Dr. Khan's Theory Of Poison In Scarlet Letter

In the widely-acclaimed The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale’s seemingly untimely death could be attributed to Roger Chillingworth’s inner workings of revenge. Such malicious intent fueled Dr. Khan’s theory of a poisonous homicide, as he wrote in his article Atropine Poisoning in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (citation hereby properly referred to as Khan). Following his conclusion, Dr. Khan developed a theory of atropine poisoning issued by Chillingworth as a means of revenge against Dimmesdale. While Dr. Khan’s explanations stand true against atropine’s effects, the evidence doesn’t correlate to the purpose of the novel or Chillingworth’s true motive. In fact, Dr. Khan’s argument that Hawthorne’s in-depth understanding of atropine, Chillingworth’s

motive/circumstance/knowledge, and Dimmesdale’s experience of certain symptoms could have led to the novel’s dramatic assassination are all refutable. Truly, Hawthorne’s cause of writing the novel is to expose the darkness of Puritan society and how it could be redeemed, also Chillingworth’s incentives for murder isn’t consistent with his thoughts throughout the novel, and finally, the so-called symptoms of atropine poisoning could all be the product of Dimmesdale’s attempts for self-redemption.
Why would Hawthorne deviate into a plot of murder, when the main objective of his novel is to let known society know of its sins? To begin the novel, Hawthorne introduced two crutches of Puritan society: the prison and cemetery. Not only that, but his tone towards Puritan’s values for these incredibly bleak symbols is illustrated by repulsive descriptions of the two buildings surrounded by an overgrown fence of “burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation” (Hawthorne 25). The mood and attitude of the setting reveal the misery and unforgiving Puritan society, as Hawthorne believed, to reflect the hearts of these self-proclaimed righteous people. The Scarlet Letter itself is a written testimony about how Hawthorne believes in redemption; he made his character, Dimmesdale, victim under the agony of his guilty sin until his confession releases him into the hands of death. At the end of the novel, Dimmesdale’s public repentance and symbolic forgiveness of his torturer signifies what Hawthorne hopes society will strive for in dealing with their own sins (Hawthorne 197). Across the novel, Hawthorne worked to cultivate this feeling of bigotry in a religion whose dogma dictated everyone as equal children of God. Therefore, it is unreasonable to argue that Hawthorne had switched his theme halfway in his novel from a personal doctrine rooted in revealing deliverance from hypocrisy, into another theme where vengeance trumps any chance of redemption. Unlike Dr. Khan’s argument that “a perusal of Hawthorne’s reading list reveals atropine-containing plants in The Scarlet Letter,” indicating its usage in murder, Hawthorne most likely has included such plants to make Chillingworth more erudite and sinister in appearance to give him the aura of an evil antagonist (Khan 3).
At first, given Chillingworth’s demonic characterization of his eyes “burning blue and ominous” (Hawthorne 99) like the reflection of Hell’s furnace, an “ugly and evil” face growing sooty with infernal fuel (Hawthorne 97), as well as physical hideousness of a deformed body and gait (Hawthorne 56), it seems as if the author is trying to lead the audience into somber doubts about the reason behind Chillingworth befriending Dimmesdale.

Murder comes to mind, identical to what Dr. Khan suggested, but evidence from the text disproves this theory. The basis comes from Chillingworth’s character, whom despite his unethical obsession with vengeance, is still a very studious and intelligent man. Oftentimes, he is distinguished by the title— scholar, also having “self-relying intelligence” (Hawthorne 56) and knowledge that many doctors would spend lifetimes searching to possess (Hawthorne 91). Would such a man, with intimate knowledge of cures and poisons, yet close in relation and access to the minister, dare to commit a grievous crime? The answer is a simple and resounding no. First, Chillingworth knew Hester would announce his relation to her when she discovered his role in Dimmesdale’s death, accordingly bestowing him with a motive for murder. If she didn’t, the other townspeople would connect the evidence to Chillingworth and alert Hester to the same conclusion. Second, Chillingworth made a private vow to torture Hester’s lover due to the force of jealousy that he had stolen his wife away, “thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me… my home is where thou art, and where he is” (Hawthorne 57) and to use Dimmesdale to sate his scientific hunger by immersing himself in the psychology of the mind, going as far as to delaying in soothing Dimmesdale’s physical suffering so he could observe its effects on Dimmesdale’s mental state (Hawthorne 92). Chillingworth declared to “let him [Dimmesdale] live… not the less he shall be mine,” showing how Chillingworth resolved to slowly

