The Scarlet Letter
CHAPTERS 9 and 10
Study Questions
Name:
Chapter 9:
1. What changes are shown in Chillingworth in this chapter?
2. What double meaning does the word “leech” have?
3. What is wrong with Dimmesdale?
4. What do the townspeople say about his illness?
5. What are the various opinions of the citizens about Chillingworth?
Chapter 10:
1. How does Chillingworth go about prying into Dimmesdale’s soul?
2. What does Pearl call Chillingworth?
3. What charge does Dimmesdale make against Chillingworth?
4. What do you think Chillingworth discovers in the scene on pages 135-136? Why?
PARAPHRASES: Put the following passages into your own words. Be sure to maintain
the complexity of thought in the originals, while casting them in language that you can
readily understand.
Dimmesdale’s argument for why he (or anyone) might be choosing to keep his
secret: “…it may be that they are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature.
Or,--can we not suppose it?—guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal
for God’s glory and man’s welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black
and filthy in the view of men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by
them; no evil of the past be redeemed by better service. So, to their own unutterable
torment, they go about among their fellow-creatures, looking pure as new-fallen
snow while their hearts are all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which they
cannot rid themselves.” (pp101-102)
Paraphrase:
Chillingworth’s response: “These men deceive themselves . . . . They fear to take up the
shame that rightfully belongs to them. Their love for man, their zeal for God’s service, -these holy impulses may or may not coexist in their hearts with the evil inmates to which
their guilt has unbarred the door, and which must needs propagate a hellish breed within
them. But, if they seek to glorify God, let them not lift heavenward their unclean hands!
If they would serve their fellowmen, let them do it by making manifest the power and
reality of conscience, in constraining them to penitential self-abasement! Wouldst thou
have me believe, O wise and pious friend, that a false show can be better—can be more
for God’s glory, or man’s welfare—than God’s own truth?” (p102)
Paraphrase: