Ch a pter 8 TURNING POINT

2. Chapter 8 TURNING POINT • Chillingworth notices how much Pearl resembles Dimmesdale • Chillingworth is now convinced that Dimmesdale is the father • Chillingworth now thinks he knows who he must seek revenge against and kill.

3. Chapter 9: “The Leech” Warning! Close your eyes if you’re squeamish! • Literally, leeches are animals that have been used medicinally for thousands of years. • Leeches suck blood out of flesh. They fill up on the blood until they are engorged. • “Leech” was a nickname used for doctors. • Symbolically, Chillingworth is a leech because he is trying to suck the life and soul out of Dimmesdale.

4. Main Points • Chillingworth is revered for his skills as a physician; Dimmesdale is revered for his sermons that grow stronger each Sunday, even though his health deteriorates each day • The townspeople beg Dimmesdale to take Chillingworth as his physician, and the reverend finally accepts • Chillingworth grows suspicious of Dimmesdale’s unexpected deteriorating health • The two begin to live in the same house • The townspeople notice a big change in Chillingworth’s appearance and begin to gossip that either Satan or Satan’s emissary has now resided along with their godly Reverend Dimmesdale and fear for their pastor.

5. Chapter 10: “The Leech and His Patient” • Chillingworth is digging for the truth from Dimmesdale. • Chillingworth has been gathering herbs that grow from unmarked graves. • Dimmesdale refuses the medicines Chillingworth prepares for him • Dimmesdale believes if God has determined it is his time to die, then that is God’s will. • Chillingworth and Dimmesdale discuss the nature of guilt and secret sin. • Hester and Pearl walk by. Pearl puts burrs on Hester’s ‘A’ and throws a burr at Dimmesdale. She is connecting Dimmesdale with Hester. • Pearl calls Chillingworth “The Black Man” – the devil. She knows her mother has already been taken by him. • Chillingworth urges Dimmesdale to share his guilt, but the latter refuses. • Dimmesdale admits that Hester is better off than her secret lover, for he believes it is “better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as [Hester], than to cover it all up in his heart” (124). • Chillingworth “unravels” the truth.

8. SYMBOLISM • Dimmesdale is constantly placing his hand over his heart. • This LITERALLY suggests physical pain. • This SYMBOLIZES: • he is hiding a secret • he is suffering internally

9. Important Quotations • Pearl has “the freedom of a broken law.” • Chillingworth sees Hester and says to Dimmesdale, “‘There goes a woman … who … hath none of that mystery of hidden sinfulness…Is [she] less miserable…for that scarlet letter on her breast?”

10. Main Points continued • Dimmesdale was asleep • Chillingworth snuck in and opened his shirt • Chillingworth saw something on Dimmesdale’s chest that made him do a dance of “ecstasy”. • What might he have seen to make him so happy?

12. Literary Techniques • Herbs symbolize “some hideous secret that was to be buried with him” (135). • The heart is personified as a being needing to make a choice to confess (136). • Pearl calls Chillingworth “The Black Man” – symbolism of the devil. • Pearl is characterized as oddly intuitive. • Chillingworth is metaphoricallycharacterized as a “miner searching for gold.”

13. Chapter 11- “The Interior of a Heart” HIS SERMONS IRONY His congregation believes he is the most holy, most religious minister His sermons are amazing Dimmesdale is a sinner, therefore he understands the life of a sinner and can preach about it from the heart • Dimmesdale “achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office” • All of his sermons hinted at his own sins but he never confessed outwardly • Townspeople thought he was too godly and were humbled by him • They deemed Dimmesdale to be “a miracle of holiness” • Dimmesdale tried to confess but never could • The townspeople, upon hearing him speak boldly about his own wrongdoings, did nothing more but revere him all the more. Dimmesdale doubles his sin He now uses his guilt to improve his sermons. He likes how much the congregation adores him, and he enjoys the attention.

14. Private torture • We find out that he whips himself with a scourge, keeps vigils each night, and fasts—all of which have led to his deteriorating health • His physical punishment along with his guilt is literally killing him. • He finally realized he could do something about his guilt…

15. THE SECOND SCAFFOLD SCENE Chapter 12: “The Minister’s Vigil”

16. Literal vs. FigurativeEx: The sky rained down tears of joy Literal – What the narrator is stating on the surface. Figurative- Literary elements and techniques that reveal a deeper meaning below the surface. The sky is personified as crying to represent the sadness felt by the characters in the scene. • It is raining.

17. The Second Scaffold Scene Literally what happened: • Dimmesdale ascends the scaffold • He wants to tell the truth of his secret • Gov. Bellingham hears Dimmesdale’s shrieks and cries, but does not realize who it is. • Mistress Hibbins hears the cries as well and believes it is the other witches in the forest. • Rev. John Wilson walks home from Gov. Winthrop’s deathbed and does not see Dimmesdale on the scaffold.

18. Literal Continued… • Hester and Pearl arrive on the scene. • Dimmesdale, Pearl and Hester stand on the scaffold. • Pearl wants the minister to stand at noon tomorrow on the scaffold. • He says he will stand on judgment day.

19. What’s in the sky? • A meteor appears, and Dimmesdale thinks it looks like an ‘A’ in the sky.

20. Literal continued… • Dimmesdale states, “I tell thee my soul shivers at him!” This shows fear of this man. • Pearl points at Chillingworth who is at the scene. • Dimmesdale reluctantly goes with his torturer back to their home.

21. Literal continued… • What article of clothing is left from the night before on the scaffold that belongs to Dimmesdale? • Dimmesdale’s glove is found at the scaffold by a Sexton/gravedigger

22. Literal ended • Gov. Winthrop died that night. • People in the town think the meteor was for the governor.

23. Figuratively what happens • Mistress Hibbins hears Dimmesdale’s screams in the night as “night hags” and sinners: This symbolically reveals Dimmesdale as a sinner since she mistakes his cries for those of witches’ cries.

24. Figuratively Continued… • “A pure hand needs no glove.” A person who tells the truth need not to hide anything. • Proof that Dimmesdale was on the scaffold the night before. • The Puritans think that the devil put the gloves there to frame Dimmesdale. It is ironic because he is not pure and they are his.

25. Figurative continued… • “The Minister’s Vigil,” (a vigil is a watch kept at night), the title of the chapter, symbolizes Dimmesdale looking over his own sin.

26. Figurative Continued… • Gov. Winthrop dies and is made an angel…without his death Hester would never have found Dimmesdale on the scaffold…so therefore Winthrop was an angel connecting the two.

27. Symbolism • A=Has meant adultery up until this point, but now it symbolizes angel. • Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale= the holy trinity/family. IRONY

29. Symbolism • Noontide= Truth is out for all to see in the light • 2nd scaffold=Family reunion of sins • Chillingworth=Revenge/The Devil • Meteor – Nature Symbolism representing each individual’s sins/needs.

30. Themes • “The truth being revealed is inevitable” • “The truth can set a soul free” • “The desire for revenge can become an obsession”

31. The end of Chapter 12 Review Questions to ponder: What is Chillingworth thinking of when he arrives at the second scaffold scene? Will Dimmesdale step up onto the scaffold at noontide and appease Pearl?

33. DO NOW: Copy quotation and respond to it. What does it mean? What personal experience does it make you think of? Can you connect any other books, films, movies to it? • “It is remarkable that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society” (Hawthorne 171).