A Scarlet Letter ch 8-16 – Flashcards

Summary—Chapter 8: The Elf-Child and the Minister Bellingham, Wilson, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale enter the room. They notice Pearl and begin to tease her by calling her a bird and a demon-child. When the governor points out that Hester is also present, they ask her why she should be allowed to keep the child. She tells the men that she will be able to teach Pearl an important lesson—the lesson that she has learned from her shame. They are doubtful, and Wilson tries to test the three-year-old's knowledge of religious subjects. Wilson resents Pearl's seeming dislike of him, and Pearl's refusal to answer even the simplest of questions does not bode well. With nowhere else to turn, Hester begs Dimmesdale to speak for her and her child. He replies by reminding the men that God sent Pearl and that the child was seemingly meant to be both a blessing and a curse. Swayed by his eloquence, Bellingham and Wilson agree not to separate mother and child. Strangely, Pearl has taken well to Dimmesdale. She goes to him and presses his hand to her cheek. Vexed because Hester seems to have triumphed, Chillingworth presses the men to reopen their investigation into the identity of Hester's lover, but they refuse, telling him that God will reveal the information when He deems it appropriate. As Hester leaves the governor's mansion, Mistress Hibbins, the governor's sister, pokes her head out of the window to invite Hester to a witches' gathering. Hester tells her that if she had not been able to keep Pearl, she would have gone willingly. The narrator notes that it seems Pearl has saved her mother from Satan's temptations.

Analysis—Chapters 7-8 These chapters link Pearl even more explicitly to the scarlet letter. Hester dresses her daughter in "a crimson velvet tunic of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread." Pearl and the embroidered letter are both beautiful in a rich, sensuous way that stands in contrast to the stiffness of Puritan society. Indeed, the narrator explicitly tells the reader that Pearl is "the scarlet letter endowed with life." The narrator tells us that Hester has worked to create an "analogy between the object of [Hester's] affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture." This reinforces the contradictory nature of both the letter and Pearl, for just as Hester both loves and feels burdened by Pearl, her thoughts regarding the scarlet letter seem also to contain a touch of fondness. Certainly her attitude toward it is not one of uniform regret, and she may even harbor pleasant associations with the deeds that the letter symbolizes. The sin itself was both a guilty act and an act of affection, a problematic combination of love and "evil." The letter and the child also hold a dual meaning for the town fathers. They understand that both child and badge function as reminders of sin and as protections against further sin. Dimmesdale momentarily acknowledges this in his speech, but the purpose of his words is not to ponder ambiguities but rather to point to these ambiguities as proof of the futility of all interpretation. Pearl, he says, came from God, and therefore must be intended as Hester's companion. According to Dimmesdale, any attempt to interpret her presence otherwise would be in vain because no one has knowledge of God's intentions.

Summary—Chapter 9: The Leech By renaming himself upon his arrival in Boston, Chillingworth has hidden his past from everyone except Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. He incorporates himself into society in the role of a doctor, and since the townsfolk have very little access to good medical care, he is welcomed and valued. In addition to his training in European science, he also has some knowledge of "native" or "natural" remedies, because he was captured by Native Americans and lived with them for a time. The town sometimes refers to the doctor colloquially as a "leech," which was a common epithet for physicians at the time. The name derives from the practice of using leeches to drain blood from their patients, which used to be regarded as a curative process. Much to the community's concern, Dimmesdale has been suffering from severe health problems. He appears to be wasting away, and he frequently clutches at his chest as though his heart pains him. Because Dimmesdale refuses to marry any of the young women who have devoted themselves to him, Chillingworth urges the town leadership to insist that Dimmesdale allow the doctor to live with him. In this way, Chillingworth may have a chance to diagnose and cure the younger man. The two men take rooms next to the cemetery in a widow's home, which gives them an opportunity for the contemplation of sin and death. The minister's room is hung with tapestries depicting biblical scenes of adultery and its punishment, while Chillingworth's room contains a laboratory that is sophisticated for its time. The townspeople were initially grateful for Chillingworth's presence and deemed his arrival a divine miracle designed to help Dimmesdale. As time has passed, however, rumors have spread concerning Chillingworth's personal history. Even more ominously, the man's face has begun to take on a look of evil. A majority of the townspeople begin to suspect that Chillingworth is the Devil, come to wage battle for Dimmesdale's soul.

