*Tale of Two Cities--Week Three.

In the preface of “Monseigneur in the Country,” the reader is divulged into imagery of a desolate countryside, deplete of vegetation. The repetition of “poor patches” of vegetation reinforces the image of the lack of food the country faces. to reiterate the poor conditions the people face, Dickens then depicts the “crimson” glow of the sun upon “the occupant”, the Marquis. The red glow upon the Marquis foreshadows the upcoming war, along with the cause of the war being the dichotomy between the “high breeding” and the “poor.” When the Marquis ran over a child, he tried to buy the child’s father’s forgiveness by simply throwing a “coin” at him. The instance of …. Is again shown when the Marquis comes upon a woman who “petitions” the Marquis to place a “morsel of stone or wood with [her] husband’s name” upon the “heap of grass” in which her husband is buried under, for each of the mounds of grass looks the same, and the woman cannot tell which mound of grass contains her husband. The indistinguishable “puffs of grass” symbolize how the wealthy viewed the less fortunate- each one the same, and not worthy of help, shown by the Marquis as he rode off in a “brisk trot” leaving the woman “far behind.”

The color red is spotted again, as the “water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood” and the “stone faces” in the Marquis house “crimsoned.” The reference to red and “blood” not only foreshadows the war, but also the death of the Marquis. One could say that karma strikes the Marquis, as he is found dead. A reference to “stone faces” is mentioned multiple times in “Gorgon’s Head” which symbolizes the “stone” personality of the Marquis towards others, and what the Marquis ultimately turns into.

When Charles Darnay, the Marquis nephew, enters into his home, Darnay decides that when the home is renounced to him, he will “abandon it” and live “otherwise and elsewhere.” Darnay, unlike the Marquis, understands the true value of wealth, and understands it is not associated with money. Darnay finds the home to be a “crumbling tower of waste, mismanagement, extortion, debt, mortgage, oppression, hunger, nakedness, and suffering” – the opposite of what most would correlate with a wealthy home. Darnay believes in “labour” rather than “gold” and “beds of roses” to prosper. Does Darnay truly have strong morals or is there an alternative reason for him giving up his inheritance, perhaps Miss Manette?

Ending the chapter, the Marquis, referred to as a “stone figure”, was a “knife” driven “into the heart.” Upon the knife, was a “frill of paper” in which a note was scrawled, “Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.” The reader assumes that perhaps Darnay is a member of “Jacques”, who killed the Marquis, which foreshadows the upcoming war, brought upon by the members of “Jacques.”

Not only has the reader found out the nexus between Charles Darnay and his association with Jacques and the Marquis, but now the reader unearths the discovery that Charles Darnay is not his real name. When Charles tries to tell Dr. Manette his real name, Dr. Manette gets weird acting, like previously when the word “DIG” is brought up. When Lucie comes home, Dr. Manette and herself “walked up and down together for a long time” and later found all of Dr. Manette’s “shoemaking tools” out, which means that Dr. Manette had another relapse of his previous state of mind.

As the love triangle between Lucie, Carton, Stryver, and Darnay becomes more convoluted, the reader gains more knowledge of Lucie’s personality. Lucie’s main mission in the book thus far was to aid in the recovery of her father and “recall him to life.” The motif is again used in chapter 13, “The Fellow of No Delicacy” when Lucie must “recall” Carton back “to life.” As the motif was originally meant to denote the “business” that the men were in such as digging up bodies for money, the motif now takes on a different meaning. Perhaps Lucie is a character that must “recall” characters back to life, from the doubts and regret the characters have in their life.

The title of chapter 14, “The Honest Tradesman,” is ironic due to the fact that the reader finally discovers the true business that Jerry Cruncher is involved with. Thus far, the novel has been replete with foreshadowing of what Jerry Cruncher’s true business association is. When Jerry’s son follows Mr. Cruncher and three other men out during the night, the reader discovers that the men “dug” up bodies from the ground. Returning home, “Young Jerry” then asks Mr. Cruncher what a “Resurrection-Man” is, and what one does. Mr. Cruncher replies saying that they deal with “scientific goods” foreshadowing the true business of Mr. Cruncher- which is “digging” up people’s bodies and selling them to science for money. One mystery that still remains is who are the three men with Mr. Cruncher?

