Ch.9 – The Leech

1. Ch.9 – The Leech • What is a leech? • Relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale – R. Chillingworth represents science and Dimmesdale represents spirituality. • D’s illness is a outward result of an inward condition – the only cure is confession • D understands that he is a symbol of something larger than himself (like Hester) and the community depends on him, i.e. piety and goodness • Confessing would mean healing himself at the expense of the community

2. Ch.9 – The Leech • R.C. sent by Heaven? In the beginning of chapter • R.C. described as a miner, digging ever deeper in search of treasure. • Decorative rugs on the wall tell the stories of David and Bathsheba and Nathan the Prophet. • After moving in with D, people begin to question R.C.’s identity. • By end of chapter, people begin to wonder if D is being “haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth.” (p. 124/p.132)

3. Ch.10 – The Leech & His Patient • R.C. digs into the soul of D. • Unsightly plants that grow from the unmarked grave = opens the door to conversation on unconfessed sin • As they speak, they hear Pearl playing in the graveyard. Pearl skips “irreverently from one grave to another.” She stands in contrast to D and R.C. They represent authority; she does not respect authority or societal “rules.” • Pearl covers the scarlet letter with burrs, which literalizes Hester’s pain. She seems to have a more complex understanding of the human condition than either of the experts (spiritual or physical.) • She also warns that the “Black Man” already has the minister.

4. Ch.10 – The Leech & His Patient • R.C. finally gets aggressive, telling D that he knows the cause of his illness has to do with a spiritual problem. He asks D to confess, but D refuses to confess to “an earthly physician” and storms out. They later become friends again and R.C. goes on like nothing has changed. • While D is asleep, R.C pulls his shirt back and sees a…WHAT WAS IT!?!?! And why was Chillingworth so gleeful about it?

5. Ch.11 – The Interior of a Heart • R.C. tortures D. with “a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” (p. 136/p.144) Wow, that sounds bad! • Example of Romanticism: “As at the waving of a magician’s wand, uprose a grisly phantom, -- uprose a thousand phantoms, -- in many shapes, of death, or more awful shame, all flocking round about the clergyman, and pointing with their fingers at his breast!” (p.136-7/p.145)

6. Ch.11 – The Interior of a Heart • D begins to mistrust R.C., but since he can’t figure out why, he ignores it and blames this feeling on his guilt. This mounting guilt causes his sermons to get even better because he is “addressing the whole human brotherhood in the heart’s native language.” (p.138/p.147) • Allusion – “I, whose daily life you discern with the sanctity of Enoch…” (p.140/p.148) – from Genesis: story says that God loved Enoch so much that He took him to Heaven before he died – D is saying that he is not the man they think he is.

7. Ch.11 – The Interior of a Heart • General attempts at vague confession in the pulpit only make the congregation love him more. • Self-torture: bloody scourge, vigils, fasting • Visions: H pointing at her scarlet letter and then at his chest. • He knows he is delusional but is so wrought with guilt that he believes nothing is real and the only thing real is his pain and suffering. • During a vigil, he seizes upon an idea to end his suffering.

8. Ch.12 – The Minister’s Vigil • Second scaffold scene!!! D becomes consciously aware of the pain on his chest • Gov. Winthrop’s death: a founder of Mass. Bay Colony, responsible for Puritan society. He represents a strict adherence to Puritan ideals. His death shows that strict observance of Puritan rules is no longer necessary to ensure the colony’s survival. • D. fantasizes what it would be like if everyone awoke to find him on the scaffold.

9. Ch.12 – The Minister’s Vigil • Scaffold shows a contrast between Hester’s public torments and his inner anguish. • When D holds Hester and Pearl’s hands, “the three formed an electric chain” giving the minister a “tumultuous rush of new life.” (p. • Meteor: God sees them holding hands as a family. At least, that’s what D thinks. He thinks he sees it in the shape of an A. He thinks it is a symbol of his own sin, as though God were trying to expose him to the entire world.

10. Ch.12 – The Minister’s Vigil • Meteor: the community sees it as a message from God commemorating the life of Gov. Winthrop and proclaiming him to be an angel. • For the Puritans, any “natural phenomena that occurred with less regularity than the rise and set of the sub and moon” gets interpreted as supernatural warning. (p.151/p.160) • Description of R.C. is devilish. D doesn’t recognize him and tells Hester, “I hate him, Hester!...I have a nameless horror of the man!” (p.153/p.162)

11. Ch.12 – The Minister’s Vigil • More hypocrisy: D's sermons against sin get more powerful as his own sins increase, and the Puritans continue to be blind to the sinning in their midst. • Irony: Church sexton returns D’s glove found on the scaffold and says the devil put it there to taunt D’s reverence. He says, “A pure heart needs no glove to cover it!” (p.155/p.164)