Chapter Nine: The Leech
Summary
Roger Chillingworth, Hester's real husband, is described in more detail. After arriving at Boston and finding his wife in utter disgrace upon the pillory, he chooses to stay and live in the city. His uncommon intelligence and skill as a physician soon make him quite popular. Dimmesdale's poor health and Chillingworth's interest in the young man combine to make many of the church officials try to get them to live together. Dimmesdale declines at first, saying, "I need no medicine."
Dimmesdale finally gets into the permanent habit of placing his hand over his heart in pain, and he agrees to meet with Chillingworth. The meeting immediately leads to the two men moving in together. The narrator comments that "A man burdened with a secret should especially avoid the intimacy of his physician."
The townspeople are for the most part thrilled with the way the relationship between the two men is working out. However, a few townspeople have more innate intuition and are skeptical of the physician's true motives. They sense that Chillingworth has undergone a profound change since arriving in Boston, going from a genial old man to an ugly and evil person. Thus, "it grew to be a widely diffused opinion that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale ... was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.”
Analysis
The use of the term "leech" to describe Chillingworth is at once appropriate and ironic. After all, he is a physician, and leeches at the time were used in order to facilitate bloodletting. At the same time, however, Hawthorne is obviously suggesting the parasitic relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. We return to our earlier postulation that Chillingworth goes after Dimmesdale not because he is a stock character or out of any sense of moral purpose, but rather in an effort to absorb the reverend's virility, to steal his life force and appropriate it as his own, both in vengeance and for his own sake. Chillingworth realizes that he is old, deformed, and unworthy of Hester, even though he is her husband. Yet, he seems to retain the unconscious desire that if he can somehow capture Dimmesdale's spirit, he will be able to gain Hester's love and allegiance.
It is odd that some of the townspeople can sense that Chillingworth may be on the side of the devil. As a matter of morals, we would expect them to side with the cuckolded husband, if they knew his true identity. But for all their strict laws and overreaction to sin, these Puritans can sense the energy of injustice that is growing in Chillingworth’s psyche; they are attuned to it. Thus society is split in half over the man, some seeing him as a helper of Dimmesdale, others seeing him rightfully as the spawn of "The Black Man," having dangerous motives.
Chapter Ten: The Leech and His Patient
Summary
Chillingworth realizes that Dimmesdale is hiding some dark secret. He therefore expends a great deal of time and energy to make Dimmesdale reveal what is troubling him. Dimmesdale fails to realize that Chillingworth is in fact his enemy. He is so terrified of everyone in the town finding out his secret that he is blind to any enemy within his own home.
Chillingworth engages the minister in a conversation about why men keep secrets in their hearts rather than revealing them immediately. Dimmesdale clutches his breast and struggles to avoid directly answering the questions Chillingworth poses. The two men are interrupted by Pearl and Hester walking through the cemetery outside. Pearl is jumping from gravestone to gravestone, and she finally starts dancing upon a large, flat stone. When Hester tries to make her stop, she takes several burrs and arranges them on the scarlet letter, to which they stick.
Chillingworth observes that Pearl has no "discoverable principle of being" since she disregards all human ordinances and opinions. Dimmesdale then remarks that Pearl embodies "the freedom of a broken law." When Pearl sees the two men, she hurls one of her burrs at Dimmesdale, who recoils in fear. Pearl then shouts to her mother that they should leave, or the "Black Man" who has already gotten hold of Dimmesdale will catch them.
Chillingworth then tells Dimmesdale that as his physician he cannot cure him—his ailment sees to come from his spiritual side. Chillingworth demands to be told what sort of secret Dimmesdale is hiding. The minister, upset by this, passionately cries out, "No!—not to thee!—not to an earthly physician!" and leaves the room.
Soon after, Dimmesdale falls asleep while reading. Chillingworth takes the opportunity to place his hand over Dimmesdale's heart and then leaves before the minister can awaken. He is incredibly full of joy and wonderment after having felt Dimmesdale's heart. The narrator tells us that he acted "how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven and won into his kingdom."
Analysis
Chillingworth seems to cross the line in this chapter from having human motives to suffering inhuman possession. Indeed, although the narrator proceeded no further than calling Chillingworth “evil” in motives and in deed, now Chillingworth's soul is attacked, and he is even compared to Satan, a thief of men's souls. Pearl perhaps senses this evil more than anyone, calling Chillingworth "the Black Man" and telling her mother that he already has captured Dimmesdale's soul.
The end of the chapter brings to light some of what previous foreshadowing promised. Earlier, Chillingworth told Hester that he would be able to know her partner by reading his heart. In the final scene, he is in fact able to read Dimmesdale's heart and know the secret Dimmesdale is hiding. Hawthorne, however, indicates that Chillingworth is surprised by what he discovers, implying that Chillingworth never fully suspected Dimmesdale of being Pearl's father.
Pearl herself seems to grow angrier and wilder the longer that everyone keeps the secret of her father's identity. She dances on graves, shuns all law, even attacks Dimmesdale now, all in a raging storm. She, in a sense, is our beacon in this story, a kind of lightning rod for everyone's repressed feelings. She impels action from under the surface, much as unconscious desires demand conscious action. It will not be until her desires are satiated, namely through confession and reconciliation among the adults who are tangled up in the adultery and her life, that she will be able to live in peace.
