Chapters 20-22

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 20
When Dimmesdale returns to the town he can hardly believe what it feels like to have good fortunes again. Hester and he have decided to go to  Europe, since it offers more anonymity and a better environment for Dimmesdale’s fragile health. Through her charity work, Hester has become acquainted with the crew of a ship that is to depart for England in four days. Hester and Dimmesdale plan to gain access to a passage on the vessel. Dimmesdale feels that people should know he is a changed man.He finds that things which were once familiar to him are now strange, like his own being.
As he walks back and through the town he encounters a series of people. At first, he passes a church elder which he nearly shouts a blasphemous statement at. Something holds him back. He then passes an elderly woman who was looking for some spiritual comfort. He almost tells her something about the morality of the human soul, but something stops him again and the widow walks away satisfied. After that he ignores a young woman who recently converted to the church because he did not want to plant his seed of evil into her innocent heart. After he counters a group of children, to whom he almost teaches wicked words. He sees a sailor, whom Dimmesdale nearly engages in a round of oaths with. At last he runs into Mistress Hibbins, who volunteers as an escort for him the next time he goes to the forest.
At last he returns to Chillingworth, from whom Dimmesdale asks to have his care removed. Chillingworth becomes wary, but is afraid to query outright whether the minister knows his true identity. Dimmesdale then takes his sermon which he has prepared for election day and plans to rewrite it in order to include his new views.

Analysis:
Dimmesdale is very clearly the main character in this chapter as he is tested between his ties to society and his duty, and his new found revelation or destruction, open for interpretation. His evil impulses can be analysed as revelations, if Hawthorne intented to show the reader that these devilish impulses are the best response to the cruel world. But these impulses can also be seen as a path he is falling down which only leads to his damnation.
As Dimmesdale ignores the woman in the street he holds fast to his old values, those values that made him a part of society, and those values he should reject if his new found beliefs are to be followed. And as he feels it would be proper to save her soul, he forgets that he led her into the church through which he knew upright as sexual attraction she had for him. Therefore it is proper to know that her soul has already been stained.

Chapter 21:
This chapter starts on the morning of the inauguration. The town was filled with people not just from the town but from surrounding areas. Everyone was dressed in their best clothing for this holiday, but Hester wore the same outfit that everyone was accustomed to see her in, a coarse grey dress with the scarlet letter on her chest. Although she was dressed in the same manner, there was something different about her. Before she would bear the scarlet letter because society and religion demanded her to, but today she bore the weight voluntarily because it was going to be the last day she would have the scarlet letter pinned to her chest.
As Pearl and Hester approached the town center, Pearl became more and more restless and she questions why people were behaving differently today. Pearl notices that even the prison guard was smiling at her and she questioned Hester why. Hester respond by simply saying that he remembers her when she first came out of the jail house. Pearl became appalled by this idea because he was an “ugly-eyed man” but he could acknowledge Hester because she wore the scarlet A on her chest. Pearl also asked whether the minister would hold Hester’s and her hands just like in the forest and Hester responded with a no and Pearl found it extremely peculiar that Dimmesdale would be very intimate with when it is dark out like on the scaffold and in the forest but when it is bright out like on the day of the inauguration, the minister would act as though he did not know them.

The novel then goes on to describe the town and the people there during the holidays. It seemed as though everyone had compressed their joy and happiness into that date. Even on that day of celebration, the Puritans had this inherent bloom that blanketed the town. The Puritan tried to incorporate some of the festivity found in England in this celebration but it was only a sad and diluted version that matched the grayness of their society. All of the Puritans there had a smile on their face, but that smile was described as grim.

Among the throng of people was Roger Chillingworth. He had a suspicion that Hester and Dimmesdale were going to run off by sailing off to Europe and that suspicion led him to ask the ship master of the boat docked in Boston if he could be the doctor for the ship and the ship master agreed to do so. By Roger Chillingworth boarding the ship with Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale, their plan would be ruinned.

