Chapter Summaries
Chapter 23: The Revelation
In Chapter twenty-three of The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale has just finished delivering an extremely powerful sermon to the Puritan community. Dimmesdale’s sermon about the relation between God and the community truly inspires the Puritans, to the point where they are transported past physical being into a new realm through his powerful words. Throughout the commanding sermon, there is a continuous hint of anguish, which is the result of Dimmesdale’s death approaching. Dimmesdale stands at the pulpit to deliver his sermon, emitting a brilliant glow of splendor about him, while Hester stands at the bottom of the scaffold. As the procession starts up again, Dimmesdale appears to be extremely faint and delicate. John Wilson steps forward to help steady the minister, but his offer is dismissed by Dimmesdale. Bellingham, a magistrate, also steps forward with the intention of helping the wavering minister, but pauses just before Dimmesdale calls out to Hester and Pearl. Using his strength from God, he yells for Hester and his daughter to join him on the scaffold, which he has not had the courage to do for seven years. The sun has just passed the highest point when Dimmesdale admits his sin to the crowd, and at last reveals his suffering by ripping away the ministerial band which had been covering his chest. As he rips away the band, some say that there was a scarlet “A” burned into his chest. However, his friends, in an attempt to salvage his reputation and honor, say there was no “A” branded onto his chest. In one last attempt to have a kiss from his daughter, he asks her for a kiss, which she then bestows upon his lips. “Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies.” Pearl seemed to have had a special connection with the supernatural world, making her personality resemble that of the devil. In this moment however, she adopts the qualities and traits of a person with true emotions, and releases all supernatural attributes. She has finally developed past just a product of a moment of passion. Hester questions Dimmesdale on whether they will see each other once they have both passed away, but Dimmesdale replies that the decision is left up to God.
Chapter 24: Conclusion
Chapter 24 starts off the with different accounts of the scarlet letter on Dimmesdale's chest, if there even was one. There are three theories as to where the letter comes from. Some townspeople think that Dimmesdale personally tortured himself ever since Hester started to wear her A, and thus eventually creating the letter A on his chest as well. Others believe that Chillingworth had a part in the A, and with his treatments and drugs it eventually appeared. Some also thought that due to his spiritual connection with God and his sin, his own body burned the A on his chest from the inside out. These are all merely guesses and the narrator makes it clear that one could be just as plausible as the other. Many people also believe that the letter was never even on his chest. They looked at his death in the arms of Hester not as an act of guilt or connection with her, but as a symbol of the futile sin and how we are all sinners alike, for a minister is dying in the hands of an adulteress, Hester Prynne. In doing this Dimmesdale is showing that even with the universal knowledge one can acquire from such a spiritual position, we need to learn to look past the good and bad humans and just look to God. The help that Dimmesdale receives from many of his fellow ministers, like Bellingham and Wilson, also illustrates the lengths that men of the same power go to to hide the sins of such a spiritual man.
An overall moral of the story that the narrator wishes to convey to the reader is clearly illustrated in the text. He urges, "Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!” (Hawthorne 231). In this moral, the narrator tells the reader to admit to their sins, maybe not their worst sins but some wrong that they have done that in turn avoids any guilt that they could then encounter.
After the death of Dimmesdale, Chillingworth becomes a different man. He completely vanishes from society and loses all the life that he once had. His one goal of getting revenge on a man has become nonexistent, for Dimmesdale dies. The narrator briefly adds in this that love and hate have the same passion, and that he hopes that when Chillingworth dies his hate that he is currently experiencing turns to "golden love."
After Chillingworth dies a year after Dimmesdale, he gives all of his fortunes, including his properties in Boston and England, to Pearl, making her the richest heiress of the New World. This then makes her a very respected woman in society, however she and her mother disappear from Boston for sometime and the scarlet letter becomes a legend. Hester eventually returns to Boston without Pearl, who has moved on with her life and most likely has a family of her own. Hester comes back to her old, rotted house and spends nearly all of her time in there. It was obvious some outside person was taking care of her, for she frequently received letters and packages of gifts in the mail from England. Many believed that all of this was from Pearl. Upon her death, Hester is buried in the King Chapel's graveyard, next to Dimmesdale but far enough away that they would not intermingle. They did share the same tombstone, however, which is embellished with the letter A.
Character Development
Hester,before Dimmesdale dies, asks if they will be together in the afterlife. Hester's love for Dimmesdale clearly has yet to end, and she will always love him. Because of this, upon Dimmesdale's death, Pearl and Hester leave town. But when Hester comes back, alone, she maintains an isolated lifestyle. She wishes to end her life where she started it. She feels as though because Boston is the place where she sinned and endured her punishments, she should die there as well. Even though the letter was looked at with awe rather than scorn to the towns people, she still continued to wear it and looked at it with sadness. People, especially women, even went to Hester's house to look for advice, which she gave. She once believed that she could be a woman that defied the role of women and made them equal to men, but since her life was nearing its end she knew that it would have to be someone else.
Pearl learns to love Dimmesdale in the first chapter. When he calls her near once he is on the scaffold, she runs to him like a bird and hugs his legs. She truly loves her father and feels a strong connection towards him. When she kisses his lips after he reveals his sin, she undergoes a complete transformation. Her demon qualities, which were used as punishment for the sins that the couple possessed, completely diminished from Pearl. She then grew up wealthy, due to the fortunes Chillingworth left to her out, and full of joy with a family and children, living in England. While her mother was still living, she reached out and provided for her as best she could. She appreciated all her mother did for her.
Dimmesdale experiences a complete catharsis as he walks out of the church after giving his moving sermon. Before this, he was very lifeless and weak, and he could barely walk to the scaffold. But after his profession of sin to the people of the town, he becomes completely enlivened. He tells Chillingworth that he wishes he finds forgiveness in the sins that he has done. He has officially found acceptance and contentment. The narrator says, "...there was a sweet and gentle smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now that the burden was removed..." (Hawthorne 228-229). Upon his death, he puts his life in God's hands and is completely content with life.
Chillingworth simply becomes a hopeless and lifeless man. Despite his efforts to prevent Dimmesdale from admitting his sin, he fails. After DImmesdale's death he becomes completely worn down and disappears from the town life. He feels as though he has no purpose in life, since his sole motivation was to seek revenge on Dimmesdale. He gives his fortunes to Pearl, and then dies. The narrator illustrates that when it comes down to it, hatred and love are full of the same passion. Even though Chillingworth's life on earth was full of malice and revenge, he may experience love once he has died. The narrator states, "In the spiritual world, the old physician and the minister- mutual victims as they have been- may, unawares, have found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love" (Hawthorne 232).
Conflict Development
Dimmesdale’s Internal Conflict
The conflict of should he once and for all expose his sin has finally comes to a close in these two chapters. After Dimmesdale gives his last impassioned sermon to an enraptured crowd, he soon thereafter reveals his parallel part to Hester’s scarlet letter. The crowd is shocked, and some are horrified. But Dimmesdale is finally free. He has released this burden that he has held for seven long years. Now he is at peace and is described as such, “there was a sweet and gentle smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now that the burden was removed…” (Hawthorne 228). After exposing the truth, and relieving his guilt, Dimmesdale is able to die in peace.
Dimmesdale vs. Pearl
This “conflict” is more of a reference to Pearl originally refusing to accept Dimmesdale because he would not stand with her and Hester on the scaffold. But, now that Dimmesdale has indulged this wish of hers, and called Hester and Pearl to him to have them all stand together on the scaffold, Pearl accepts him as her father. Right as he is about to die, he asks her if she would now give him a kiss, and she complies. This kiss is what ends their conflict, and “the spell was broken” (Hawthorne 229). The end to this conflict is symbolic of the three of them, father, mother, and child, all being at peace with their mutual sin being set out in the open.