Chapter Eleven: The Interior of a Heart
Summary
Chillingworth, having figured out that Mr. Dimmesdale is the true father of Pearl, goes on a subtle campaign to hurt the minister as much as possible. Revenge consumes him to the point that he can only focus on causing the other man pain. Dimmesdale never figures out that his strongest enemy is the man whom he considers his only friend and physician.
Mr. Dimmesdale is so overwhelmed with shame and remorse that he has started to become famous for his sermons. His ability as a speaker is enhanced by the fact that he feels far more sinful than many in his audience. He has even tried to tell his congregation about the sin he committed with Hester Prynne, but always in such a way that they think he is being modest. This causes Dimmesdale even more pain, for he believes that he is also lying to his people.
Dimmesdale also has become a masochist, and he uses chains and whips to beat himself in his closet. In addition he undertakes extremely long fasts, refusing to eat or drink as penance. This fasting causes him to have hallucinations in which he sees his parents, friends, and even Pearl and Hester. One night he decides that there might be a way for him to overcome his anguish, and he softly leaves his house.
Analysis
Dimmesdale complements his emotional masochism with physical masochism. He fasts, flagellates himself, and keeps waking vigils so that he deprives himself of sleep, all in the hopes of banishing sin from his heart. Indeed, he still believes that he has done wrong, even when his feelings have not abated, and we sense that he cannot take public claim for Pearl's birth not only because he is afraid of the town's reaction, but also because he believes he can somehow atone for the sin enough to allow him to stay silent.
That said, Dimmesdale tries several times to confess to his congregation, but each time he even suggests his own fallibility, his followers fail to grasp the significance of his confession. Dimmesdale will come to open confession, it seems, only of his own accord. It will not be found out or dragged out of him, no matter how much Chillingworth or the spawn of “The Black Man” try to suck out his soul. Dimmesdale will have to wear his own scarlet letter and reveal it to his masses, taking responsibility for his sin and its consequences.
Chapter Twelve: The Minister's Vigil
Summary
Dimmesdale, having left his house, walks until he reaches the scaffold where Hester Prynne suffered her public humiliation several years ago. He climbs the stairs and imagines that he has a scarlet letter on his chest that all the world can see. While in this state of mind, Dimmesdale screams aloud, and he is immediately terrified that the whole town has heard him. Instead, only Governor Bellingham briefly appears on his balcony before retiring to bed.
The Reverend Mr. Wilson approaches the scaffold holding a lantern, but only because he is returning from a late-night vigil. He fails to see Dimmesdale, who is standing on the scaffold. Dimmesdale waits a while longer and then bursts out laughing. Much to his surprise, the voice of Pearl answers him.
Hester and Pearl are at the scaffold because they have been at Governor Winthrop's deathbed taking measurements for a robe. Dimmesdale invites them to join him on the stand, which they do. All three hold hands and Pearl asks him, "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide?" Dimmesdale answers, "I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee one day, but not tomorrow." Pearl persists in her question, and Dimmesdale answers that, "the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting."
At that moment a meteor streaks across the sky, illuminating everything, including Dimmesdale with his hand over his heart and the scarlet letter on Hester's dress. Looking upward, Dimmesdale believes that he sees a giant A in the sky. When he looks down again, Pearl is pointing to Roger Chillingworth, who is watching him from across the street. Chillingworth takes Dimmesdale home.
The next day, after a sermon that the narrator describes as "the richest and most powerful," Dimmesdale is greeted by the sexton. The sexton hands him his glove, telling him that it was found on the scaffold where Satan must have left it. The man then tells Dimmesdale that last night, a large A was seen in the sky, which was interpreted to mean "Angel" in honor of Governor Winthrop's death.
Analysis
Dimmesdale begins to understand that he must himself embrace a figurative scarlet letter on his own breast. This realization comes with "a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart." Hester, after all, found freedom once she stood on the scaffold and endured the humiliation that came with confessing her sin, but Dimmesdale is still held up as the paragon of virtue in this most stringent of societies. He simply cannot bear the weight of such guilt.
As a result, Dimmesdale ventures to the scaffold at night, perhaps unconsciously seeking absolution. Perhaps he believes that if he stands in the same place Hester did, he can find some degree of peace without having to publicly confess. But it is not enough. Dimmesdale already knows of his own guilt and susceptibility to sin. What he cannot make peace with is the guilt of having preached all these years to a congregation he has betrayed with his own behavior. Whereas Hester wears a scarlet letter on her clothes and has not taken it to heart, Dimmesdale's scarlet letter is hidden, and it is slowly becoming inextricable from his flesh.
Perhaps Pearl recognizes this, for she urges Dimmesdale to stand beside her and her mother at noontime the next day on the scaffold. Pearl senses that things have come to a head, that Dimmesdale will soon confess and that there will be a reckoning for him that will set them all free. Dimmesdale demurs, perhaps knowing that he cannot bear to make such a confession, and instead suggests that he and Hester will find freedom in the dark. It is then that the meteor streaks by, illuminating them in the whitest of light, foreshadowing Dimmesdale's revelation to the town and, more importantly, the absolution that will come with confession.