*Tale of Two Cities--Week Two.

As a Tale of Two Cities progresses, more secrets, clues, and mysteries begin to unravel. Commencing the plot of this week’s reading in a court room, a man named Charles Darnay is accused of treason in that he supposedly administered information from the English King onto the French King. Being a witness, both Miss Manette and Mr. Manette along with Mr. Lorry were questioned, and said that both had seen Mr. Darnay on the train. Was Mr. Darnay one of the passengers that was in the train in chapter one?

The court room provided a sort of “entertainment” for the town, as if it were a “play in the Old Bailey.” The violence and inhumanness that the town portrays is depicted through the description and imagery that Dickens uses when exemplifying the personality the people have towards court cases. Not only do the court cases serve as entertainment, but if the suspect was found innocent, or if there was any chance that the suspect “stood in peril of a less horrible sentence,” the onlookers lost interest. Each person was only there for the “ogreish” sentence to see someone “butchered and torn asunder.” Violence and the slaughter of mankind was a pastime, so to speak, for the English people, again reiterating the harsh crime and punishment which led England into a revolution.

Dickens expresses his opinion of the sadistic English behavior upon criminals with a “disease” that occurs within the courtroom. The diseases were claimed to have “came into the court with the prisoners” and affected the “Lord Chief Justice himself.” The whole courtroom was a “disease” along with the people in it- a contagious “morbid condition of the mind” that consisted of the pleasure society felt from the vulgar treatment—as if the “entertainment” the people had towards it fueled the disease as it soon started infecting everyone.

Continuing on, Darnay is found “acquitted” which is where chapter three gets its title “Disappointment”; disappointment that the “ogreish” society does not get to see someone be “quartered”, “butchered”, or torn apart, the people then had to go on as “baffled blue flies dispersing in search of other carrion.” One man testifying, Roger Cly, who had worked for Darnay, and also the other witness testifying had known Darnay, but was “merely a coincidence”, and not a “peculiar coincidence.” The obviousness the two men portray oddly represents mysteriousness- as if the two men worked with Darnay in whatever scheme he was a part of.

The reader soon starts speculating whether another man is in on Darnay’s plans, as the character of Sydney Carton is introduced. Sydney makes unusual comments such as “it’s not so long ago since you were pretty far advanced on your way to another “making it sound as if Carton has a part in Darnay’s past such as saving him from getting the death sentence previously. At the end of chapter 4, Carton speaks to himself in a mirror, pondering whether he is envious of Darnay since he reminds Carton of what he has “fallen away from, what [he] might have been!” The very last sentence creates an image of Carton with his “hair straggling over the table” and a “long winding-sheet in the candle dripping down upon him.” The winding sheet signifies the “death” that Carton feels towards himself, being unhappy with the choices he has made in his life and where he has ended up.

In Chapter 5, Sydney Carton is referred to as a “Jackal,” which refers to “a person who performs dishonest or base deeds as the follower or accomplice of another” (dictionary.com). The importance of Carton being referred to as a jackal belittles Carton’s reputation, illustrating how Carton caters to the wants of Mr. Stryver, a “lion.” Mr. Stryver being a “lion” attributes to the power that he obtains over Carton.

The “business” that Mr. Lorry always speaks of multiple times begins to make the reader wonder if perhaps he is covering up for alternative matters that he is involved with, especially in chapter 6. Mr. Lorry speaks of having “business” with Doctor Manette “many years ago.” In the middle of the night, the business that Dr. Manette was a part of is haunts him, for he “gets up in the dead of night” and will “walk up and down” in his room. The repetition of “walking up and down” adds effect to the anxiousness that Dr. Manette exhibits. The reader then unearths the discovery of the word “DIG” engraved upon a jail cell, in which the mere discussion of this makes Mr. Manette uncomfortable. Does Mr. Manette have something to do with the word inscribed upon the wall? Does the “business” spoken of from Mr. Lorry deal with more than what he is letting on?

In the conclusion of chapter 6, the reader understands a deeper meaning of the title “Hundreds of People.” As the “rain drops” fell, “large” and “heavy,” the drops sounded like “a multitude of people” that were “in a great hurry in the streets speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke.” Being that no one was truly there, the rain sounding like people scrambling about symbolizes the upcoming war. The question asked if the “footsteps destined to come to all of us, or are [they] to divide them among [themselves]” and the last sentence of depicting how the men might “see the great crowd of people with its rush and roar bearing upon them” makes the reader wonder if perhaps the war is because of this group of people? A remark was then made by Mr. Lorry that the night could have brought “the dead out of their graves” an evident foreshadowing and clue into the true “business” the men perform.

*Tale of Two Cities--Week One

Before one begins reading Tale of Two Cities, By Charles Dickens, one must first have an understanding of what was going on pre-French Revolution. Before the French Revolution, the country of France was in a period where monarchy had corrupted which caused social and political upheaval. At the time, Louis XVI was king, but had run into a financial crisis, which weakened much of France. France “rolled with exceeding smoothness downhill” when it came to spending money, and also practicing inhumane treatments such as “sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive.” England, on the other hand, also could not “justify much national boasting” as “burglaries took place in the capital itself every night.”

With knowledge of the hardships of the two countries, the reader is introduced with a contradictory statement “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” the first ten lines of the story provide insight that even though there is “wisdom,” there is also “foolishness.” Although a country has “hope,” a country will also be filled with times of “despair.” Also, in times of “light”, comes times of “darkness.” Dickenson, through the technique of poetic lines and repetition, shows the dichotomy that each country, along with good times, will experience times of hardship.

To aid in the eerie tone of the novel, Dickenson creates an image with “steaming mist” that covers the air “like an evil spirit” that was “dense enough to shut out everything from the light.” The darkness that Dickenson creates adds to the tone and adds to the element of a gothic novel. In chapter three, Mr. Lorry depicts a town with “darkly clustered houses” in which each house and person encloses its own “secrets” and “mysteries.” Lorry also speaks of death and the mystery that goes along with death, again contributing to that of a gothic novel.

In chapter five, the reader is brought into a town in Paris on a “narrow street” where “red wine” had spilt and “stained the ground.” Being of a poor town, each person stopped in the midst of what he or she was doing to drink the spilt wine off of the ground. The frantic scurry for tasting a single drop of wine not only contributes to the poverty stricken tone of France, but the wine itself shows symbolism. The wine being “red” contributes to a connotation of blood, which adds effect to the turmoil that France is dealing with before the French Revolution, as the “time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones” foreshadowing the war that France is soon to encounter, in which “the stain of it would be red upon many there.”

Another clue to the foreshadowing of the war and also to add to the tone of an unprosperous community, is in the town on each shops there were merely “grim illustrations of Want.” The diction of “Want” being capitalized shows how important “wants” are to the people and how badly the people wished for more than what each obtained.

Also in chapter 5, when Mr. Lorry and Miss Monette enter the wine shop and men are speaking to the owner, Monsieur Defarge, the men refer to each other as “Jacques.” Jacques Necker was a French statesman who helped with finances while Louis XVI was king, during the time that this book took place. Jacques is known as being an affluent man during this time period, and would have became controller of finances if he was not protestant. However, because of his affluent reputation, the men referring to each other by “Jacques” shows how each of the men think they are of higher standards and more prosperous than others in the community.

