THE SCARLET LETTER
CHAPTER NOTES 22-24
ADAPTED FROM:
Guelcher, William: THE SCARLET LETTER: STRATEGIES IN TEACHING: Idea Works Inc., Eagan
Minnesota, 1989.
Van Kirk, Susan: HAWTHORNE’S THE SCARLET LETTER: CliffszNotes. IDG Books Worldwide Inc.,
Forest City, California., 2000.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• Chapter 22: We get a sense right
away that Hester and
Dimmesdale’s future together is
doomed.
• Hester despairs over the change
in Dimmesdale: “He seemed so
remote from her own sphere, and
utterly beyond her reach.”
• Compare that to three days earlier
in the forest: “How deeply they
had know each other then!”
CHAPTERS 22-24
• Hawthorne uses Mistress Hibbins
to foreshadow the ending: The
old witch reveals the minister’s sin
will soon become public
knowledge.
• Dimmesdale may have removed
himself from Hester’s emotional
sphere, but she has not lost her
connection to him.
• She hears and recognizes his “low
expression of anguish” in his
final sermon – and his unspoken
plea for forgiveness.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• Chapter 23: The third and
climactic scaffold scene
• Finally, Dimmesdale lets go
of everything: his honor, his
love, his family, his life.
• Dimmesdale knows God
sees everything: He cannot
outrun the truth or his
conscience.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• The tenets of Puritan
society are present: The
Church, in the form of Mr.
Wilson, and the State, in the
form of Gov. Bellingham.
• Both try to help
Dimmesdale: He repels
them and turns to Hester
instead.
• He asks Hester for approval
of this act and then places
his fate in the hand of God.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• Two other characters are
profoundly affected.
• Chillingworth loses his purpose
for living: “Thou hast escaped
me!”
• Pearl kisses her father and weeps.
She has gained compassion,
sympathy, and the ability to
interact with humans: “The spell
is broken” indicates Pearl can
now live a life full of love and
happiness.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• Finale:
• What did the community see on
Dimmesdale’s chest?
• Hawthorne leaves it ambiguous.
• What is unambiguous is the moral
lesson: “Be true! Be true! Be true!
Show freely to the world, if not
your worst, yet some trait by
which the worst may be inferred.”
• Be true to yourself: Which
characters in the story were true,
and what price did they pay for
that?
CHAPTERS 22-24
• Chillingworth fades
badly and vanishes: His
revenge has consumed
him and made him
inhuman.
• With Dimmesdale
removed, Chillingworth
has nothing to sustain
him.
CHAPTERS 22-24
•
Pearl’s future is not confirmed, but
the reader is left to believe she lived
a long and happy life, married,
enjoying motherhood and apparent
wealth.
• Her love and generosity toward
Hester are evident.
• This only became possible through
Dimmesdale’s public confession:
Pearl becomes a child of Truth, as
the scarlet letter is a symbol of
truth.
• The Truth now purges Pearl from
the evil influence of the devil.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• The graceful and dignified
woman that Hester becomes is
a survivor through suffering.
• Her suffering allows her to
give hope to those who are
hopeless and help to those
who are in trouble.
• Because her heart has felt
these emotions, she is able to
comfort others.
• The question remains: Why
does she return to the colony?
CHAPTERS 22-24
• In the end, Hester and
Dimmesdale are side by side
but not quite together in the
cemetery.
• However, they share a
common tombstone.
• “On a field, sable, the letter A.
gules.”
• On a dark field, a red letter.
• In death, they share a scarlet
letter.
END THOUGHTS
• Traditionally, the novel has been viewed as a gloomy, tragic book because
Hester was “condemned” to the lonely life of a “fallen woman” and a
“widow” of sorts, even though her husband was still alive.
• Can we make an opposite argument that this book is actually a story of
triumph?
• Consider these three strains of thought:
1. Hester can use the scarlet letter as a justification for spurning humankind
and raise Pearl in the spirit of that cynicism.
2. She can fall into the trap of despair and hopelessness, feeling that the
world has no place for one who has no seriously sinned (and Hester does
have moments when she feels that despair).
END THOUGHTS
3. She can, as an act of her own will, see the scarlet letter as an obligation that
she has to both herself and to humankind.
• Which one does Hester choose?
• In the end, Hester changes the meaning of the symbolic scarlet letter from
one of disgrace to one of honor.
• The timeless, relevant message: At some point, we will all fail in a moral or
ethical expectation.
• But the sin is not in the fact that we failed; it is what that failure does to us
as people.
• We can either be jaded to cynicism and hypocrisy, or we can be challenged
to call up the best in us.
CHAPTERS 22-24
• A parting thought.
• Many of us live our lives presenting
to the world only that which we
think the world will find most
agreeable.
• We disguise those elements of
ourselves which we think would
bring us criticism and ostracism
from the community.
• This forces us to live with the roles
that circumstances force upon us.
• Better to admit to our humanity
and trust in the nature of others to
forgive and overlook our failings.