Chapter XIII
1. The link that binds Hester to Dimmesdale is the “iron link of mutual crime, which neither
he nor she could break” (111). Hester feels that it is her responsibility to help alleviate
Dimmesdale’s despair; he sought her aid “against this instinctively discovered enemy,”
and certainly had the right to because of the sin they committed together (111).
2. Seven years have passed since Hester first stood with the infant Pearl on the scaffold.
3. After a time, because of Hester’s charity and good works, many refuse to interpret the
scarlet A by its original meaning. These people say the A stands for “Able” because of
the “helpfulness [that] was found in her” (113).
4. After Hawthorne describes the extent to which Hester’s feminine beauty has vanished in
seven years, he foreshadows a reunion between Hester and Dimmesdale that will have the
“magic touch” to transform Hester into a beautiful woman again. The reunion of the two
lovers will result in a passionate emotional correlation that Hester and Dimmesdale have
been lacking since their sin.
5. Hawthorne strikes me as an advocate of women’s rights because of the pessimistic
picture of the role of women in Puritan society he paints. He takes a depressed tone when
he describes women’s limited roles in society and Hester’s reflections on the subject. I
believe that enough changes have occurred so that today women are “allowed to assume
what seems a fair and suitable position.” Hawthorne explains that major modifications
need to be made in the nature of men, and even more so with women if women are going
to assume more influential positions. Judging from the significant role of women in
politics, economics, and literature today, it is evident that these changes have been made.
6. By the statement, “The scarlet letter had not done its office,” Hawthorne means that the
purpose of the scarlet letter has not been carried out completely, and has instead gone
astray. The letter was supposed to have been a symbol of Hester’s sin for the rest of her
life, but instead, it has come to mean something else because of Hester’s ameliorated
reputation in society. Hester begins to indulge in thoughts as well; something that
women are not expected to do. Instead of holding her back a step in society, the scarlet
letter has instead brought her up a level of respect.
7. Hester is now better able to cope with Chillingworth than she was in her prison chamber
seven years before because “she had climbed her way, since then, to a higher point,”
while Chillingworth “had brought himself nearer to her level, or perhaps below it, by the
revenge which he had stooped for” (118-119). Hester has become a better woman than
the insecure criminal she used to be. She has redeemed herself so much that the
townspeople begin to view her scarlet letter A as standing for “Able.” Chillingworth’s
motives, however, have become even more twisted, thus placing Hester on a higher level
of morality than him.
Chapter XIV and XV
1. Hester notices a change in Chillingworth’s appearance when she stops to speak to him. He
has gone from a calm man to a fierce one, and he tries to conceal his true emotions of passion
and revenge. His “former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet . . . had
altogether vanished, and been succeeded by an eager, searching, almost fierce, yet carefully
guarded look” (122). He was transforming into a “devil.”
2. Hester pities Chillingworth “for the hatred that has transformed a wise and just man to a
fiend!” (126). He has grown so corrupt and perverse, that he can barely be called a human being
and can no longer function in any ethical way. Chillingworth pities Hester because he was not a
sufficient lover for her, and if she had found one with enough passion before him, “this evil
(would) have not been” (126). Chillingworth tells Hester, “I pity thee, for thy good that has been
wasted in thy nature” (126).
3. Chillingworth does not try to persuade Hester not to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale.
4. Pearl repeatedly associates Dimmesdale’s holding his hand over his heart with her mother’s
scarlet letter.
5. The possibility that the scarlet letter would have a wholly different meaning has already
happened in that the townspeople “said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a
woman’s strength” (113). Hester has gained a new respectable reputation in society and the
meaning of her life-long punishment has thus been altered.
6. Chillingworth is telling Hester that pardoning Dimmesdale would not make him any better of
a person or benefit him in any way because fate has already determined the outcome of his life,
as well as the lives of Dimmesdale and Hester. Nothing they do now can change what fate has in
store. With Hester’s crime of adultery, she plants “the germ of evil” and his revenge has been “a
dark necessity” since then (127).
7. Hester takes her first step astray with her crime of adultery in which she “[plants] the germ of
evil,” according to Chillingworth” (127).
8. This statement of Chillingworth’s made during his first conversation with Hester in the prison
accords with the statement in number 6 in that fate and the future are the central motifs around
which the passages are built. Hester and Chillingworth can not do anything to change the
situation now that she has already committed her sin and fate has already organized her life for
her. In his earlier statement, Chillingworth stated that Hester’s unfaithfulness was something he
was able to predict. In both passages, it is asserted that Hester’s sin is the starting point in the
new chapter of both of their lives, and fate has taken its course as a result of it.
9. When Hester thinks to herself, “No! If this be the price of the child’s sympathy, I cannot pay
it,” she means that she is not ready to share the real meaning of the scarlet letter with her child.
Hester is not ready to take the chance of her child viewing her as the embodiment of sin, and
though it may provoke Pearl’s sympathy, her pity is not worth Hester’s telling of the truth.