In chapter 3, Mr. Lorry dreams of a “white haired man” who had died and been buried, and it was Mr. Lorry’s duty to dig the man out. The reader learns later on that Mr. Manette has white hair, and is in a condition much like the man that Mr. Lorry dreamt of, which makes the reader wonder if perhaps the man in the dream is Mr. Manette. The girl that is referred to in the dream must be Miss Manette, Mr. Manette’s daughter. The idea is confirmed more so later on when the real life meeting of Mr. Manette and Miss Manette happens much like Mr. Lorry’s dream, where Mr. Manette is confused as to who his daughter is. Lorry then feels as if he has to “dig” the man out, foreshadowing that Lorry feels as if it is his duty to help Mr. Manette “dig” him out of the emotional state he is in.

Repetition is used many times throughout the reading thus far, which aids in the ability for the reader to see the problems in both countries. The first occurrence of repetition the reader sees, is of the word “now” followed by problems in the country such as “hanging up criminals” and “burning people…by the dozen.” In Chapter three, “digging” is seen multiple times in Mr. Lorry’s dream to metaphorically show how Mr. Lorry must “dig” for the truth. The phrase “worse than useless” is used later on in the story, which again adds to the negative events taking place during this time.

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Six.

As The Scarlet Letter comes to an ending, the characters are again brought back into the scene at the beginning of the novel- the scaffold. Contrary to before, this time at the scaffolding is a day of celebration, as Election Day begins with the “harmony of drum and clarion” and people celebrating all around. Hester is dressed in the same “clad garment of coarse gray and cloth” just as she has been “for seven years past.” Hester’s clothing “had the effect of making her fade personally out of sight and outline; while, again, the scarlet letter brought her back from this twilight indistinctness” and makes the reader wonder, yet again, why Hester wears clothing that makes the A look more apparent? Not until the end does the reader fully understand why Hester insists on wearing the scarlet letter and making it stand out. When Pearl leaves Hester and Hester is left to live by herself in the forest, she still continues to wear the letter, even though Dimmesdale has confessed and Hester could have taken the letter off long ago. Hester was the strongest character in the novel, as she portrayed self-confidence in not trying to be anything that she wasn’t. Hester was the only character in the story that lived up to who she truly was, therefore the A became a part of who she was. Without the A, Hester would be left with “bitterness wherewith she had been drugged, as with a cordial of intensest potency.” The metaphor used to compare “wine of life” with the scarlet letter shows how Hester would be left “bitter” without the letter, as the A is what has made Hester who she is.

The theme of night and day/ light and darkness is associated with Dimmesdale and Hester’s relationship. At nighttime, first on the scaffolding, and then later on in the forest, is the only time that Dimmesdale and Hester are truly happy with each other—when in a completely isolated area. During the daylight, Dimmesdale “seemed so remote from her own sphere, and utterly beyond her reach.” During the daylight, Hester missed the “dim forest, with its little dell of solitude, and love, and aguish, where sitting hand in hand, they had mingled their sad and passionate talk.” The darkness is the only time the two can truly be happy, because Hester and Dimmesdale are isolated from the view of the public, where they are concealed from the sin each committed. However, when in the daylight, the entire world is looking upon each one and not only the sin they committed, but the sin they are afraid to admit.

Dimmesdale’s appearance had “exhibited such energy he was seen in the gait and hair with which he kept his pace in the procession. There was no feebleness of step, as at other times; his frame was not bent; nor did his hand rest ominously upon his heart.” However, Dimmesdale’s change in appearance was “not of the body”, but was rather because of “spiritual” reasonings, foreshadowing the confession of Dimmesdale. After Dimmesale’s “best speech”, he stands upon the scaffolding with Hester and Pearl and finally confesses his sin. After the confession, Pearl finally gives Dimmesdale his long awaited kiss, symbolizing that Pearl is free of her “demonic” ways after the truth has finally been told.

Chillingworth continues to exhibit the personality of “The Black Man” as Dimmesdale tries to confess and Chillingworth attempts to convince Dimmesdale by guilting him with the threat that he will “bring infamy on [his] sacred profession.” Chillingworth isn’t stopping Dimmesdale from confessing for his own good, but because Chillingworth doesn’t want to be embarrassed. Also, without being able to aid Dimmesdale, Chillingworth is no longer classified as a “leech”; therefore, Chillingworth dies, as he no longer has the “blood” to suck out of anyone for his own well being.

