Chapter 17 The Pastor and His Parishioner Hester

Chapter 17 The Pastor and His Parishioner �Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest to tell him who Chillingworth is and about his diabolical plan. �Dimmesdale “put forth his hand, chill as death, and touched the hand of Hester Prynne. ” �This grasp allows them to “[inhabit] the same sphere” Reference this back to the 2 nd chapter when the scarlet letter isolated her in “a sphere” by herself. This is the first touch, by someone other than Pearl, that Hester has received in seven years.

The Big Question �Dimmesdale asks, “Hester, hast thou found peace? ” �Hester responds by looking down at her A and smiling �She then asks Dimmsdale, “Hast thou? ” �There is no redemption for “his polluted soul” �“Hester, you wear the scarlet letter openly – mine burns in secret” �Hester is the only one he can look in the eye, “that recognizes me for what I am”

Dimmesdale Clutches his A �Dimmesdale has his hand over his heart at the end of Ch 16; �Clutches his chest at the news that his enemy “dwellest with him under the same roof!” �Define the word “misanthropy” as Hester was in the past less sensitive to the damage done to Dimmesdale by her secret, “perhaps in the misanthropy of her own trouble, she left the minister to bear what she might picture to herself as a more tolerable doom. ”

Hester’s confession �“O Arthur, forgive me!” In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virture I might have held fast. ” �Truth and being true to oneself is a theme of The Scarlet Letter. Think about all the various lies and secrets throughout the book and the damage they cause.

Dimmesdale’s Reaction �“I might have known it!” “I did know it!” “the secret told me in the natural recoil of my heart at the first sight of him” The intuition of the Trancendentalists and Romantic writers at play �Dimmesdale says “Woman, woman thou art accountable for this! (blame the woman) I cannot forgive thee!” �Hester’s new found independence cries, “Thou shalt forgive me!” Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive” �Hester grabs Dimmesdale to her bosom and will not let him go. “All the world had frowned upon her – for seven lonely years…” Hester has had enough!

Dimmesdale Forgives �They hesitate leaving the forest as Hester will “take up again the burden of her ignominy, and the minister the hollow mockery of his good name!” �True love: “seen only by his eyes, the scarlet letter need not burn into the bosom of the fallen woman! “seen only by her eyes, Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God and man, might be, for one moment, true!”

Once again, Dimmesdale leans on Hester to solve his problems �“Think for me, Hester! Thou art strong. Resolve for me!” �“The judgment of God is on me…It is too might for me to struggle with!” �“Be thou strong for me!” “Advise me what to do. ” �“I am powerless to go!”

Hester proves strong & wise �“Leave this wreck and ruin here where it happened” �“Begin anew !” �“Exchange this false life of thine for a true one” �“Preach! Write! Act! Do anything, save lie down and die!” �Dimmesdale cannot go alone �“Thou shalt not go alone!” answered Hester �Then, all was spoken

Ch 18 Flood of Sunshine �Hester is bold – Hester has found her voice �She is an “outlaw” her freedom is a “moral wilderness” �“as untamed” “vast” “intricate and shadowy – as the forest �The scarlet letter was her “PASSPORT” into regions “other woman dared not thread” �‘SHAME, DESPAIR, SOLITUDE her teachers” �The past seven years preparation for this very hour.

Dimmesdale �The minister was soft, had not been hardened or toughened by punishment – public shame and banishment. Needs encouragement from Hester �He began to feel free, he felt as “ a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart” �He has flung his “sick, sin-stained and sorrow blackened” (alliteration) and risen up anew!

Let the Sun Shine �Hester removes her scarlet A threw it aside as a symbol of leaving the past behind. She and Dimmesdale would start anew overseas �The “mystic token” “glittering like a lost jewel” the “stigma” gone –The “burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit” �She takes off her cap and wholah the long, dark auburn hair adds softness to her features: she becomes radiant, hair shines, eyes shines, she smiles – she has found her womanhood-the “sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the forest”

Transcendentalists and Romantics Nature/Love �“Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world. ”

Ch 19 The Child at the Brookside �The “sphere” that held Pearl and Hester together had been broken when Hester removed the scarlet letter and tossed it to the side of the river bank. �The brook represents the boundary between the adults and the child �Pearl will not cross the brook to Hester without the scarlet letter: the “hateful token” “deadly symbol” “scarlet misery”

There’s no sunshine when she’s gone �Hester puts her hair back under her cap and as if “a withering spell in the sad letter” “her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine” “gray shadow seemed to fall across her”

Out of the mouths of babes �“Will he go back with us hand in hand, we three together? ” �“Not now, dear child” �“Will he keep his hand over his heart? ”

Themes of the Scarlet Letter Alienation

Alienation �Hester – ostracized shunned by the community �Pearl – same as Hester; does not know her father �Chillingworth: hides his true identity and purpose �Dimmesdale: Cannot/will not show his true self. Alienated from community and church – feels empty and alone even thought he is adored and accepted by the community and church

Appearance vs Reality

Hester: the sinner defined by her act of adultery vs the charitable, saintly image defined by her deeds Chillingworth: takes on the role of a “healer” but succeeds in contributing to the poor health and untimely death of Dimmesdale: minister, man of God – associated with truth, justice yet, hypocrite Pearl: demon child, wild, unruly – seeker of truth, refuses hypocrisy, wise

To Thy Self be True �Hester: