The Scarlet Letter
By The Chapter
Chapters 9 - 12
Chapter 9: The Leech
Different definitions of a leech:
• A blood sucking parasite
What happens to a blood
sucking parasite?
• A doctor
Is Chillingworth fulfilling
both of these roles?
Why has Chillingworth renamed
himself?
• By renaming himself upon his arrival in
Boston, Chillingworth has hidden his past from
everyone except Hester, whom he has sworn
to secrecy.
• Since the townsfolk have very little access to
good medical care, he is welcomed and valued
as a doctor.
What benefit did he gain by being
captured by the Indians?
• 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.
Why is the community concerned
about Dimmesdale?
He seems to be suffering from severe health
problems.
• He appears to be wasting away.
• He frequently clutches at his chest as though
his heart pains him.
• Dimmesdale refuses to marry any of the
young women who have devoted themselves
to him.
What request does Chillingworth
make of the town leadership?
• Chillingworth urges the town leadership to
insist that Dimmesdale allow the doctor to live
with him.
• Chillingworth represents “science” and
Dimmesdale represents “spirituality.”
• 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.
What major allusion does
Hawthorne use in Chapter 9?
• The minister’s room is hung with tapestries
depicting biblical scenes of David and
Bathsheba.
»Why David and
Bathsheba?
»Not only an
Allusion but also…
• This is a story about adultery.
David and Bathsheba committed
adultery.
• Foreshadowing
• The townspeople were 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.
What do the people start to
suspect about Chillingworth?
• A majority of the townspeople begin to
suspect that Chillingworth is the Devil, come
to wage battle for Dimmesdale’s soul.
Chapter 10: The Leech and His
Patient
• The inwardly tortured minister soon becomes
Chillingworth’s greatest puzzle.
• The doctor 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.
Why does Chillingworth think that
Dimmesdale is ill?
• Dimmesdale’s illness is most likely an outward
manifestation of an inward condition, and
neither medicine nor religion suffices to cure
it.
• 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, what do the hear
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.
• 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.
• Yet Pearl is not merely a negative figure; she is
also a positive element, because she
illuminates truths and seeks to open closed
minds.
How is Hester different from many of the other
people who have sinned?
• Chillingworth remarks that Hester is not a
woman who lives with buried sin—she wears
her sin openly on her breast.
• Chillingworth begins to prod the minister
more directly by inquiring about his spiritual
condition, explaining that he thinks it relevant
to his physical health.
• 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.
• What could possibly be there that would
cause Chillingworth to jump for joy and do a
little happy dance?
Chapter 11
The Interior of a
Heart
Keep in mind what Dimmesdale
doesn’t know. Which is?
• he doesn’t know who Chillingworth is.
• he doesn’t know what Chillingworth now
knows.
What does one find in the interior
of the heart?
As Dimmesdale starts to suffer more and more,
what does the congregation think about him?
They feel he is becoming more and more saintlike. They think he must really be holy if he is
suffering that much.
What is the “cost” of
Chillingworth’s revenge?
He has become the
personification of evil.
Trust
Dimmesdale knows that he
shouldn’t trust Chillingworth,
but he can’t figure out
why.
Dimmesdale actually confesses in his
sermons. How do the people react?
• “The Godly youth.”
• “The Saint on earth.”
He makes very vague and half-hearted
confessions and his congregation thinks he is
even more saintly.
Dimmesdale thinks he is being a
hypocrite, but is he really?
What he doesn’t
seem to realize is that
by being a sinner, he
has actually put
himself on par with
everyone else in the
congregation, since
everyone is a sinner.
How is Dimmesdale punishing
himself?
• All of this self-punishment won’t earn him any
kind of redemption. What will ? He isn’t
getting off with no punishment since he is
punishing himself, but Hester is the one who is
suffering in public.
Chapter 12
The Minister’s Vigil
The Minister’s Vigil
2nd Scaffold Scene (out of 3)
7 years after the first scaffold scene in chapter 2.
All of the same
characters are
present: Hester,
Dimmesdale, and
Pearl.
Notice it takes place
in the middle of
the novel.
Why does Dimmesdale believe that his
standing on the scaffold is a mockery?
• He is hiding in the obscurity of night.
• The townspeople are asleep.
• There is no danger of being discovered.
Why does he shriek aloud on his
way to the scaffold?
• In some ways, he wants to be caught.
Who are some of the people he sees while
on the scaffold and how does he interact
with each?
1. Reverend Wilson – He invites him to stand up
there with him for awhile and pass the time.
He is very playful.
Has Dimmesdale gone mad?
Is this just nervous humor?
Did he even really speak or did he
Imagine that he did so?
Where has Reverend Wilson been?
Governor Winthrop has just died, and Reverend
Wilson was at his death bed.
Why does Dimmesdale start
laughing?
• Keep in mind, he is hungry from fasting, he is
sleep deprived because he is holding vigil and
praying all night, and he is whipping himself.
This man is weakening day by day. It is very
likely that he is losing his mind.
Who comes to the scaffold next?
• Hester
• Pearl
What do they do?
• All stand on the scaffold
together. Dimmesdale
was not on the scaffold with
them the first time.
When Dimmesdale takes Pearl’s
hand, what happens?
This is the first peace that
Dimmesdale has felt in
years. He feels connected
to his family even though
Pearl doesn’t know he is her
father.
Pearl requests that he stand there with
them at noon tomorrow. He says no!
He denies his child 3 times just as Peter denied
Christ.
When will he stand with them?
Judgment Day
• His response causes Pearl to pull away from
him. She feels rejected. She is searching for
her identity, she has been raised without a
father, and she wants to be acknowledged in
the daylight.
What is going on in the night sky?
What different interpretations are
there for the “A” in the night sky?
• “angel” – Governor Winthrop’s spirit
• “adulterer” – Dimmesdale
Chillingworth also appears
• How does Pearl react to him?
She knows he is a bad man.
• “I shiver at him.”
• “I hate him.”
Remember – Dimmesdale has
no idea that Chillingworth
knows.
How do the town’s people explain finding
Dimmesdale’s glove on the scaffold?
•Satan stole it!