SCARLET LETTER - Chapter 9-16 (pgs 114-185)

CHAPTER 9 – THE LEECH

***I very much enjoyed this chapter. I felt this chapter was needed to bring a lot of clues to surface. This wasn’t necessarily a filler chapter, but more like a chapter leading to the climax. It’s full of symbolism and hints that are coming together. I absolutely loved the fact that Nathaniel Hawthorne added in the parts of David and Bathsheba and Nathan the Prophet. In no way do I consider myself religious, but I really did like the use of the stories being hinted at. I love when authors reference other stories or movies and things. To me, adding these elements made the story feel more realistic and honed in more on the religious aspect. It really made some connections, I feel like these were hints to make it all fit together. I also like the vocabulary he uses when writing. For example, the leech. A leech is the perfect word to fit Chillingworth in every way. I liked the double meaning. These little things I feel really give depth to books. The last part of the chapter I found really exciting too seeing that it was a twist. The one person who nobody knew was evil from the start is finally being revealed, it’s really exciting to see. I’m just completely in love with Chillingworth’s character and how his character transforms.***

Leech: (archaic) a physician; a person who clings to another for personal gain, especially without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other’s resources

-          Roger Chillingworth – not his true name everyone believes Hester’s husband to have died : rumored to be dead at the bottom of the ocean – died at sea

-          Presented himself to the town as a physician – town is grateful

-          Was once held captive by Indians – gained knowledge of the properties of native herbs and roots

-          Spiritual guide – Dimmesdale

-          Dimmesdale – declining health due to too much spirituality

-          Does not want to be cured with medicine – does not need it

-          Chest pains – clutches heart

-          Chillingworth attends to him – become friends

-          Be wary of your physician – has license to find secrets

-           Chillingworth can find no secrets in Dimmesdale’s words – agitated

-          Goes to live with him – anxious and attached

-          Live with a pious widow

-          Dimmesdale rejects the women devoted to him – seeks no wife

-          Dimmesdale’s room : depicts scriptural stories—David and Bathsheba, Nathan the Prophet

~David and Bathsheba: story about adultery –Bathsheba was married to another man (Uriah the Hittite who was a soldier of King David’s) and King David took her to sleep with him –later became his wife and was pregnant with his child while still married to Uriah – King David ordered Uriah killed to hide his transgressions

~ Nathan the Prophet – prophet in the time of King David – reprimands David for his adultery and tells him his and Bathsheba’s child must die – does die (after 7 days)

-          Why so much adultery?? (hmmm...)

-          Chillingworth’s room: modern and studious – scientific

-          The town begins to dislike Chillingworth after some time

-          Begins to be accused for crimes; associated with “conjurers” – gossip

-          Conjurer: a person who conjures spirits or practices magic; magician.

-          Chillingworth is now a changed man – appearance is now “ugly” and “evil”

-          Chillingworth – Devil or devil’s emissary?

-          Fight for Dimmesdale’s soul

-          Gloom and terror in the minister’s eyes – not a secure victory in battle

CHAPTER 10 – THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT

***In this chapter I felt like we couldn’t get enough of Chillingworth! His plans are finally falling through! He’s become so obsessed with finding the truth he won’t stop for anything this has literally become his life; it’s consuming him. He sees the poor minister in declining health and all he can do is dig deeper for answers. He definitely knew the minister would be the key to finding what he wanted from the very beginning but I just don’t think he was completely prepared at first to find what he does at the end of the chapter (I can’t say I was really surprised by the ending of this chapter though, I had a feeling this would happen awhile back). On Dimmesdale’s behalf however, I think he’s too fainthearted for Puritan times. The poor man is basically killing himself slowly! I don’t know if I want to hug him or slap him upside the head. Smh. I hope to see better from him as the book progresses.***

-          Roger Chillingworth – calm in temperament; kindly, though not of warm affections; pure and upright man

“ He had begun an investigation, as he imagined, with the severe and equal integrity of a judge, desirous only of truth … but, as he proceeded, a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity seized the old man within its gripe and never set him free again, until he had done all its bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart like a miner searching for gold.” –p125

-          Committed; obsessive; terrifying

-          Does he suspect the poor minister, Dimmesdale??