Chapter 22:

The chapter opens with the procession to the place where Dimmesdale will deliver his Election Sermon. The procession is escorted by musicians and soldiers in full armor, followed by “men of civil eminence”, including those in political office. They are followed by young priests, and bringing up the rear is Dimmesdale himself.

The narrator emphasizes Dimmesdale’s body language as he prepares to make his speech; he has energy and confidence, the likes of which he has not exhibited in years; and, more specifically, his hand is not over his heart. It is unclear where exactly he has derived this energy and confidence from, but it seems as though he has gained a sort of “spiritual strength”, for his mind seems to be in another place. Upon seeing him, Hester briefly thinks of their time together in the woods, and is amazed at how differently he behaves, fearing that they may not posses the bond that she imagined.

Meanwhile, Pearl, recognizing the minister from their escapade in the woods, asks her mother if the minister is the same one who kissed her by the brook, stating that she almost ran up and kissed him when she first saw him. Her mother quickly chastises her, ordering her to not mention anything regarding their secret trip into the woods.

Hester encounters another woman in the crowd, Mistress Hibbins, who comments on Dimmesdale’s “saintly” appearance. She also tells Hester that she knows that they met up in the woods, dropping hints that she knows that he is the one with whom she committed adultery. She specifically states that he is “hiding his mark of shame” by holding his hand over his heart, and she tells Pearl that she is the daughter of the “Prince of the Air”.

When Dimmesdale begins his speech, Hester listens attentively, feeling as though there is some deeper meaning for her. Pearl, however, wanders off, trying to charm the crowd. She meets a seafaring man, who tries to kiss her at first, and then asks her to tell her mother that the “hump-shouldered” old doctor, most likely referring to Chillingworth, will bring his friend, “the gentleman she wots of” on the ship with him, and that Hester need only think about herself and Pearl. This concerns Hester, and as she is thinking about this, she suddenly realizes that she is being stared at by everybody, even those who do not know of her Scarlet Letter.

Character Development:

Dimmesdale appears to develop quite a bit in chapter 20 because of his considered attempts at doing blasphemous actions. However he is always prevented by his ties to the society which he has become part of. When he elects not to encounter the girl, whom he recently converted to the church, he is actually electing to have her not be informed on his new revelations. So as he elects to never act upon his new attitude he is in effect electing not to recognize it at all. There may appear to be a change in Dimmesdale, but he is the same man who is unwilling to abandon the society in which he grew accustomed to. In this way Dimmesdale can be accurately described as a stagnant character because he is not capable of change. This was foreshadowed in chapter 19 when Pearl did not accept Dimmesdale. Pearl is a good judge of another character’s truthfulness as she forces Hester to remember her past humiliation and refuses to embrace Dimmesdale until he faces his.
In chapter 22 Dimmesdale worries Hester because his apparent new vigor makes him seem remote to her. It should also be noticed that mistress Hibbins is catching on, to say she has figured out Pearl’s father is Dimmesdale. This can be considered indirect character development. To counter the seeming continuous pulling the society has on Dimmesdale, chapter 22 offers a distinct example of Pearl’s new acceptance of him. In this situation Pearl, who is again a good judge of truthfulness, offers to kiss Dimmesdale who appears to her as a reformed man. In this way it can be interpreted that he has in fact changed. He is changed or not, but it is not possible to deem at this point.


Pearl, as a character, once again shows very little development in this sequence of chapters. She remains the curious, somewhat insolent child that she always has been. However, she changes in her behavior towards Dimmesdale, becoming more “embracing” of him. In chapter 22, when she remarks that she wanted to “run to him, and bid him kiss [her] now, before all the people”, she is contradicting her previous desire to wash off his kiss in Chapter 19.

Hester as a character experiences a tremendous change in chapter 22. This change occurs as she is watching Dimmesdale walk to the meeting house. Dimmesdale walked with a renewed power that he did not possess at that time due to his illness, yet he walked as though he had a force behind him. This energy was derived not from physical energy but from a spiritual energy. He was unaware of his surrounds and the events going on around him because he was submerged in his own thoughts. Dimmesdale’s new behavior bothered Hester a great deal because it seemed almost as though “he seemed so remote from her own sphere, and utterly beyond her reach.”(204) She begins to believe that he was a changed man and she begins to doubt whether what happened in the forest actually occurred or was it a dream. She could hardly recognize Dimmesdale and she felt as though she had no connection with him because of how unattainable he seemed as he walked to the meeting house. Hester could hardly forgive Dimmesdale for isolating himself from Hester and Pearl, but it was worsened by their approaching fate, running of to Europe. Hester feels lost and alone in this society and as she “groped darkly, and stretched forth her cold hands”(205) for reassurance, he was not there.

Conflict Development:
In these chapters, there is moderate development of the conflict between Roger Chillingworth and Hester and Dimmesdale. After Dimmesdale has returned to his study from the forest in Chapter 20, Roger Chillingworth confronts him in his study. After a few pleasantries are exchanged, it becomes clear to Chillingworth that Hester revealed his identity to the minister. This suspicion is further confirmed as Dimmesdale refuses to receive any further medical care from him. Because of this encounter, Roger Chillingworth does his best to interfere with whatever plans Hester and Dimmesdale had made.
Chilligworth’s meddling is revealed at the end of chapter 21, when the ship captain tells Hester of a new development regarding their voyage. It seems that Chillingworth is not satisfied with the amount of suffering that Dimmesdale has endured, and decided to put himself on the same boat that they will be on as they travel to Europe. This only increases tensions between the two lovers and Hester’s estranged husband; he will stop at nothing to make sure that they are not ever able to be happy in their sins against him and against society. His plans are further illuminated at the end of chapter 22: he plans to bunk with Dimmesdale, so as to make sure that no... unscrupulous actions... are undertaken during the voyage. As a whole, the conflict slowly but surely develops during the chapters, each one adding a new twist to the interference of Chillingworth in the plans of Hester and Dimmesdale.


Motifs:
The continued motif of light and dark is further explored in chapter 22. As the reader is introduced to the procession, the military company stands out. Pearl’s mood is lightened by the reflection of the sunlight on the weapons and armor of the military escort. These military men are then described as gentlemen, and are compared to the Knights Templar. This goes to further show the possible connection between sunlight and truth, justice, and/or the worthy of society. These men have nothing to hide, as shown by their flamboyant helmets, shining armor, and bright swords.
Another interesting development is that when Dimmesdale walks past Hester and Pearl, and Pearl asks whether this minister was the same from the forest, Hester quickly quiets Pearl. She says that “We must not always talk in the marketplace of what happens  to us in the forest” (215). Hester does not wish what happened in the safe darkness of the forest to be revealed in the bright marketplace. This offers a different point of view than the one most commonly discussed in class. Hester’s reluctance to discuss secret matters in the public forum suggests that the Sunlight does have something to do with society. Secrets are flaunted in the darkness and hidden in the daylight.

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs8/i/2005/296/8/7/Hester_Prynne_by_darkestnight.jpg

Modern Connection:

We didn’t find a modern connection that relates directly to these chapters, but we did find one that relates to the book as a whole (mostly the early chapters). In New Mexico, an eighth grade girl found out that she was pregnant. She told her parents, and together they informed her school’s principal and two other officials. Their immediate action was to kick her out of school. Naturally, they sought legal action, and ran to the nearest branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU told the school that her rights were violated, and they reluctantly agreed to let her back into the school. However, a little over two weeks after she was re-admitted, the school had a class-wide assembly, in which the girl was required, by the school officials to tell her entire grade that she was pregnant. Before this, only her parents and sister knew. Even the writers of the article on the ACLU website saw the connection, saying “Adopting one’s moral convictions from the Scarlet Letter is completely inappropriate and fails to take into account a child’s educational needs.”

http://www.aclu.org/womens-rights/new-mexico-teen-kicked-out-school-and-publicly-humiliated-pregnancy