In the beginning of this chapter, our knowledge of Chillingworth grows. When he returned to Boston, he did not find a warm and welcoming home, but instead he found his wife, Hester, upon the scaffold with a child in her arms and a scarlet letter sewn on her chest. Instead of tying himself to this adulterer and living a life out-casted like Hester, Chillingworth renames himself and builds himself a new life. He uses his knowledge of medicine to become a physician, a needed, but uncommon profession in the colony. Using his past knowledge and the new information he learned from the Indians, Chillingworth successfully builds himself a new life.
This new life bring him to the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, his spiritual guide. However, Dimmesdale’s health is failing. He lost weight, his voice sounds tired and he keeps his hands over his heart, wincing in pain as he does so. The people of Boston believe that Chillingworth has been sent from God to heal Dimmesdale, “Why, with such rank in the learned world, had he come hither? What could he, whose sphere was in great cities, be seeking in the wilderness? In answer to this query, a rumor gained ground,- and however absurd, was entertained by some very sensible people,- that Heaven had wrought an absolute miracle, by transporting an eminent Doctor of Physic, from a German university, bodily through the air, and setting him down at the door of Mr. Dimmesdale’s study!” (Hawthorne 110). The people of Dimmesdale’s social circle urge him to take Chillingworth’s offers of help, but Dimmesdale refuses. However, as Dimmesdale’s condition worsens, Chillingworth convinces him to receive treatment. They walk along the beach or in the forest everyday and grow closer as time goes on. Dimmesdale takes a great liking towards Chillingworth and his scientific knowledge. Chillingworth finds that Dimmesdale is a “true religionist” (Hawthorne 112). With his new observations, Chillingworth dedicates himself to finding the truth hiding inside Dimmesdale. He vows to reveal every one of Dimmesdale’s secrets, and truly believes that, as a skilled investigator, he will discover each and every one. As their friendship grows, they moved into a house together, so that the obsessed Chillingworth can observe Dimmesdale’s every move. Dimmesdale’s room has long curtains, giving him the ability to block the sunlight, and his walls are decorated in scenes of adulterous actions. However, Chillingworth’s room is arranged with his profession in mind, giving him room for his studies and plants. However, as their relationship grows, people began to question Chillingworth. Some believed they knew him before his disappearance and recognize him. They deem him untrustworthy and see evil brewing in his eyes. They believe that Satan was haunting Dimmesdale through Chillingworth.
Chapter 10 Summary- The Leech and his Patient
When he first returned to Boston, Chillingworth began an investigation to find nothing but the truth, but his task has become much more complex than he originally thought. He has been overtaken by the desire for the truth, and he is willing to do anything for it, not matter the cost. The townspeople begin to question him as his investigation overtakes him, “Sometimes a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or let us say, like one of those gleams of ghastly fire that darted from Bunyan’s awful doorway in the hill- side, and quivered on the pilgrim’s face” (Hawthorne 118-19). After spending every waking moment with Dimmesdale and still finding nothing, Chillingworth decides to go into his room. Even while he is being careful, Dimmesdale awakes to the sounds of his intruder, but Chillingworth smoothly covers himself and sits with his as a friend would. Dimmesdale’s illness has made him paranoid and he questions everyone, except who he truly should, Chillingworth.
At one point, Chillingworth reaches a slight breakthrough in his nonstop hunt for the truth. One day, Dimmesdale questioned the “dark flabby leaf” (Hawthorne 119) that Chillingworth was holding. He had found the plant growing in the graveyard over the heart of man buried in an unmarked grave, and he believes that they are representative of a secret that the man did not reveal in his lifetime. However, Dimmesdale defends this belief and argues that this man’s secret is between him and God, and it is not the business of society to intervene. As this debate continues, Dimmesdale clutches his chest as pain arises in his own heart. Out the window, they hear a young child’s laugh. They look outside to find Hester and Pearl, who is playing atop the graves in the graveyard with a “...perverse merriment which, whenever they occurred, seemed to remove her entirely out of the sphere of sympathy or human contact” (Hawthorne 121). Chillingworth mentions the evil he sees inside of this little girl, but Dimmesdale defends her by saying that he does not know whether she is evil or not. When she hears them talk, she points to the window and says that they must go, for the “Black Man” (Hawthorne 122) has already gotten to Dimmesdale. When he questions if Hester is truly feeling regret for her actions, Dimmesdale says that it must be better to let the secret out than to bury it in one’s heart. Chillingworth debates this as well, telling him that his illness is a spiritual illness, but Dimmesdale, too agitated to continue, rushes from the room. Chillingworth takes this as a sign of weakness, a sign that there is truly something inside of him, eating him away inside.