-          Does he hope to use him for information on others?

-          Does not trust in the minister’s holiness and purity – investigates for himself

-          Dimmesdale trusts no one

-          A weed growing out the side of an unmarked tombstone – (symbolism?) hideous secret buried with him

-          They discuss if a secret is better kept or displayed for the world to know

-          They hear laughter and see it is Pearl and Hester walking near graves; Pearl dances over their graves; Hester chides her and she sticks burrs into her mother’s scarlet letter

-          She sees the physician and clergyman – throws a burr at Dimmesdale

-           “Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, Mother, or he will catch you! But he cannot catch little Pearl!”

-           Black Man – now seen as Chillingworth : why would she worry for her mother?

-          Is it better to be Hester with her sin shown constantly or hidden in her heart?

-          Dimmesdale says she is lucky

-          Chillingworth questions Dimmesdale on his honesty with him and Dimmesdale is affronted by his claim

-          Chillingworth (the clever man) asks him if something troubles his soul and Dimmesdale tells him if it does then only God can help him

-          Dimmesdale leaves the room in a hurry

“It is well to have made this step, said Roger Chillingworth to himself, looking after the minister with a grave smile. ‘There is nothing lost. We shall be friend again anon. But see, now, how passion takes hold upon this man, so with another! He hath done a wild thing ere now, this pious Master Dimmesdale, in the hot passion of his heart!” –p133

-          What is Dimmesdale hiding??

-          Friends again

-          Dimmesdale falls asleep – Chillingworth looks at his chest and has a look of wonder, joy, and horror!

***SPOILER ALERT!!***

-          COULD THIS BE A SCARLET A???????

-          IS HE THE MAN WHO SLEPT WITH HESTER???? – The clues say yes!

CHAPTER 11 – THE INTERIOR OF A HEART

***This chapter I found intriguing but something bothered me about the chapter. Idk, it was interesting to see how Dimmesdale’s been tormented by his demons and how he punishes himself for his sin. I guess what bothered me was the emotion I felt towards him. I’m kinda angry at him honestly. If I was Hester I would have confronted him years ago on this! He’s such a coward for never standing up! Where is the responsibility?? If you the crime at least fess up to it! It bothers me how Hester had no choice in the matter seeing as she couldn’t hide the fact she had a baby, but for Dimmesdale to leave her alone in all this?! I’m sorry but I can’t seem to have sympathy for him. Yeah, he’s tortured internally and all but he can stop it! Yet, he never does. He needs to stop playing victim here.***

-          Now that Chillingworth knows his secret he is contemplating the best sort of revenge

-          Acts as if he knows nothing while Dimmesdale apologizes for his outburst

-          Dimmesdale becomes more prominent in the church – seen as a heaven sent when really he is nothing of the sort

-          Dimmesdale is haunted by his lie, his secret bringing him to shame – feels like a hypocrite

-          Wishes to tell them what he truly is but never can he say the words – he hints and says he is vile and terrible but that only makes the people love and reverence him more

-          Grows to hate himself

-          Punishes himself to try to purify himself – whipping, fasting, vigils

-          In his vigils he sees things – delusional state where he sees demons, angels, his parents, Hester and Pearl pointing at the “A”

-           He knows he is delusional

-          Tries a new idea for a vigil, leaves the house

CHAPTER 12 – THE MINISTER’S VIGIL

***Woah, I found this chapter really suspenseful! I really thought this was it; everyone was going to see Dimmesdale’s true identity, but no. It was almost sort of anticlimactic. Yet when the “A” was in the sky and when they describe how the three of them together were an electric chain it had a supernatural feel to it. Very eerie. Good chapter.***

-          Goes to the scaffold on which Hester Prynne stood now 7 years ago

-          Stands on the scaffold and screams

-          Nobody but the Governor and his sister, Higgins, hear

-          Minister Wilson passes by but does not see him – came from the deathbed of Governor Winthrop

-          He laughs at the thought of people seeing him on the scaffold – he hears a laugh: Pearl

-          He calls out to Pearl and Hester – she is coming from Governor Winthrop’s house as well

“Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl,’ said the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. ‘Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together.”