Analysis—Chapters 9-10 These chapters explore the relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. On one level, Chillingworth represents "science" and Dimmesdale represents "spirituality." Though both of these systems offer resources to restore a person's well-being, neither seems to cure Dimmesdale's affliction. Like Chillingworth's deformed shoulders, Dimmesdale's illness is an outward manifestation of an inward condition, and neither medicine nor religion suffices to cure it. What hampers his recovery is his inability to confess his adultery with Hester, which seems to be due, at least in part, to the community's dependence on the young minister. He understands that he, like Hester, is a symbol of something larger than himself—in his case, piety and goodness. In a way, confessing would mean healing himself at the expense of the community. Dimmesdale ponders other, seemingly irreconcilable moral considerations. The many contradictions that he encounters may stem from the constrictive and sometimes hypocritical nature of the moral system. For example, the minister refuses to marry any of the women in the community who show concern for him, both out of a sense of commitment to Hester and out of an unwillingness to implicate an innocent third party in a dark history of "sin." On the other hand, by passively waiting for God to sort things out, as he declares himself to be doing, Dimmesdale causes Hester to suffer terribly. Yet, medicine, too, proves an inadequate solution to Dimmesdale's dilemma, as it ignores the connection between the physical and the spiritual. Chillingworth sees this, and in his practice he tries to bridge the divide, but in the most perverse of ways. It is no accident that Chillingworth is called a "leech," for he has attached himself to the minister's side like an insidiously destructive worm. He wants to use his scientific knowledge to get "deep into his patient's bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern." Having harbored suspicion from the start, the doctor now undertakes a series of controlled experiments. His references to Hester and to buried sin are designed to remind Dimmesdale of his guilt. When Chillingworth first visited Hester in her prison cell, she asked him whether he was the Devil come to vie for her soul, and he answered that it was another's soul that would be the true focus of his malevolence. He now fulfills this evil promise: even the townspeople now regard him as the Devil come to tempt and torment their virtuous reverend. Covertly tortured by the doctor, Dimmesdale searches for something to soothe his suffering. He envies those who can display their agonies publicly. Thus, when Chillingworth asks, "Is Hester Prynne the less miserable, think you, for that scarlet letter on her breast?" Dimmesdale answers, "I do verily believe it." He believes that the acute pain of his private suffering is far worse: "It must needs be better," he says, "for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up in his heart." Hester can literally wear her pain on her chest, while Dimmesdale's pain remains locked inside his body. And Dimmesdale can never atone, because he can never confess. While Hester feels shame because of the community's disapproval of her, Dimmesdale suffers from guilt, which is the product of an internalized self-disapproval and thus is much more toxic. Pearl's character in these chapters stands in radical—and damning—contrast to the characters of both men. Whereas the men represent authority (Dimmesdale the authority of the church, Chillingworth that of accumulated knowledge), Pearl has no respect for external authority and holds nothing sacred. Similarly, whereas the two men deeply respect their forebears, Pearl has no such respect for inherited history. Chillingworth says, frowning, that the child lacks a reverence for "human ordinances or opinions, right or wrong," and for established social rules. Dimmesdale, too, says that he can discern no unified principle in Pearl's being, "save the freedom of a broken law."

