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Chapter 13 – Another View of Hester. Hester is shocked by Dimmesdale’s deteriorating condition and his fear of Chillingworth She resolves to tell Dimmesdale the true identity of Chillingworth – it is a matter of conscience First she will tell Chillingworth what she plans to do.
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Chapter 13 – Another View of Hester • Hester is shocked by Dimmesdale’s deteriorating condition and his fear of Chillingworth • She resolves to tell Dimmesdale the true identity of Chillingworth – it is a matter of conscience • First she will tell Chillingworth what she plans to do
“The links that united her to the rest of human kind…had all been broken.” From her many months (years, in fact) in “seclusion from society” Hester measures right from wrong by her own standards rather than society’s. Because Dimmesdale was her partner in crime, her obligation is to him more than anyone else
“Human nature loves more than it hates” • The community begins to see Hester in another light because of the following reasons • Hester accepted her fate, never complained, never battled or fought back, and “did not weigh on the sympathies” of the community • She continued to give to the poor and needy and render her gifts no matter how the recipient reacted, “even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door”
“The letter was the symbol of her calling” • She came, not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble” • Her letter A, “elsewhere a token of sin, the taper of the sick-chamber” • Hester’s nature, “warm and rich; a well spring of human tenderness” • “Her breast, with its badge of shame, was but the softer pillow for the head that needed one” • “self-ordained Sister of Charity” • “They said it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”
Justice • “The rulers, and the wise and learned men of the communtiy, were longer in acknowledging the influence of Hester’s good qualities that the people • Most, looked upon the scarlet letter as a token of her good deeds
Protection • A cross on a nun’s bosom • A kind of sacredness which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril • Rumor: “an Indian had drawn his arrow against the badge, and that the missile struck it, but fell harmless to the around
Physical Changes in Hester • “the light and graceful foliage of her character had withered away” • “even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change” • austerity of her dress • rich and luxuriant hair – hidden by her cap or cut off…”not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine”
Loss of Femininity • Nothing in her face for Love to dwell on • Passion would never dream of clasping its embrace • Bosom will never again be the “pillow of Affection” • Cause: experience of severity; softness would have killed her • Surviving all these years means the tenderness was crushed out of her or pushed so deep into her heart that it can never show itself
PALS – Hester’s lack of human contact and love • “no longer anything in Hester’s face for Love to dwell upon; • “nothing in Hester’s form, though majestic and statue like, that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace; • “nothing in Hester’s bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of Affection.”
Hester’s acquired freedom of thought • Passion and feeling vs thought • Independence – cast away the fragments of the broken chain • World’s law was no law for her mind • Assumed a freedom of speculation • Hand in hand with Ann Hutchinson
Short Answer: Chapter 13 • What does it mean that Hester had “ceased to be” a woman? Support your answer with evidence from the text.
Chapter 14 Hester and the Physician • Changes to Chillingworth: • Grown older- though seemed to retain his v\wiry vigor and alertness • The quiet, calm, studious nature was replaced by “an eager, searching, almost fierce, yet carefully guarded look. • “Masked his expression with a smile” but you could “see his blackness” • “glare of red light out of his eyes; as if …his soul were on fire • “transformed himself into a devil” Heart full of torture; adding fuel to the fire by “gloating” • “transformed a wise and just man to a fiend”
End result of Chillingworth’s revenge ( Hester says to Chillingworth:) • “You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart!” • “Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living death;”
Chillingworth defends his actions • Admits that his revenge has turned him into a fiend • He blames Dimmsdale for his behavior • Hester at her wit’s end – pessimistic: • “there is no good for him(Dimmsdale),- no good for me, - no good for thee (Chillingworth)! There is no good for Pearl! There is no path to guide us out of this dismal maze!
Chillingworth’s Final Response • “Let the black flower blossom as it may!” • “It is our fate.” • Chillingworth again places the blame upon Hester: “By thou first step awry, thou didst plant the germ of evil.” • Agree or Disagree
Chapter 15 • “Be it sin or no, ‘I hate the man’” • “He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!” • Hester is at a turning point – depressed and feeling trapped in a no-win situation, she expresses her frustration towards Chillingworth
Pearl’s fascination with the Scarlet A • Pearl: dresses as a mermaid with “the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s” • Pearl understands not what the A stands for but the connection between Hester’s A and Dimmesdale,”It is for the same reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart!” • Pearl’s A made from seaweed is ‘green’ think about the significance of that color • Hester does not tell Pearl the truth about the letter, “I wear it for the sake of the gold thread” • First time Hester was “false to the symbol on her breast
Hester’s Awakening • Remembrances of her marriage to Chillingworth, “among the ugliest” • Marvelled, “ever been wrought up to marry him!” • “A fouler offence committed by R Chillingworth…persuaded her to fancy herself happy by his side” • The emotion of that brief space…”shed a dark light on Hester’s state of mind, revealing much that she might not otherwise have acknowledged to herself
Chapter 16 – A Forest Walk • Pearl: “Mother the sunshine does not love you. It runs away from you….it is afraid if something on your bosom • The symbols of the forest and the sunshine: • The forest is dark/gloomy/black/the blackman or devil lives there • The sun shine only peeps through the heavy foliage of the trees. • Pearl chases the light as it moves through the swaying of the trees.
Pearl and the Sunshine • Pearl plays with the sunlight – she lets it catch her; the light “lingered about the lonely child” • As Hester reaches her hand into the “magic circle” of light the sunshine vanished; • It “danced” on Pearl’s features; Pearl “absorbs” the light into herself; the result: “a sense of new and untransmitted vigor
An A for Pearl? • Pearl is obsessed with the scarlet A. She sees it as a rite of passage: “I wear nothing on my bosom yet” • She hope to wear the A as a woman like her mother • She wants to know what it means and why her mother wears it. • Pearl has been told by some of the wicked townswomen that the “Blackman” placed it on her mother’s chest – “that it glows like a red flame when thou meetest him at midnight here in the dark wood.”
Hester’s metaphor representing her fall from grace: • Pearl has been told by some of the wicked townswomen that the “Blackman” placed it on her mother’s chest • Hester explains to Pearl: “ Once in my life I met the Black Man!” “This scarlet letter is his mark” • Explain the metaphor.
Dimmsdale at the end of Ch 16 • At the end of Ch 16 a detailed description of Dimmsdale ‘s current physical and mental condition: “haggard and feeble” “a nerveless despondency in his air” “listlessness in his gait” “would have been glad to fling himself down at the root of the nearest tree”