A few days later, Chillingworth wanders into Dimmesdale’s room again, and finds him asleep. He walks up to Dimmesdale’s sleeping body and rips the shirt from his chest, and he is most elated to find what is there, but Hawthorne does not tell the reader what he has found.
Chapter 11 Summary- The Interior of a Heart
After Chillingworth had made this discovery, his relationship with Dimmesdale significantly changed, although it appeared to be the same. Though he seemed to be calm, gentle and passionless, there was a depth of malice in him that sought revenge. Unfortunately, Dimmesdale has confided in the doctor, and everything that Dimmesdale decides to reveal to him, Chillingworth will use that information to torture him. With this revelation granted to him by either Heaven or Hell, Chillingworth was able to see deep into Dimmesdale’s soul. “He became, thenceforth, not a spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister’s interior world. He could play upon him as he chose”(Hawthorne 127). Although he was always dimly aware that an evil was watching over him, he was not able to identify it. However at times, he was suspicious of the doctor. The narrator describes, “His gestures, his gait, his grizzled beard, his slightest and most indifferent acts, the very fashion of his garments, were odious in the clergyman’s sight” (Hawthorne128). Since there were no reasons for his distrust and hatred, Dimmesdale reprimanded himself for his bad feeling toward Chillingworth and attributed his these feelings to his disease.
Due to his sorrows, Dimmesdale achieved great popularity in the ministry. His growing fame had already surpassed the reputations of the other ministers who were smarter, older, and much more experienced than Dimmesdale. Although Dimmesdale was separated from the other clergymen, his sinful burden gave him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind” (Hawthorne 129). The congregation worshiped him as a holy miracle, and they were fascinated by his messages of wisdom, rebuke and love, which they deemed as messages from “mouth-piece of Heaven”(Hawthorne 130). Young women wanted to marry him, and old members of the church wanted their children to one day be buried near Dimmesdale’s grave. However, Dimmesdale questions whether grass would even grow near his sinful grave.
The public praise of Dimmesdale tortures him , and he even wishes to reveal the truth that he is “utterly a pollution and a lie” (Hawthorne 131). Even when he admits to the people that he is the worst of sinners, they never understood the true meaning of his words. He viewed himself as a hypocrite who just added to the sin by making the people believe a lie. He often whipped himself, fasted, and stayed awake for nightly long vigils. These were his methods to torture himself without being purified. He often saw visions during the long-lasting vigils. He saw devilish hordes who asked him to follow them, shining angels, dead friends from his childhood, his parents and finally Hester and Pearl who pointed at the scarlet letters on Hester and Dimmesdale. These visions, although they are not real, they seem to portray reality very accurately. At the end of the chapter, he gets an idea that may help cure his pain.
Chapter 12 Summary- The Minister’s Vigil
This chapter begins with Reverend Dimmesdale mounting the scaffold in the town square. He mounts the scaffold out of remorse for Hester, sympathizing with the pain she must have gone through when she was the one standing there years ago, without a friend in the world. He imagines that there is a scarlet letter on his chest and the thought of this causes him to shriek out loud. Luckily, the only people who hear him are Governor Billingham and Mistress Hibbins, who, after looking out their windows for a short time, see nothing and retire back to their rooms. Dimmesdale also says that he stood on the scaffold under the impulse of cowardice. The narrator reveals through this scene and one later on in the chapter that this cowardice is felt by Dimmesdale because he is the father of Pearl, and thus he feels like a coward for not standing by Hester’s side on the scaffold years ago.
