free to go wherever she wanted to and therefore change the outcome of her life in any way that
she chooses. I thought this analogy was very effective for this elf-child, and I can?t wait to see
what becomes of her in the next seven chapters.
CHAPTER 17- The Pastor and his Parishioner-
This chapter is one of my favorite because of the interview that Prynne and Dimmesdale
have in the forest. After breaking the ice Dimmesdale has his question about finding peace
turned back upon him to which he can only answer that he?s never found it. He also says that
the good deeds that he does only brings more misery. The pastor also relates that if he could
have only had his shame open to all people like in the form of the scarlet letter upon his breast,
he would be much better off. They comfort each other, Dimmesdale especially as Prynne tells
him of his enemy. Hawthorne also goes into how Chillingworth made the reverend go insane (In
my highlighted text on page 177) and how he alienated him from every thing that was Good and
True. The reverend reluctantly forgives Prynne after he realizes that it is not doing him any good
not to forgive and that it is only making him sicker. The reverend also realizes that Chillingworth
is more of a sinner than he is due to is vengeful actions and tearing his heart apart.
So with all of this burden off the reverend, yet with Chillingworth still around to cause him
pain, Prynne tells the reverend to run to a distant land where Chillingworth could never follow
him and under another name continue to do God?s work. But the reverend says ?I am powerless
to go!? Then the reverend said he could never venture out alone into the wide world at which
Prynne said and I quote, ?Who was talking about being alone?? I think they will now do what I
would have done from the start- ?run like hell,? which reminds me of a classic Pink Floyd song of
the same name which some of the lyrics are ?You better make your face up in your favorite
disguise/ With your button down hips and your rather blind eyes/ With your empty smile and your
hungry heart/ Feel the bile rising from your guilty past/ With your nerves in tatters as the
cockleshell shatters/ And the hammers batter down the door/ You better run.?
CHAPTER 18- A Flood of Sunshine-
Here Dimmesdale decides to go with Prynne out of this Puritan city where they dwell to
pursue a new life. Dimmesdale questions in ecstasy on page 185 why they hadn?t done this
sooner and Prynne takes the scarlet letter off and flings it close to the brook. I pity the man that
might find this bright colored decoration and be haunted with the former evil spirit of Hester
Prynne.
On page 186 it says that ?Love must always create a sun shine,? and for Prynne and
Dimmesdale, their sunshine is Pearl who seems to attract all of the animals. Dimmesdale
ponders if the young girl will accept him and love him, something the mother is sure of.
CHAPTER 19- The Child at the Brook-side-
I didn?t expect the child to act as it did in this chapter. It did not know it?s mother without
her scarlet letter and her head cap. And feeling threatened by the reverend, would not show him
any love. And when the reverend kissed her in an effort to be welcome in her heart, she ran to
wash it off in the brook.
I don?t think the relationship with these three will work. Something, somehow will go
wrong. I think Pearl will play a big part in it but it won?t be all her fault.
CHAPTER 20- The Minister in a Maze-
As the minister found his way back to town, his thoughts drifted from their escape plans
to how he could no longer be two different people. Hawthorne put it richly on page 197 by
writing, ?No man for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the
multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.? So as the minister walked
into town, he felt lighter and he saw every thing in a different light as well. He saw one of his
deacons and was tempted to spit forth blasphemous things but barely kept himself from it. He
also whispered some strange things in an old elderly woman?s ear about an argument against the
immorality of the human soul. He also encountered the witch Mistress Hibbins and he denied
being a satanic follower as she was convinced he was. Thus , he went through a maze of
different people in the town.
When he finally got home, Chillingworth asked him if he needed any aid before his big
election speech. The reverend graciously declined, yet Chillingworth could tell that he knew that
they were enemies.
CHAPTER 21- The New England Holiday-
This chapter spent way too much time describing the election party and it terribly bored
me to death. At the end of the chapter we see the captain of the boat talking with Chillingworth
and then the captain of the boat tells Prynne that Chillingworth will be riding with them. I predict
that all three of them will somehow, some way stay in the puritan town and none of them run
from their shame.
CHAPTER 22- The Procession-
This chapter was a little better. The crowd gathers and watches as all of the high
officials and such walk in with the reverend. The reverend walks in such a different style as he
ever has that even Prynne doubts that it is the same person of whom she conferred with by the
side of the brook. The witch-Mistress Hibbins tells Prynne that he looks different too- not the
same guy of religious piety, but more of a follower of the devil who has some sins, yet Prynne
denies that she knows of any thing that she speaks.
As Prynne is listening to the speech, Pearl goes and plays in the market place with all
the people and everybody seems to think she is darling. The captain of the boat tells her to tell
her mom that Chillingworth is planning on taking the minister on the boat with him. Mobs of
newcomers stare at the infamous scarlet letter on Prynne?s bosom and it evokes much shame,
and Dimmesdale overlooking thinks to himself that nobody would imagine that they were both
one in the same.
CHAPTER 23- The Revelation-
The reverend finished his election sermon and the crowd went wild, for they were all
touched with the holy spirit at that moment. They thought of him as a saint and when they saw
him stumble into the procession, they figured that it was his holiness that was drained from him
and distributed throughout the people that made him weak. But it was his revelation that he was
about to give that made him tremble so.
Dimmesdale called Prynne and Pearl close to him and went up o the scaffold to disclose
his sin in front of the people. At this Chillingworth puts forth one last effort to try to stop him from
doing it, but he was too late… the reverend would not be stopped. He told of his sin and died up
there.
What I really liked in the dialog between Prynne and Dimmesdale up there was when
Prynne asked him if they shall spend their immortal life together. To this the reverend replied
that when they forgot God by violating the reverence for each of their soul?s, that it was in vain to
ever seek a heavenly reunion. (Page 233 pink highlight.) This hit me because it seemed that
that was the only thing that they wanted after they were to leave the puritan city, but it never
came true because God didn?t want it to be in the first place.
CHAPTER 24- Conclusion-
There were many theories on the origin of the scarlet A on Dimmesdale?s breast when he
strewn his clothes on the scaffold. Some say that it had been there ever since Prynne was first
publicly humiliated. Others say that it only appeared after Chillingworth began to torment him.
Still others believe that it had grown outward from his heart as he kept his unholy secret. I won?t
comment on which I believe it to be because it could have been a combination of all three for all
I?m concerned. This ending chapter also tells how Chillingworth just withered up and died, being
that he had no one else to torture. But in his will he left Pearl a great deal of land abroad where
it was heard that the child got married and lived happily ever after. It is said that Prynne went
with her, then returned a short time after. Her door was marked with a sign that practically told of
whom lived there.
I think this was an excellent book and I?m really glad I read it. I think I learned from it,
being that it is better to wear your shame than to hide it. It was beautifully written, it was
dramatic and very climatic. I enjoyed this summer reading assignment even though I would
have preferred to have done it during the regular school year.
Scarlet Letter Reading Log
?Thus marks another Brandon Moeller masterpiece.?