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Five.

A major event now occurs within the scarlet letter as Dimmesdale and Hester are able to converse for the first time without others around. Through physical appearances and actions of both Dimmesdale and Hester, the reader learns that Dimmesdale has actually suffered more than Hester, which is ironic because everyone knows Hester’s sin which has tainted her reputation. However, Dimmesdale suffers more because he must “stand up in [his] pulpit and meet so many eyes turned upward to [his] face, as if the light of heaven were beaming from it!” therefore, Dimmesdale goes through life pretending to be somebody that he is not which makes the appearance of Dimmesdale to be ‘Godly.’ Ironically, Dimmesdale’s guilt comes from his saintly reputation, as he is forced to preach and symbolize a false appearance; one in which he pretends to preach holiness and good deeds which make people honor his words and respect him as a whole. If only the congregation would “look inward and discern the black reality of what they idolize” then Dimmesdale would not be clouded with guilt from his hypocrisy.

The only time Dimmesdale feels that although he is “false to God and man”, only with Hester is Dimmesdale “for one moment, true.” Also, the only time Hester does not feel the scarlet letter “burn the bosom of the fallen woman” is when she is with Dimmesdale. The sense of goodness that both feel with each other shows that they are the only two that really understand each other, and ironically, are the two people that are most open minded and non judgmental in the community, but are the two that are punished, which shows that not everything is as it seems. This reason is what led up to Hester suggesting the two leave and feel to Europe.

Hester provides reassurance and hope for Dimmesdale, suggesting they go to Europe and start a new life. Although one would think Hester would need comfort from Dimmesdale, Dimmesdale is the one who needs guidance in life, therefore showing people are not what they appear to be on the outside. Dimmesdale is appeared as a saint-like man whom others look up to, as Hester, on the other hand, is looked down upon and punished repeatedly for her wrong doings. However Hester’s punishment has made her stronger whereas Dimmesdale has become weaker from the act he must portray each day.

Hawthorne again uses physiognomy to portray the effect the scarlet letter has on Hester. Once Hester removes the letter, a “burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit” and “around her mouth” was a “radiant tender smile” as Hester’s “sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty came back.” Not only did Hester’s appearance become more beautiful, but also her surroundings as “forth burst the sunshine” in the forest, “gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees.” All of the items that once “made a shadow hitherto” now “embodied brightness”, livening the entire forest into a “mystery of joy.” The imagery and metaphors describing beauty in Hester and the forest after the removal of the scarlet letter shows how much better and happier life is without the letter. However, the happiness that Hester experiences is short lived, as Pearl forces her mother to put the letter back on, because Pearl does not recognize her mother without it. Not only that, but since Pearl is the “living version of the scarlet letter,” Hester removing the letter is like removing Pearl from her life, and saying that Hester does not need Pearl anymore now that she has Dimmesdale. The A also symbolizes not only the sin that Hester committed, but also the sin that Dimmesdale committed. Not only does the A punish her, but also him, and by removing it the two would be relieved of their sin. However, because Dimmesdale refuses to confess in front of everyone what he truly did, Hester cannot be relieved of her sin until Dimmesdale is. Because of the physical and emotional toll the letter and sin take on Dimmesdale and Hester, the reader begins to wonder if Dimmesdale will ever confess and if the couple will ever live in peace?

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Four.

Is Chillingworth truly the Devil? This is the question that has risen throughout the course of The Scarlet Letter, and is continuing to hold true. The physiognomy of Roger Chillingworth epitomizes an eerie and devilish appearance that was not related to just “growing older.” The old personality Hester Prynne has remembered of Chillingworth being “an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet” has vanished, as a “glare of red light” now appears in Chillingworth’s eyes, “as if the old man were on fire.” The devilish appearance attributes to the fact that Chillingworth is not attempting to know Dimmesdale’s secret to help Dimmesdale, but because Chillingworth wants revenge on the man that tempted his wife. Roger Chillingworth had practiced doing the Devil’s work so much, that he had begun “transforming himself into the Devil.”