While on the scaffold, several characters come through the square. Reverend Wilson walks through as he is returning home from the deathbed of James Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As Wilson passes, Dimmesdale experiences a moment of delusion and believes that he called out to Wilson to come join him on the scaffold when in reality he had said nothing. This eludes to the fact that, deep down, Dimmesdale wants to come clean to someone about his connection to Hester and Pearl. Shortly after Wilson leaves the square, Dimmesdale realizes he should be going home before daybreak, at which time he would run the risk of being discovered on the scaffold. However, as he is thinking this, he imagines himself being found and the thought makes him laugh out loud. To his astonishment, he is echoed by the “light, airy, childish laugh” (Hawthorne 138) of Pearl Prynne. Hester and Pearl had been walking home from the house of the late Governor Winthrop, where Hester had been taking measurements of Winthrop for the robe he would be buried in. Upon hearing Pearl’s laugh, Dimmesdale invites Pearl and Hester to come stand with him on the scaffold. They comply, and once on the scaffold, Dimmesdale holds one of Pearl’s hands, while Hester holds the other. The narrator describes this as an “electric chain” (Hawthorne 139). After a little while, Pearl inquires if Dimmesdale will come and hold hands with herself and Hester again the following day at noontime. To this, Dimmesdale replies no, saying that the light of day can never see the three of them together, however he says that they will all stand together on judgement day. After saying this, a meteor flashes across the sky and leaves behind a trail of red light that seems to form the letter A. It is said that the meteor illuminates Hester’s A, Dimmesdale with his hand on his heart, and Pearl, connecting the two together. If it was not clear enough before, this moment clarifies that Dimmesdale is, indeed, Pearl’s father (see below for symbolism of the meteor). Finally, in the light of the meteor the last character in the square is revealed: Chillingworth had been standing a little ways away from the scaffold, unseen by the others. When Pearl points out that he is there, Dimmesdale becomes very nervous and recognizes a look of malevolence in Chillingworth’s face that tells us that he knows that Dimmesdale is the man his wife cheated with. Dimmesdale asks Hester “Who is that man” (Hawthorne 142) but Hester says nothing because she has been sworn to secrecy. Pearl, however, says she knows, but when asked to tell Dimmesdale, she mumbles in his ear in some childish gibberish. After this, Chillingworth escorts Dimmesdale home and the night is over.
The next day being Sunday, Dimmesdale had to preach in church. It is stated that his sermon was the “richest and most powerful” (Hawthorne 143) sermon that he had ever given. After the sermon, a church official approaches Dimmesdale, saying that someone found one of Dimmesdale’s gloves on the scaffold that morning. The official attributes it to being the work of Satan, who intended to play a trick on Dimmesdale. Then, the official begins talking about the meteor, explaining to Dimmesdale that the townspeople thought the A to stand for angel, as the believed Governor Winthrop had wanted to send the townspeople a sign to show them that he had ascended into Heaven.
Characters
Chillingworth: As Chillingworth’s hunt for the truth continues, we begin to learn more and more about him. Firstly, we learn that he returned to Boston and swears his wife to secrecy because he does not want to be tied to her adulterous actions. Just as he tells dedicates himself to the truth behind her actions, Chillingworth dedicates himself to the truth behind what pains Dimmesdale’s heart. However, this strangely obsessive devotion becomes a warning sign to the citizens of Boston as they begin to see the evil inside of him. When he looks at Dimmesdale’s chest and sees something that makes him cheer, Hawthorne describes his emotions as “...how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into his kingdom. But what distinguished the physician's ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it!” (Hawthorne 126).
Dimmesdale:
As his illness worsens, Hawthorne uses Chillingworth to reveal his secrets to the reader. He clutches his heart frequently as the pain from Chillingworth’s torture grows inside it. As time continues, his illness also causes him to become paranoid. He also tortures himself as his way of submitting to God’s will. He whips himself, fasts and holds vigils. When he wanders to the scaffold in the middle of the night, he believes he is a coward for not coming clean to his sins when Hester did many years ago.
Symbolism
The Flabby Leaf: As Chillingworth is studying some new herbs, Dimmesdale asks him where he found the one “with such a dark flabby leaf” (Hawthorne 119). Chillingworth replies by saying that he had found them growing directly over the heart of a man buried in an unmarked grave. He then says that they may have grown there because of a “hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess in his lifetime.” Dimmesdale then replies by saying “Perchance... he earnestly desired it, but could not” (Hawthorne 119). This is one of the first clues we see telling us that Chillingworth suspects that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father. Chillingworth is threatening Dimmesdale to the same fate that the forgotten man in the unmarked grave succumbed to, making it seem like the only way Dimmesdale could avoid this would be by confessing to his sin.
