Ch 20 Minister in a Maze

1. Ch 20 Minister in a Maze • Hester, Dimmesdale and Pearl will escape to their new life in 4 days. • On the 3rd day – Dimmesdale is scheduled to give a sermon on election day. He is pleased with himself; he will have the opportunity to perform “a public duty” before he leaves or before the congregation discovers the secret he has hidden these last seven years. Think about what this says about Dimmesdale’s true nature • Important quote that relates to the theme of being true to yourself: “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 the true.”

2. The holy minister sows seeds of doubt • In a fit of madness, delusion or a “subtle disease , that had long since begun to eat into the real substance of his character, Dimmesdale is tempted with an impulse of something “wicked” and it would be “ at once involuntary and intentional” • He behaves in an odd manner; wants to plant seeds of sin in the members of his congregation. Know some of these examples. Good fodder for the Fakebook page • Dimmesdale thinks perhaps he has sold himself to the prince of darkness – “tempted by a dream of happiness”

3. Ch 21 The New England Holiday- Ch 22 The Procession • Both of these chapters go into mainly the dress, attire, and crowd mentality of the Puritans for these holy holidays. • The sound rhythm of these chapters builds tension for the final conflict. Find examples to use on the test.

4. Ch 23 – The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter • Dimmesdale walks in procession with the others and is weaker and paler than before • “How feeble and pale he looked amid all his triumph!” • “It seemed hardly the face of a man alive, with such a deathlike hue; it was hardly a man with life in him” • As Dimmesdale reaches the scaffold, he calls to Pearl, “Come hither! Come,my little Pearl!”

5. Message from God • Hester, though shocked joins them • Chillingworth tries to stop them – “Do not blacken your fame, and perish in dishonor! I can save you! Would you bring infamy on your sacred profession?” • Dying, Dimmesdale is inspired to clear his conscious and save his soul. He confesses before the community on the scaffold where Hester once stood with Pearl in her arms.

6. Last Words • Dimmesdale rips open his garment and shows the multitudes his A, falls over in Hester’s arms • Chillingworth kneels down beside him and repeats, “Thou hast escaped me! Thou hast escaped me!” • “May God forgive thee!” said the minister. “Thou, too, hast deeply sinned!” • “dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now?” A spell is broken. • Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold in final acceptance of his sin; his punishment (too little, too late)

7. Ch 24 Conclusion • “Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, A Scarlet Letter, the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne, imprinted in the flesh.” • Others thought it was the magic of Roger Chillingworth • Yet, others whispered it was the “tooth of guilt gnawing outward from deep in his heart”

8. Deniers • There were those that believed he allowed himself to die in Hester’s arms to impress on his admirers that we are all sinners! • They saw no mark on the holy minister’s chest • Among many moral which press upon us from the poor ministers miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: “Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”

9. Chillingworth • Almost immediately after Dimmesdale’s death, Chillingworth experiences a remarkable change: “all his vital and intellectual force – seemed at once to desert him” • “he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun.” Think back to the discussion between the minister and his physician that began with the weeds growing around the cemetary • He had nothing left to live for - he died within the year and “bequeathed a very consider amount of property to Pearl”

10. Pearl and Hester • Pearl become a wealthy woman • She and Hester disappeared about the time she inherited the property • There was evidence that Pearl had married and had a child • The story of the scarlet letter became a legend • Many years later a “tall woman in a gray robe” moved back into the cottage at the edge of the forest

11. Hester • After she had raised Pearl and returned to Boston – she replaced the symbol of her ignominy back on her chest. • The scarlet letter “ceased to be a stigma” and was “looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too” • She counseled with women – “ wounded, wasted, wronged or misplaced, or erring and sinful passion”

12. R.I.P. • Hester was buried next to Arthur Dimmesdale “yet, with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle.” • There was one tombstone shared by both graves with a “brief description of our now concluded legend: “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”