Although Chillingworth’s appearance and characteristics make him appear more demonic, on the contrary, the town starts perceiving Hester with a “general regard that had ultimately grown up in reference to Hester Prynne” as there were “none so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty” and soon many people “refused to interpret the scarlet letter A by its original signification” but rather the town viewed the A in that it meant “Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” as the A was now looked upon as “a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” The metaphor of “the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun’s bosom” proves just how saintly and righteous Hester now appears after she has continued on her life, and tried to rectify her life.

Ironically, although the town began viewing Hester in a better light, Hester herself continued to feel the pain associated with the A, as “on the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful and peculiar” as “all the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline” is metaphor used to describe the weak appearance of Hester. Hester’s “attractiveness had undergone a change” from “rich and luxuriant hair” to all of her hair “hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine.” Although the town believes that the A has helped reform Hester into a better person, in reality the A has taken not only a physical toll on Hester, but now has “the same dark question” pondering Hester’s mind “was the existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among [women]?” Would it be better to “send Pearl at once to heaven, and go herself to such futurity as Eternal Justice should provide?” Although the town views Hester as a better and happier women, Hester herself begins to question whether life on earth is really worth all the pain that comes with it.

Although the reader does not yet know the man that Hester Prynne had an affair with, clues are hinted at throughout the story foreshadowing who the man is. Pearl is the main character who hints at these clues, and makes them known to the reader. When Pearl keeps persistently asking what “the scarlet letter means”, Hester replies by saying she “got it from the Black Man.” Pearl then questions “why does the minister keep his hand over his heart? Did he get something from the Black Man too?” which foreshadows that Dimmesdale is the adulterer.

In the end of this week’s reading, the reader is left with Pearl and Hester in the forest, which was “black and dense” and appeared to disclose “such imperfect glimpses of the sky above” which symbolizes the “moral wilderness in which” Hester has “so long been wandering.” The “flickering sunlight” was only seen every now and then, as Pearl noted that “the sunshine does not love [Hester], but runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on [her] bosom.” As Pearl followed the sunlight, it remained shining upon her, but when Hester tried to walk into the light the “sunshine vanished.” The sunlight amidst the darkened forest symbolizes a bit of happiness in all of Hester’s “dark” life. The significance of Pearl being able to stand in the light depicts how Pearl is the good aspect in Hester’s life. Along with happiness attributed to the sunlight, the sunlight also portrays truth, as the darkness of the forest portrays sin. The only way Hester can every enter sunlight is if she frees herself of her sin and tells the truth about who her adulterer is. Otherwise, Hester will continue living an isolated life, dark and alone.

*The Scarlet Letter--Week Three.

Proceeding on in the reading of Scarlet Letter, the reader delves into the guilt of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and the relationship that forms between himself and Roger Chillingworth.

The new found relationship between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth is nonetheless ironic in that both men have a relationship with Hester Prynne, yet neither of the men knows it. The two became friends because the “mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became the medical advisor of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale” because Chillingworth “was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient.” Then two men “spent much time together”, and Dimmesdale, “a true priest, a true religionist” soon became interested and enjoyed “the occasional relief of looking at the universe through the medium of another kind of intellect”, in other words, a scientific view on life that Chillingworth provided. Although the two differ in beliefs on the wide aspect of the world, what the two have in common is the relationship each men share with Hester. It’s a bit ironic that Chillingworth is attempting to release a lie and sin out of Dimmesdale, when Chillingworth himself is keeping a secret. Is Dimmesdale and Chillingworth’s relationship going to provide clues that Chillingworth needs to uncover the truth about Pearl being Dimmesdale’s daughter? And what will happen to the two’s relationship if either of them uncover who each man really is?

The home that Chillingworth and Dimmesdale reside in has ironic characteristics. The walls of Dimmesdale’s room “were hung round with tapestry said to be from the Gobelin looms” which represented “the Scriptural story of David and Bathsheba.” David was a biblical character who committed adultery with Bathsheba. Also, on the wall, was “Nathan the Prophet”, who accused David of his actions. Irony in the biblical story upon Dimmesdale’s wall is that he is in fact David, Hester is Bathsheba, and Chillingworth is Nathan.

Chillingworth has various ways in achieving the task for Dimmesdale to tell the sin he committed. While collecting medicinal herbs one day, Chillingworth found a “dark, flabby leaf.” When asked by Dimmesdale where Chillingworth found such a drab looking weed, Chillingworth says he found them “growing on a grave” and the weeds “have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance”, for the man had no tombstone upon his gravesite. Perhaps the weeds “grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime” Chillingworth retorts to Dimmesdale, hoping to uncover the secret from him.

When pressured again about the symptoms Dimmesdale is feeling and as to what is making him sick, Chillingworth continues to question Dimmesdale. Angered by the persistent questioning, Dimmesdale still refuses to tell. Chillingworth responds with saying that “nothing is lost” and that the two will “shall be friends again anon. But see, now, how passion takes hold upon this man, and hurrieth him out of himself! As with one passion, so with another! He hath done a wild thing ere now, this pious Master Dimmesdale, in the hot passion of his heart!” The statements and actions Chillingworth has towards Dimmesdale makes the reader wonder if Chillingworth knows what Dimmesdale did?

Pearl continues to show a “demonic” and “elfish” side to her personality throughout the story. While walking with Hester one day, Pearl gathered “prickly burrs from a tall burdock, and arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter” upon Hester’s breast, which “Hester did not puck off.” Pearl then looked up at Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale in the window, and “threw one of the prickly burrs” at him. The burrs symbolize sin, and the importance of not only putting a burr on the scarlet “A” upon Hester, but also throwing one at Dimmesdale correlates the two together, therefore foreshadowing that Dimmesdale is Hester’s adulterer. Also, the burrs are “prickly” and stick to a person right away, symbolizing how the sin each committed sticks and pokes each one, therefore unable to forget about it.

The guilt that Dimmesdale feels overpowers his ability to act in a rational manner. Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil” is titled so because Dimmesdale wakes in the middle of the night, and “reached the spot, where, now so long since, Hester Prynne had lived through her first hour of public ignominy.” While standing on the scaffolding, Dimmesdale, “without any effort of his will”, screamed aloud, “an outcry that went pealing through the night…as if a company of devils detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro.” After the relentless cry that Dimmesdale let out, he was sure that the town would all hear, and that everyone would know of his sin. However, no one heard, and if anyone in the town did, they just thought that it was “the witches” in the town. Shortly after, Hester and Pearl saw Dimmesdale standing upon the scaffolding, and stood with him, joining hands. The very moment that Dimmesdale touched Pearl’s hand, “there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart…as if the mother and child were communicating their vital warmth into his half-torpid system.” Being together and joined in an “electric chain” with Pearl and Hester created “warmth” throughout Dimmesdale’s body, as if all the emotional pain and guilt he had been feeling earlier was suddenly healed. When asked by Pearl if Dimmesdale will hold Pearl’s and Hester’s hand when the two must stand up there again, Dimmesdale said “another time.” A flash of light then clouded up the sky and Dimmesdale saw an “appearance of an immense letter,-the letter A,-marked out in lines of dull red light.” The ‘A’ that Dimmesdale sees up in the sky symbolizes the guilt that Dimmesdale has, not only in being the adulterer, but also not being able to confess it to his congregation, and most importantly himself.

While standing on the scaffolding, “Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart.” Could the mark on Dimmesdale’s chest that Chillingworth saw be an A? Is that why Dimmesdale always has his hand on his chest, because of the pain and guilt that he feels?