-          They go up and Dimmesdale holds one of Pearl’s hands – the three united in a sense; the 3 formed an “electric chain”

-          Pearl asks the minister if he would stand with them there tomorrow at noontide – midday

-          He says no but one day – judgment day

-           “Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!” –p150

-          A red flash of a meteor crosses the sky – so bright everything becomes visible

 “And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.” –p151

-          Pearl then points at something across the street

-          Dimmesdale is distracted as he looks up at the sky – sees a large, red “A” scrawled across the sky--- seen as a supernatural revelation

-          During this time as he looked at the sky he was aware that Pearl pointed at Roger Chillingworth

-          He stood across the street with an evil expression – so terrifying it frightens Mr. Dimmesdale

-          Pearl says she knows who but when she tells him he thinks she mocks him

-          She calls him a liar

-          Chillingworth approaches and says he has been at Governor Winthrop’s house – goes home with him

-          The next day after mass, a sexton comes to him a gives him one of his gloves (black) – said he found it on the scaffold where only the evil-doers go

-          Surely Satan played a trick

-          The sexton tells Dimmesdale of the A is the sky last night – believed to represent “Angel” as Winthrop died that night

CHAPTER 13 – ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER

***I’ve come to believe this entire book is a lie. This book is in no way what it seems! About every character so far in this story has done 180s and 360s! Hester is now seen as good in the town! WHAT? See, these people are just hypocrites and contradictions. If I were Hester I’d be a bit infuriated through it all. They went from completely shunning her to being so kind as to accept her back like nothing ever happened? I’m so confused. Yet I really like Hester still, she’s definitely a strong character and I feel like she’s really grown. She’s become tougher, less afraid of life. Life really made her hard but not all in bad ways. She still has a defiant streak in there somewhere even though she’s become less striking about it. I have hope our old Hester will come back around though.***

-          Hester is shocked by how Dimmesdale looks now compared to how he once was

-          She knows what happened is slowly killing him and wishes to protect him or help him at least against his instinctively discovered enemy – Chillingworth

-          She feels he has a right to her help because they are linked together –iron link of mutual crime

-          Ties = obligations

-          Hester is no longer in the state we saw her last

-          She is no longer hated and scorned but more help to the town than anything else

-          The “A” was now interpreted as Able – she is strong and able; tends to those in need of Mercy

-          Self-ordained a Sister of Mercy

-          The A is now almost a badge for her good deeds in helping the sickly and being tender

-          Her appearance has changed as well

~rich and luxuriant hair = now hidden under a cap

~no Love

~no Passion                                                                       

~no Affection

-          Life has made her hard and tough

-          Hester reflects on her decisions, her changed self and Pearl’s existence

-          She feels she was wrong to have agreed to Chillingworth’s request so long ago – she is better fit now to handle him and plans to help Dimmesdale

-          She encounters Chillingworth

CHAPTER 14 – HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN

***This chapter wasn’t really necessary to me, yet I really enjoyed it. We got to see a whole different side of Hester and Chillingworth and their time together. Thus far, we haven’t heard much of their relationship. I feel deep down they both had some tender feelings towards each other, though it might be almost completely gone now. I felt bad for Chillingworth for just a moment, too. He really saw how much he’s changed as a person; he let his revenge change who he was. It’s kinda frightening really. Yet, I’m not sure he can stop now. His indifference towards Hester telling Dimmesdale about himself didn’t seem like defeat to me; it felt more like confidence.***

-          Hester sees him and she finds him to look different

~Older

~Where he was once quiet and calm he is now eager and fierce

~Blackness inside him now

~Transformed into something like a devil

“What see you in my face,’ asked the physician, ‘that you look at it so earnestly?”

