Chillingworth And Reverend Dimmesdale In The Scarlet Letter

Summary: Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Dimmesdale look out onto the graveyard, and talk about the way guilt can manifest itself in ugly physical ways if a person does not confess their guilt. The men see Pearl and Hester in the graveyard, and Pearl places burrs on her mother’s scarlet ‘A’. Chillingworth suggests that Dimmesdale has a spiritual ailment that has been manifesting itself on Dimmesdale’s physical body. Dimmesdale becomes increasingly angry and defensive, and says that in that case, it’s only a matter between him and God. Later, after the two men make up, Chillingworth takes off Dimmesdale’s vestment (a clerical robe) while he’s asleep, and sees something that makes his face break out into a satanic yet wondrous expression.

Topic:
Quote 2: “[Pearl] now skipped irreverently from one grave to another...In reply to her mother’s command and entreaty that she would behave more decorously, little Pearl paused to gather the prickly burrs from a tall burdock...she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom, to which the burrs, as their nature was, tenaciously adhered. Hester did not pluck them off” (Hawthorne 117).

Analysis 2: While Dimmesdale tries to hide his sin, Pearl relishes in displaying her sins. She skips “irreverently” over the graves, which is extremely disrespectful in a cemetery. When Pearl puts burrs on Hester’s ‘A’ it’s clear that Pearl recognizes the painful burden of constant visible sin. Hester, surprisingly, does not remove the burrs, which illuminates her difference from Reverend Dimmesdale: Hester does not shy away from guilt and bury it deep in her heart. Instead, Hester’s sin is permanently stuck on her chest, just like the burrs. Like the burrs, Hester and Pearl are complex and resilient as they work to balance the joys of life with constant judgement and condemnation from the Puritan