Dimmesdale and Hester vs. Chillingworth
Ever since Chillingworth discovered Dimmesdale’s role in Hester’s sin, he has been bent on revenge against the sickly clergyman. In these final chapters, their conflict has come to a close too. Chillingworth tries to prevent Dimmesdale from revealing his sin because he wants to follow them back to Europe and exact his revenge, but Dimmesdale has other plans. He shakes Chillingworth off and proceeds to tell the crowd the truth; Chillingworth then loses all strength and falls to the ground. “Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull countenance, out of which life seemed to have departed” (Hawthorne 228). Because his source of revenge, and ultimately his reason for living, ceased to exist, he lost his own will to live. Chillingworth finally dies within the year.
Hester and Dimmesdale’s Romance
In the end, Hester and Dimmesdale do not live happily ever after with their daughter Pearl. Dimmesdale dies on the day he reveals his sin, and Hester and Pearl soon move away (only later does Hester return to her cottage). Hester asks Dimmesdale if they are to be together in the afterlife; Dimmesdale responds by saying that God is indeed merciful, but their time together was most likely on earth. In conclusion, the three do make their final stand together on the scaffold as promised, but are not together as a family.
Motifs/Symbolism
Hester and Dimmesdale’s “A”: Hester’s scarlet letter has been a symbol of her sin throughout the novel and reminds everyone, including herself, of her sin/ Pearl. There have been allusions to Dimmesdale having a similar mark; when Chillingworth examined his chest and discovered “something” or a mark to indicate his sin. So as Dimmesdale reveals his sin to the town, and pulls away his minstrel apparel to expose his “mark”, this is the completion of the scarlet letter motif. Dimmesdale revealing his “A” is symbolic of completing the connection that links Hester and him.
Pearl: In these chapters, Pearl ends her service as a reminder of the sin Hester and Dimmesdale committed. When she accepts Dimmesdale as her father, because he finally told the truth about them, and kisses him, she ends her tormenting role. This kiss shows that to Dimmesdale and “towards her mother too, Pearl’s errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled” (Hawthorne 229). Pearl is now also free. She can grow up and become a woman free from her role to remind her parents of their sin until both could “come clean” to society about their relations.
Social Criticism
Society and Religion
The townspeople’s reaction to Dimmesdale, on that day, represents Puritan society. When describing how the townspeople react to first his sermon, and then his revelation, Hawthorne is showing that Puritan people are not concrete in their beliefs and do not want to be proven wrong. All of the citizens had believed that Dimmesdale was the utmost holy and pious man in the whole community for years. His sermon made them only continue this belief, but when he reveals his sin, some even forgive it with sympathy! Others even refuse to say they say the “mark” or “A” upon his chest, and that they did not hear him say he was such an impious sinner. They have not even abandoned their values; they instead are actually just making an exception for Dimmesdale. While still they shun Hester for the same sin. They do not want to be seen as oblivious followers who had the “wool pulled over their eyes”. They cannot fathom that their beloved minister was such a sinner.
Modern ConnectionAlthough not an exact modern connection between Hester in The Scarlet Letter, Tiger Woods serves as an adequate example. After committing adultery, Woods faced public humiliation and was criticized by not only the public, but also his fans. He cheated on his wife, Elin Nordegren, with over seven other mistresses. Although Tiger Woods committed adultery to a more extreme extent, Hester and he faced similar outcomes. Hester was forced to stand in front of the Puritan community with her child in her arms. She was also sentenced to wear a scarlet letter “A” pinned to her bosom. Not only was her name tainted by this sin, but she was also ostracized by the community. When Tiger’s infidelity was brought into the light, he faced slandering articles from newspapers and magazines. His name was tarnished by his adultery, and he lost many fans which he had gained throughout his phenomenal golf career. Tiger Woods also attended rehab for sex-addicts as a result of his infidelity. Hester and Tiger Woods may have committed adultery to varying extents, but both faced harsh public outcomes.
source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/tiger-woods-women-linked-alleged-affairs/story?id=9270076#.T2fgxtmaLTo
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