The Scarlet Letter By The Chapters 9 12

The Scarlet Letter By The 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

2 nd 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!