The Scarlet Letter – Chapter 12
“The Minister’s Vigil”
A True Vigil?
What is a VIGIL?
 The act of keeping awake at times when
sleep is actually expected
 Knowing what a VIGIL is, why do you
think the minister, Dimmesdale, would be
keeping a vigil?
 Logical answer: Perhaps Dimmesdale
cannot sleep because his guilt is keeping
him awake

Dimmesdale at the scaffold
Chapter 12 opens with Dimmesdale at
what spot in town?
 Answer: The scaffold upon which Hester
stood at the beginning of the novel
 So, why has Dimmesdale come to the
scaffold at night to keep a vigil?
 Answer: He wants to be punished for his
sin just like Hester was punished for hers
so that he can free himself from his deep
guilt

A Failed Attempt

What is wrong, even silly, about Dimmesdale
attempt to be punished for his sins?
 Answer: Dimmesdale is standing at the
scaffold at night when no one is around and no
one can see or hear him confess his sins.
Dimmesdale’s vigil is pointless if no one can
see him!
 What word is useful in describing
Dimmesdale?
 Dimmesdale is a COWARD
True repentance

In your opinion, what should
Dimmesdale do to receive true
repentance from God?
Confess his sin to God
 Confess his sin to the townspeople to let
them know he is not the perfect person they
believed him to be
 Quit his job as minister

A Serendipitous Encounter

While Dimmesdale is standing on the scaffold,
Hester and Pearl happen to walk past him
 Dimmesdale invites Hester and Pearl to stand
with him on the scaffold, saying, “Ye have both
been here before, but I was not with you.
Come up hither once again, and we will stand
all three together.”
 The three of them on the scaffold together is a
symbol for what?
A Sinful Family
By Dimmesdale joining Hester and
Pearl on the scaffold, he seems to say
that he is together with them in their
sin
 The author writes that on the scaffold,
the “three formed an electric chain”
(104). What LINKS the three of these
characters together?
 Answer: SIN

Judgment Day
While on the scaffold, Pearl asks
Dimmesdale if he will stand with them
tomorrow
 Dimmesdale says he will stand with
them on “judgment day”
 Who will be judged most harshly to
least?
 A good guess: Dimmesdale, Hester, then
Pearl (if punished at all)

Another Eerie Coincidence

While on the scaffold, a meteor appears in the
sky
 Dimmesdale sees something in the meteor:
“Solely to the disease in his own eye and
heart, the minister…beheld there the
appearance of…the letter ‘A’…”
 Why does Dimmesdale see a letter ‘A’ in the
sky?
 Dimmesdale’s guilt makes him see his sin
everywhere
Meaning of the meteor

What does this incident with the meteor
tell us about sin?
Sins cannot be forgotten
 Sins change what we see, hear, and feel
 Reminders of our sins can appear anywhere
 Sins make us understand and interpret
things in a unique way

The Fantastic Four

Roger Chillingworth happens to find the three
of them standing on the scaffold
 Dimmesdale tells Hester, “Who is that man? I
hate him, Hester!... I tell thee, my soul shivers
at him!”
 Hester will not tell Dimmesdale who Roger
is…why?
 Answer: Hester promised Roger when he
visited her in prison that she would keep his
identity a secret
The Glass Slipper Left Behind

The next day, another pastor finds one of
Dimmesdale’s gloves on the scaffold and
returns it to him
 Dimmesdale doesn’t remember being on the
scaffold, and he says that he doesn’t even
remember seeing the meteor in the sky – what
are we learning about Dimmesdale?
 Answer: Dimmesdale is hallucinating, sleep
walking, losing memory. In other words, he is
losing touch with REALITY.
The Puritan Way of Thinking
The pastor found Dimmesdale’s glove on the
scaffold – what does that prove?
 Answer: Dimmesdale was on the scaffold,
which is mysterious
 However, the pastor says that “Satan dropped
it there” (109). He never asks Dimmesdale if
he was on the scaffold
 So, why did the pastor lie and say that Satan
put Dimmesdale’s glove on the scaffold?

The Puritan Way of Thinking
The Puritans refuse to believe that
Dimmesdale is evil, immoral, or sinful
 If something happens or something is
said that goes against their beliefs, they
will lie to themselves to keep their belief
intact
 For what reason is the pastor lying?
(see your handout on Why We Lie)

The Difference of the “A”
At the end of the chapter, the other minister
remarks on the meteor in the sky from
yesterday evening: “A great red letter in the
sky—the letter A—which we interpret to
stand for Angel.”
 Why did Dimmesdale interpret the “A” for
“adultery” while the townspeople interpreted
it as “angel”
 Symbols can mean different things to
different people since we all have different
personalities and perspectives

Personal Connection

Option 1: Describe a
real life example in
which you knew the truth
about someone or some
event but you purposely
lied to yourself to hide
the truth. What was the
event, and why did you
or that person lie?
Explain all of the
reasons why you lied to
yourself. Answer must
be at least a paragraph.

Option 2: Give an
example of an object or
symbol that could be
interpreted to have two
completely different
meanings. Explain how
this object could have
multiple meanings.
Explain why symbols in
general can have
different meanings.
Answer must be at least
a paragraph.