Summary—Chapter 10: The Leech and His Patient The inwardly tortured minister soon becomes Chillingworth's greatest puzzle. The doctor relentlessly and mercilessly seeks to find the root of his patient's condition. Chillingworth shows great persistence in inquiring into the most private details of Dimmesdale's life, but Dimmesdale has grown suspicious of all men and will confide in no one. Chillingworth devotes all of his time to his patient. Even when he is not in Dimmesdale's presence, Chillingworth is busy gathering herbs and weeds out of which to make medicines. One day Dimmesdale questions his doctor about an unusual-looking plant. Chillingworth remarks that he found it growing on an unmarked grave and suggests that the dark weeds are the sign of the buried person's unconfessed sin. The two enter into an uncomfortable conversation about confession, redemption, and the notion of "burying" one's secrets. As they speak, they hear a cry from outside. Through the window, they see Pearl dancing in the graveyard and hooking burrs onto the "A" on Hester's chest. When Pearl notices the two men, she drags her mother away, saying that the "Black Man" has already gotten the minister and that he must not capture them too. Chillingworth remarks that Hester is not a woman who lives with buried sin—she wears her sin openly on her breast. At Chillingworth's words, Dimmesdale is careful not to give himself away either as someone who is intimately attached to Hester or as someone with a "buried" sin of his own. Chillingworth begins to prod the minister more directly by inquiring about his spiritual condition, explaining that he thinks it relevant to his physical health. Dimmesdale becomes agitated and tells Chillingworth that such matters are the concern of God. He then leaves the room. Dimmesdale's behavior has reinforced Chillingworth's suspicions. The minister apologizes for his behavior, and the two are friends again. However, a few days later, Chillingworth sneaks up to Dimmesdale while he is asleep and pushes aside the shirt that Dimmesdale is wearing. What he sees on Dimmesdale's chest causes the doctor to rejoice, but the reader is kept in the dark as to what Chillingworth has found there.

Summary—Chapter 11: The Interior of a Heart Chillingworth continues to play mind games with Dimmesdale, making his revenge as terrible as possible. The minister often regards his doctor with distrust and even loathing, but because he can assign no rational basis to his feelings, he dismisses them and continues to suffer. Dimmesdale's suffering, however, does inspire him to deliver some of his most powerful sermons, which focus on the topic of sin. His struggles allow him to empathize with human weakness, and he thus addresses "the whole human brotherhood in the heart's native language." Although the reverend deeply yearns to confess the truth of his sin to his parishioners, he cannot bring himself to do so. As a result, his self-probing keeps him up at night, and he even sees visions. In one vision, he sees Hester and "little Pearl in her scarlet garb." Hester points "her forefinger, first at the scarlet letter on her bosom, and then at the clergyman's own breast." The minister understands that he is delusional, but his psychological tumult leads him to assign great meaning to his delusions. Even the Bible offers him little support. Unable to unburden himself of the guilt deriving from his sin, he begins to believe that "the whole universe is false, . . . it shrinks to nothing within his grasp." Dimmesdale begins to torture himself physically: he scourges himself with a whip, he fasts, and he holds extended vigils, during which he stays awake throughout the night meditating upon his sin. During one of these vigils, Dimmesdale seizes on an idea for what he believes may be a remedy to his pain. He decides to hold a vigil on the scaffold where, years before, Hester suffered for her sin.

Summary—Chapter 12: The Minister's Vigil Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold. The pain in his breast causes him to scream aloud, and he worries that everyone in the town will wake up and come to look at him. Fortunately for Dimmesdale, the few townspeople who heard the cry took it for a witch's voice. As Dimmesdale stands upon the scaffold, his mind turns to absurd thoughts. He almost laughs when he sees Reverend Wilson, and in his delirium he thinks that he calls out to the older minister. But Wilson, coming from the deathbed of Governor Winthrop (the colony's first governor), passes without noticing the penitent. Having come so close to being sighted, Dimmesdale begins to fantasize about what would happen if everyone in town were to witness their holy minister standing in the place of public shame. Dimmesdale laughs aloud and is answered by a laugh from Pearl, whose presence he had not noticed. Hester and Pearl had also been at Winthrop's deathbed because the talented seamstress had been asked to make the governor's burial robe. Dimmesdale invites them to join him on the scaffold, which they do. The three hold hands, forming an "electric chain." The minister feels energized and warmed by their presence. Pearl innocently asks, "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide?" but the minister replies, "Not now, child, but at another time." When she presses him to name that time, he answers, "At the great judgment day." Suddenly, a meteor brightens the dark sky, momentarily illuminating their surroundings. When the minister looks up, he sees an "A" in the sky, marked out in dull red light. At the same time, Pearl points to a figure that stands in the distance and watches them. It is Chillingworth. Dimmesdale asks Hester who Chillingworth really is, because the man occasions in him what he calls "a nameless horror." But Hester, sworn to secrecy, cannot reveal her husband's identity. Pearl says that she knows, but when she speaks into the minister's ear, she pronounces mere childish gibberish. Dimmesdale asks if she intends to mock him, and she replies that she is punishing him for his refusal to stand in public with her and her mother. Chillingworth approaches and coaxes Dimmesdale down, saying that the minister must have sleepwalked his way up onto the scaffold. When Dimmesdale asks how Chillingworth knew where to find him, Chillingworth says that he, too, was making his way home from Winthrop's deathbed.

