Chapters 11-14

Chapters 11-14

11. The Interior of the Heart
12. The Minister's Vigil
13. Another View of Hester
14. Hester and the Physician

Chillingworth comes to the conclusion that Dimmesdale is the true father of Pearl, and thusly beings to torture the young reverend. Dimmesdale also tortures himself both physically and mentally, spending long nights in prayer and vast amounts of time in fasting. The people of Dimmesdale’s congregation favor him a holy man due to his sermons being so truthful and moving. The sermons are this way due to Dimmesdale’s own personal experiences in sin and guilt.

One night, Dimmesdale finds himself standing atop the scaffold where Hester was made to stand before the town years before. Here, he has a mental breakdown and begins shrieking out at whoever passes by. Eventually, Hester and Pearl come by on their return from Governor Winthrop’s deathbed, and are coaxed into joining him on the scaffold. There, the three hold hands. Pearl asks whether the minister will join them there during the day with all the townspeople watching, to which Dimmesdale replies, ‘no’. At this point, a meteor falls from the sky, leaving a streak across the sky and illuminating all around them. To Dimmesdale, it appears as the letter ‘A’. Chillingworth arrives in the marketplace and convinces Dimmesdale to return home.

Over the long years that Hester has worn the Scarlet Letter, she has worked tirelessly in serving others and taking the most awful and lowest insults that the villagers apply to her. In this time, however, the meaning of the ‘A’ has almost completely gone from ‘adulteress’ to the meaning of ‘able’, thus changing the towns view of Hester. Hester has also become very stern and hardened both in appearance and in manner during her long years of being out-casted from society. Hester sees that Dimmesdale is in serious turmoil, and begins planning to aid him in his sorrows.

Hester goes to Chillingworth to discuss the matter of revealing his ture identity to Dimmesdale. However, when he sees her, Chillingworth remarks that some of the Puritan leaders are considering the possibility of allowing her to remove the ‘A’ from her chest. To this she replies that she will only remove the letter when she is worthy and it has fallen off of its own accord. At this point, Hester notices Chillingworth’s darkened, evil appearance. Chillingworth admits to his becoming a ‘fiend’. Finally, Hester tells Chillingworth of her plans to reveal his true identity in an attempt to free Dimmesdale from some of his sorrows.