Chapters 13 & 14

1. Chapters 13 & 14 By: Fernanda Garcia-Juarez Keyla Young

2. Summary • It has been seven years since Pearl’s birth. The reader is able to tell that Hester has become more active in society like sending food to the poor and nursing the sick. The people in Boston believe that Hester’s charitable behaviors are the result of the scarlet letter system working properly, but in reality that’s just who she is. Hester finds herself changing. She went from being a tender and passionate woman to a bare harsh outline of her former self. She starts to think about the harm she may be causing minister Dimmesdaleby keeping Chillingworth’s identity secret.

3. Summary Continued • When Hester approaches Chillingworth, he says Hester may be able to remove her scarlet letter, but Hester says it cannot be removed by human authority, only divine providence will make it fall from her chest. After their conversation, Chillingworth discovers that Dimmesdale was Hester’s lover. After hearing the news, Chillingworth changed from a human being to a mortal man who had lost his human heart. In the chapters the reader is able to see that Hester is able to fully accept the scarlet letter as her identity and she believes that her soul salvations are between her and God, no one else.

4. Themes • Truth will set you free. • What’s done in the dark comes to the light. • Identity has become a major theme in these chapters because Hester’s identity depends on how she portrays herself and how she is viewed by the townspeople.

5. Symbols and Color • The “A” Pearl made out of the eelgrass she gathered represents the fact the she knows that there is some secret being hidden behind her mother’s scarlet letter. • Hester’s scarlet letter represents her identity and what she has become. • Chillingworth’s grey beard represents the hatred consuming him. • Grey- represents Chillingworth • Green may sometimes represents everyone finally accepting Hester and her sin.

6. Narrative Voice • The narrator has also accepted Hester’s sin, not that he is necessarily okay with it, but has come into terms with her as a person and who she has become.

7. Irony • The fact that Chillingworth later claims to be evil but still nurses the minister to health. • Hester was once a “brazen hussy” and she has now transformed, as has the complete meaning of the scarlet letter that she carries on her chest. • In the beginning Hester was not going to let the scarlet letter change her identity, but in the end the scarlet letter became her new identity.

8. QUIZ • What did Hester do to give back to society? • How did Chillingworth feel when he found out that Dimmesdale was Hester’s lover? • What did the scarlet letter symbolize for Hester? • If you were Hester, would you tell Chillingworth the truth about your lover being Dimmesdale? Why or why not? • Who do you think Hester cares more about? Dimmesdale or Chillingworth?