The Scaffold: The scaffold is a place of public shame for people who decide to break Puritan law. It shows the Puritan punishment for dealing with a sin. In the beginning of the novel, Hester walks on the scaffold and is tormented by the public. In these chapters, Dimmesdale chooses to walk on the scaffold out of remorse for Hester. The scaffold is the place that unites Dimmesdale and Hester.
The Meteor: The meteor that flashes across the sky while Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl are standing on the scaffold is a powerful symbol. The path that the meteor travels is said to have created “the letter A, - marked out in lines of dull red light” (Hawthorne 141). Dimmesdale takes this to represent the scarlet A that he should be wearing on his own chest as punishment for his affair with Hester. This is shown by how he clutches his heart under the light of the meteor. The meteor is also what reveals Dimmesdale’s true identity to Chillingworth, because it is under the light of the meteor that Chillingworth sees Dimmesdale holding Pearl’s hand. So in a way the meteor, which is in the shape of the scarlet A, reveals Dimmesdale’s identity to Chillingworth just as Hester’s scarlet letter reveals her identity to the rest of the community.
Motifs
Pearl: The idea of Pearl being a demon or full of dark magic is one that is brought to light in several places in these chapters. The first time when this happens is when Pearl and Hester are passing through the graveyard. Pearl starts by dancing on the tombstone of someone buried in the graveyard, and when Hester tells her to stop, she instead shifts her focus to arranging burrs along the border of Hester’s scarlet letter. Upon seeing this through a window above, Chillingworth notes that “there is no law, nor reverence for authority” and proceeds to question “is the imp altogether evil?” (Hawthorne 122). Pearl is clearly tormenting Hester by placing burrs on the scarlet letter, yet Hester refuses to show any type of emotion. This shows that she still has the attitude that Pearl, while a light in her world, is also a constant reminder of the sin she has committed and Hester feels as if this reminder is something that she must bear with her as a form of punishment.
Light versus Darkness: The motif of light versus darkness is furthered in chapter 12, in the events that take place on the scaffold. It is in the darkness that Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl are physically united for the first time, by joining hands. The darkness is the only time that the three of them can be together, as shown when Dimmesdale says “the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting” (Hawthorne 139). So, darkness represents hidden truths and enables this forbidden meeting to occur. The contrast with light is further revealed when it is by the light given off by the meteor that Chillingworth sees the three of them together. The light reveals their secret, and the truth becomes apparent to Chillingworth.
Social Criticism
Hawthorne again brings forth the hypocrisy of the Puritan society. The one man who is supposed to be free of sin has committed one of the worst there could be. Mr. Reverend Dimmesdale has listened to those who have confessed their sins and guided the society in a path of strict religious dedication, but he cannot confess his own sins. Like Governor Billingham’s ornate house, Hawthorne criticizes those who run this Puritan society.
Theme
The theme that Hawthorne continues to develop in these chapters is that it is better to own up to your wrongdoings and go against society than to live with the guilt of an action and be accepted into society. This is shown when he contrasts the differences between Hester’s life, which we lean about in the beginning of the novel, and Dimmesdale’s life, which develop in these past few chapters. While Hester has not fully accepted her sins, she has transcended from society to live in the woods with her daughter, whereas Dimmesdale is living a life of pain and regret as he tries to hide his sins.
Connection to Today
A connection that can be drawn between these chapters of The Scarlet Letter and today is the way people deal with scandals committed by people in respected or authoritative positions. One example of this occurred when the Penn State scandal came to light towards the end of 2011. After victims began coming forward to accuse coach Jerry Sandusky of sexual assault and people began investigating Sandusky’s offenses, it was discovered that there were people at Penn State who had known about Sandusky for years, but had failed to report him for his actions (Dolak). Sandusky was in such a powerful position, people expected better from him and because of this they hesitated to reveal what they knew. When the scandal came to public attention, people were shocked and outraged at Sandusky. Not only were his actions appalling, but people never suspected someone in such a high and venerated position to be the one committing crimes. This relates to Reverend Dimmesdale and how it is even more shocking to hear that he is Pearl’s father because as a man of the church he is held to higher standards than the average person. As Dimmesdale is the one preaching fidelity to the Puritans, it is hypocritical and unexpected that he himself is guilty of carrying on an affair with Hester.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Classic, 1850. Print.
Dolak, Kevin, and Colleen Curry. “Penn State Scandal: Sandusky Allegedly Confessed to Boy's Mother” ABC News. 9 November, 2011. Web. 6 March, 2012.
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