heap mental abuse onto the adulterer, who is forced to live his life with the guilt of his sin. The text equally describes Chillingworth’s desire for torture after discovering the identity of the adulterer, “he [Chillingworth] could play upon him [Dimmesdale] as he chose,” and he later goes into the gleeful questioning of how he could cause affliction upon Dimmesdale to magnify his anguish (Hawthorne 107). All this evidence of Chillingworth seeking to prolong Dimmesdale’s suffering invalidates Dr. Khan’s claims that “Chillingworth certainly had the motive, circumstances, and knowledge necessary for the preparation and administration of a poison intended for Dimmesdale,” (Khan 2) because at the end of the novel, Chillingworth said in disbelief to Dimmesdale “thou hast escaped me,” significant in showing how Dimmesdale’s death had released him from Chillingworth’s torment and forever rendered Chillingworth unable to fully exact his revenge upon Dimmesdale’s mind (Hawthorne 197).
Unlike Dr. Khan’s diagnosis of atropine poisoning, Dimmesdale’s death is more likely to have been caused by his unhealthy cycle of self-harm, starvation, and sleep deprivation. Dr. Khan concludes the rash Dimmesdale unveiled to be an effect of atropine, however that may not be the case (Khan 5). Dimmesdale often rigorously fasted, kept frequent vigils, and “tortured, but could not purify, himself” (Hawthorne 111). Self-harm could be characterized in “cutting, burning, piercing, breaking of bones, carving words or symbols on the skin” and are often an “unhealthy effort to cope with overwhelming emotions, such as intense anger... terror… or shame” (Self-Mutilation Symptoms and Effects). This divulges the red stigma on Dimmesdale’s chest to be a work of his creation as an outlet to express his feelings of guilt, and not the result of atropine (Hawthorne 196). Analysis of this excerpt revealed not only the restrictions Dimmesdale placed upon himself but the presence of guilt in his mind. Guilt is a reoccurring subject, an example being Shakespeare’s character Lady Macbeth. Her guilty conscience after murdering King Duncan eventually led to the deterioration of her mental wellness and suicide after the inability to reconcile with peace. Interestingly, as Lady Macbeth suffered hallucinations of blood on her hands, Dimmesdale saw the fruition of his sin in the meteoroid spelling the letter A on the sky, as if displaying his wickedness for all to see (Hawthorne 119). Dimmesdale also suffered lucid hallucinations of ghosts to such an extent that he “wondered if he were going mad” (Hawthorne 115). This proves that sleep deprivation, along with the weight of his shame, resulted in Dimmesdale’s visual disturbances. A combination of sleep deficiency and starvation contributed to Dimmesdale’s feeble form, tremulous muscles, and cardio-circulatory complications. Lack of sleep can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, heart failure, mental impairment, depression, other mood disorders (Breus) and even make simple actions such as speech production a challenging endeavor (What Are Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency). Meanwhile, starvation also precipices negative self-deprecating behavior, bipolarity, anxiety, hypersensitivity of the senses, visual-auditory disturbances, and paresthesia (tingling, itching, or burning sensation) as well as causing a weak and deprived frame (The Effects of Starvation on Behavior: Implications for Dieting and Eating Disorders). This all provides counterevidence as to why Dimmesdale often felt chest pains (Hawthorne 101), hallucinated, used bitter “self-condemning words” (Hawthorne 110), and sudden fervor (bipolarity) of unscrupulous behavior upon entering the town despite being characterized as self-loathing and deprecating in most of the novel (Hawthorne 166). The heart complications from lack of sleep and amalgamation of Dimmesdale’s masochistic methods of punishment would have significantly decreased his vitality, putting his heart at risk of high blood pressure. Dimmesdale has symptoms of facial flushing and heart pain (Hawthorne 92), the very symptoms that Dr. Khan credited to atropine (Khan 4) could be found as a byproduct of sleep deprivation. To stabilize the point that Dimmesdale died from his poor bodily conditions, high blood pressure could lead to heart failure, with symptoms of breathing difficulty and high heart rate among other conditions (Warning Signs of Heart Failure). These points were once again used by Dr. Khan to be the wobbly effects of atropine (Khan 4) but could be refuted as the effects of heart failure caused by Dimmesdale’s poor sleep schedule. All these reasons: self-harm, sleep deprivation, and starvation, have been utilized so they apply to the cause of Dimmesdale’s natural death rather than a planned murder accomplished by Chillingworth. This showed that Dimmesdale’s intense ritual purification to rid himself of guilt was the reason that caused his death. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester also displayed such symptoms of heart pain and flushing (Hawthorne 64) but didn’t suffer as drastically as Dimmesdale because she had publicly confessed and atoned for her sins through modesty and working—unintentionally—towards acceptance, whereas Dimmesdale did neither of those things, instead suffered with his guilt and preaching hypocrisy.
Undeniably, the evidence that Dr. Khan put forth was true regarding atropine but didn’t make sense in the context of the author and Chillingworth’s intents. Therefore, a more suitable theory that addresses Hawthorne’s background, Chillingworth’s motive, and Dimmesdale’s battered physical condition are more relevant and true to what Hawthorne may have wanted his audience to feel, which is repentance from sin can save the puritan society.