transformed it
into the veriest falsehood. And yet, by the constitution of his nature, he loved the truth, and
loathed the lie, as few men ever did. Therefore, above all things else, he loathed his miserable
self!

The people revere him, thinking him a saint and
believing that his soul is so much cleaner and purer than theirs, and this increases his guilt
more and more. He ends up reverting back to more ancient practices for expunging guilt, like
beating himself with a scourge, fasting, and keeping late-night, sleepless vigils. He does not
thrive among the people who so admire him, because he feels that their admiration is misplaced
and that he is all the more hypocritical for seeming to accept it.