Analysis—Chapters 11-12 These chapters mark the apex of Dimmesdale's spiritual and moral crisis. Dimmesdale has tried to invent for himself an alternate path to absolution, torturing himself both psychologically and physically. The nearly hysterical fear he feels when he imagines his congregation seeing him on the scaffold is a reminder that the minister has not only himself but also his flock to consider. His public disgrace could harden his followers, or even lead them astray. However, the events in these chapters suggest that Dimmesdale must publicly confront the truth about his past. He has a strong impulse to confess to his congregation, and, although he resists it, his attempts at private expiation begin to bring him closer to exposure. The scaffold is an important symbol of the difference between Hester's and Dimmesdale's situations. It helps to establish an ironic contrast between her public torments and his inner anguish. Dimmesdale's meeting with Hester and Pearl atop the scaffold echoes Hester's public shaming seven years earlier. This time, however, no audience bears witness to the minister's confession of sin. In fact, it is so dark outside that he is not even visible to Reverend Wilson when the latter walks past. When Dimmesdale refuses Pearl's request that he stand with her on the scaffold in broad daylight, she refuses to share what she knows about Chillingworth. Pearl thus makes a statement about the causal connection between Dimmesdale's denial of his own guilt and his incomplete understanding of the world around him. As long as he hides the truth about himself, he can never discover the truths of others. Increasingly, Dimmesdale's hallucinations seem more real than his daily encounters. His visions never wholly delude him, however, and he remains painfully aware of his reliance upon fictions. The Puritan world of The Scarlet Letter survives through convenient fictions. In the communal mind of the townspeople, Hester is the epitome of sinfulness, the minister is the embodiment of piety, and Mistress Hibbins is the governor's sister and thus cannot possibly be a witch, despite all clues to the contrary. Within this reductive system of thought, everyone fits into a category that enables him or her to be read as an illustrative example that reinforces a coherent order. Yet, unlike his society, Dimmesdale recognizes that such categorizations can be fictions. In fact, it is his acute awareness of the dichotomy between his public image and his private self that leads him to new levels of insight, enabling his preaching to become ever more powerful and persuasive. Dimmesdale can speak of the ravages of sin because he lives them. He brings to his sermons sympathy for others and a strong sense of the daily terror to which a sinful life can lead. He understands that the worst consequence of sin is, practically speaking, separation from one's fellow man, not separation from God. This more complicated definition of sin is one of the important themes of the novel.

Summary—Chapter 13: Another View of Hester Seven years have passed since Pearl's birth. Hester has become more active in society. She brings food to the doors of the poor, she nurses the sick, and she is a source of aid in times of trouble. She is still frequently made an object of scorn, but more people are beginning to interpret the "A" on her chest as meaning "Able" rather than "Adulterer." Hester herself has also changed. She is no longer a tender and passionate woman; rather, burned by the "red-hot brand" of the letter, she has become "a bare and harsh outline" of her former self. She has become more speculative, thinking about how something is "amiss" in Pearl, about what it means to be a woman in her society, and about the harm she may be causing Dimmesdale by keeping Chillingworth's identity secret.