“Something that would make me weep, if there were any tears bitter enough for it,’ answered she.” –p166

-          She tells him she wishes to speak of Dimmesdale

-           She says she made a mistake all those years ago when he made her swear his secrecy

-          He tells her she had no choice – if she hadn’t Dimmesdale would have been sent to the gallows

-          She says death would have been better than the evil he does him now all these years later

-          He is offended = only by his hands is he still alive now

-          He says Dimmesdale does indeed know some evil presence is there, taunting and torturing him – he just doesn’t know it is he

-          Revelation – Chillingworth sees himself for what he has become (a monster)

-          He will continue the torture but sees how he has changed

-          Once the scholarly, thoughtful, and kind man now turned to something hideous and fiendish = Hester and Dimmesdale’s doing

-          Hester= avenged through the scarlet letter

-          Hester plans to reveal Chillingworth’s identity to Dimmesdale

CHAPTER 15 – HESTER AND PEARL

***Again, I didn’t find this chapter to be necessary per se. I think it was good just to point out Hester’s hatred towards Chillingworth and her reluctance to tell Pearl about the “A” and Dimmesdale. I did, however, really like that Pearl put two and two together about Dimmesdale and the scarlet letter. She’s definitely one of the best characters in the book. Her innocent mischief, bubbly personality, and fiery character make for such a lovable character especially because she’s so unique compared to all the others. She has an intelligence that always keep the adults guessing and I think that’s part of the appeal, she’s the independent variable in the story.***

-           Hester = hates Chillingworth

-          She remembers all those years ago when they lived together and he was a gentler person

-          Yet she hates him still and wonders how she could’ve smiled with him, held his hand, kissed him – when he was vile enough to persuade to fancy him when she was so young and knew no better

“Yes I hate him!’ repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. ‘He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!’” –p173

-          She goes to find Pearl who is fooling around on the seashore. She has a green “A” made of seaweed on her own bosom

-          Hester asks her if she knows what the “A” on her own chest means

-          Pearl replies it is the A she is taught in the hornbook- alphabet

-          She answers more serious it is the same reason why the minister keeps his hand over his heart

-          Hester again asks her what reason is that yet Pearl has no answer – she questions her mother 

“…Mother dear, what does this scarlet letter mean? – and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom? – and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?” –p175

-          Hester lies to her – tells her she doesn’t know of the minister’s heart and wears the “A” for its gold thread

-          First time she has ever lied about the “A”

-          Pearl doesn’t give up and keeps asking repeatedly

CHAPTER 16 – A FOREST WALK

***Am I the only one really anxious to get past this chapter?? I’m DYING to finally hear Hester’s conversation with Dimmesdale, but this chapter was fun enough. Pearl is sooo smart for seven years old. She really puts everything together and I’m just waiting for her to come to the conclusion that Dimmesdale is her father on her own!***

-          Hester is looking for Dimmesdale to warn him – goes to find him and talk with him

-          Walks through the forest with Pearl

-          Pearl wishes to catch the sunlight and runs after it

-          She tells her mother the sunlight does not love her – when she gets near it, it leaves

-          They rest for a moment and Pearl asks to hear a story about the Black Man

-          The Black Man walks around with a book with iron clasps and a pen. He offers his book to those he meets in the woods and if they take his offer they write their names in blood in the book. Then he sets his mark on their bosoms!

-          She asks her if she ever encountered the Black Man and she says yes, he is the one who put the letter on her bosom

-          They watch the brook

-          Brook = Pearl

They hear footsteps = the minister