Summary—Chapter 14: Hester and the Physician Hester resolves to ask Chillingworth to stop tormenting the minister. One day she and Pearl encounter him near the beach, gathering plants for his medicines. When Hester approaches him, he tells her with a smirk that he has heard "good tidings" of her, and that in fact the town fathers have recently considered allowing her to remove the scarlet letter. Hester rebuffs Chillingworth's insincere friendliness, telling him that the letter cannot be removed by human authority. Divine providence, she says, will make it fall from her chest when it is time for it to do so. She then informs Chillingworth that she feels it is time to tell the minister the truth about Chillingworth's identity. From their conversation, it is clear that Chillingworth now knows with certainty that Dimmesdale was Hester's lover and that Hester is aware of his knowledge. A change comes over Chillingworth's face, and the narrator notes that the old doctor has transformed himself into the very embodiment of evil. In a spasm of self-awareness, Chillingworth realizes how gnarled and mentally deformed he has become. He recalls the old days, when he was a benevolent scholar. He has now changed from a human being into a vengeful fiend, a mortal man who has lost his "human heart." Saying that she bears the blame for Chillingworth's tragic transformation, Hester begs him to relent in his revenge and become a human being again. The two engage in an argument over who is responsible for the current state of affairs. Chillingworth insists that his revenge and Hester's silence are "[their] fate." "Let the black flower blossom as it may!" he exclaims to her. "Now go thy ways, and deal as thou wilt with yonder man."

Analysis—Chapters 13-14 Identity emerges as an important theme in this section of the novel. The ways in which a society tries to define a person are often at odds with the way that individual defines him- or herself. As the community reinterprets the scarlet letter, Hester once again has an identity thrust upon her by her fellow townspeople. The meaning of the letter can vary with the desires and needs of the community, because the letter does not signify any essential truth in itself. Like the meteor in Chapter 12, it simply serves to reinforce popular opinion. Hester's improved reputation among the townspeople would seem to speak to the community's generosity of heart, its wisdom and compassion. Yet, because Puritan doctrine elevated faith and predestination over good works, no amount of good deeds can counteract sin; one must be ranked among the chosen. Thus, in a religious context, Hester's work in the community is futile. Although the community may acknowledge her intentions as good, it will never consider her divinely forgiven, and thus its members cannot forgive her in their own hearts. In the end, this is a society that privileges a pure and untainted soul above an actively good human being. Taken to an extreme, a doctrine that prizes faith over good works may mean that, in terms of everyday life, the pursuit of a transcendent heaven results in a hell on earth. The town's reevaluation of Hester is also significant for what it says about Hester herself, about the change she has undergone in earning it. The people of Boston believe that Hester's charitable behaviors are the result of their system working properly. They think that their chosen punishment for her, the scarlet letter, has effectively humbled her as planned. In reality, "the scarlet letter [has] not done its office." Hester has become almost an automaton: unwomanly, cold, and uncommunicative. The scarlet letter has not led her to contemplate her sin and possible salvation. Rather, it has led her to unholy speculations—thoughts of suicide and ruminations about the unfair lot of women. In fact, Hester's protofeminist thinking has led her to realize that she need not accept or pay attention to the town's assessment of her at all. She refused to flee Boston when Pearl was an infant because at the time she did not believe that her fellow men and women should have the power to judge her. Now, Hester refuses to remove the scarlet letter—she understands that its removal would be as meaningless as its original placement. Her identity and, she believes, her soul's salvation are matters that are between her and God.

Summary—Chapter 15: Hester and Pearl As Chillingworth walks away, Hester goes to find Pearl. She realizes that, although it is a sin to do so, she hates her husband. If she once thought she was happy with him, it was only self-delusion. Pearl has been playing in the tide pools down on the beach. Pretending to be a mermaid, she puts eelgrass on her chest in the shape of an "A," one that is "freshly green, instead of scarlet." Pearl hopes that her mother will ask her about the letter, and Hester does inquire whether Pearl understands the meaning of the symbol on her mother's chest. They proceed to discuss the meaning of the scarlet letter. Pearl connects the letter to Dimmesdale's frequent habit of clutching his hand over his heart, and Hester is unnerved by her daughter's perceptiveness. She realizes the child is too young to know the truth and decides not to explain the significance of the letter to her. Pearl is persistent, though, and for the next several days she harangues her mother about the letter and about the minister's habit of reaching for his heart.

Summary—Chapter 16: A Forest Walk "Mother," said little Pearl, "the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me; for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!" (See Important Quotations Explained) Intent upon telling Dimmesdale the truth about Chillingworth's identity, Hester waits for the minister in the forest, because she has heard that he will be passing through on the way back from visiting a Native American settlement. Pearl accompanies her mother and romps in the sunshine along the way. Curiously, the sunshine seems to shun Hester. As they wait for Dimmesdale by a brook, Pearl asks Hester to tell her about the "Black Man" and his connection to the scarlet letter. She has overheard an old woman discussing the midnight excursions of Mistress Hibbins and others, and the woman mentioned that Hester's scarlet letter is the mark of the "Black Man." When Pearl sees Dimmesdale's figure emerging from the wood, she asks whether the approaching person is the "Black Man." Hester, wanting privacy, tries to hurry Pearl off into the woods to play, but Pearl, both scared of and curious about the "Black Man," wants to stay. Exasperated, Hester exclaims, "It is no Black Man! . . . It is the minister!" Pearl scurries off, but not before wondering aloud whether the minister clutches his heart because the "Black Man" has left a mark there too.

Analysis—Chapters 15-16 These chapters return the reader to the romance world of preternaturally aware children and enchanted forests. Pearl has cleverly discerned the relationship between her mother's mark of shame and the minister's ailment, which share one obvious characteristic—their physical location upon the body. None of the townspeople has made the connection that Pearl now makes because they would never suspect their pastor to be capable of such a sin. Again, we see the problem with the Puritan "reading" of the world: intent on preserving the functional aspects of their society (i.e., the minister as an icon of purity), the people of Boston refuse to make what would seem to be an obvious set of connections between Hester's situation and the minister's mysterious torments. Pearl is too young to understand sex, adultery, or shame, but she is not blind, and she has intuitively understood the link between Hester and Dimmesdale for some time. She devises her green "A" as a deliberate test of her mother because she does not know why her mother is shunned and wants an explanation. The best explanation Hester has for her daughter is to tell her that she has indeed met the "Black Man" and that the scarlet letter is his mark, as the old woman has said. The discussions in the last four chapters of the identity of the "Black Man" suggest a profound confusion among the characters about the nature of evil, the definition of which is an important theme in this book. Hester comes to a realization that her sins have resulted partially from the sins of others. For example, Chillingworth's willingness to manipulate a young and naïve Hester into marriage has led to the present hardness of her heart. Sin breeds sin, but not in the way the Puritan divines would have it. Sin is not a contamination but, at least in Hester's case, a response to hurt, loneliness, and the selfishness of others. Thus, the sources of evil are many and varied, as Pearl demonstrates in her identification of both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale as potential incarnations of the "Black Man." The figure of Mistress Hibbins further complicates the picture of sin and evil in these chapters. As a witch participating in midnight rituals that directly invoke the "Black Man," one would expect her to be the very embodiment of sin. But it is possible that Mistress Hibbins is representative not so much of pure evil but of the society she initially appears to be subverting: although she knows she will eventually be executed as a witch, at this point Mistress Hibbins is reaping the benefits of Puritan society's hypocrisy. It is notable that she appears in the background of each of the scenes in which Hester faces some sort of crisis. She symbolizes this society's tolerance of, and even need for, malevolence. We are meant to see that her transgressions are simply more extreme versions of the evils done by men like her brother and Reverend Wilson. The fact that her behavior goes unpunished forces the reader to question whether it is Hester's lovemaking or the deeds of figures like Mistress Hibbins that really constitutes the greater threat to social stability. Both Mistress Hibbins's late-night activities and Hester's and Pearl's soul-searching are set in the forest, a place that surrounds and yet stands in opposition to the town. The woods are wild and natural, unbound by any man-made rules or codes. Additionally, the forest is a place of privacy and intimacy, which contrasts markedly to the public spaces of the town. For these reasons, it is appropriate that Hester chooses to meet Dimmesdale in the woods, through which he will pass in transition between two human extremes—the repressed, codified Puritan town and the comparatively "wild" and "natural" Indian settlement. As an intermediary between the two, the forest serves as a space between repression and chaos, between condemnation and total liberty. It should provide a balance that is ideal for a reasoned exchange between the former lovers. Nature itself, however, seems to be signaling that what is to take place will not be a simple illumination of truth. The sunlight seems to be avoiding Hester deliberately as she and Pearl walk through the forest. If, as it frequently does, light symbolizes truth, then this strange natural phenomenon appears to be suggesting that Hester is avoiding, or will not find, the "truth" that she seeks to convey to Dimmesdale. Indeed, the next chapters will show this to be the case.