What Does The Meteor Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

Chapter 11 (XI)

1. Chillingworth plans to destroy Dimmesdale and make him suffer every single day. He wants to hurt him mentally so he goes through more than just the guilt he is already suffering from and to cause him more pain. He will turn into his biggest enemy. This is all because he found out that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father and the one Hester betrayed him with. He loved Hester and wanted her to be his but she went and loved another man, which was Dimmesdale.


2. Dimmesdale sensed that there was something evil lurking around him, something that was causing him trouble, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. He doubted the old physician a few times due to his slightly strange and questionable acts. However, he ignored all his doubts and fears of Chillingworth. He continued to talk with him as though there was nothing wrong. Dimmesdale believed that his guilt was causing his sickness as well as him to distrust and fear everyone. He continued his normal attitude and discussions with Chillingworth believing his doubts to be false.


3. Dimmesdale’s gift is his voice. He has so much power and inspiration in his voice that everyone immediately wants to follow him and listen to what he says. People trust him very quickly and confide in him for advice.

They also confess all their sins are wrongs to him so that they can go on better in life without guilt.

4. Dimmesdale punishes himself in private for his sins. He does so physically by a “bloody scourge,” a whip. He whips himself in private and also has carved an “A” onto his chest because Hester has to wear one as well.

5. He wants to confess his sin in public so that he can be at peace but doesn’t because the public will most likely turn it another way. He wishes to get rid of all his guilt and tell everyone what he truly is and that he is just as shameful and sinful as them. He doesn’t do this because the people respect and honor him so much that they would most likely take a different meaning of it or wouldn’t believe him and blame it on some other evil source. Right now, the townsfolk are asleep as well.


Chapter 12 (XII)

1. Dimmesdale decides to go to the platform where many sinner have stood with a wide audience. This is where he should have stood as well because he was the partner in Hester’s crime. One reason he is so guilty is because he didn’t take part blame for Hester’s sin. He just watched as she stood alone with their baby and took on the glares and hatred from society alone and also had to stand up to her husband’s gaze too.

2. The sky was very cloudy and dark. Nothing could be seen in the dark grayness of the night. The air was cold and moist. It seems to set the mood because Dimmesdale is alone on cold night so it makes it seem like something might happen.

3. Two people see Dimmesdale, the old Governor Bellingham and his sister old Mistress Hibbins. Eventually Hester and Pearl come and talk to him afterward. They all stand on the platform together as well.

4. Everyone was asleep in their homes since it was so late at night and Dimmesdale was standing on the platform. Some people, such as Mr. Wilson, were at Governor Winthrop’s home because they were standing vigil.

5. Pearl asks him if he would stand on the platform with her and Hester again if they came the next day at noon. The response is another time while Dimmesdale is afraid. He was still scared of public exposure so he refused. He knows what he has done wrong but still won’t face his deeds.

6.

The meteor symbolizes the scarlet letter. When Hester walked out of her jail room with the “A” on her chest, everyone immediately looked at it. It was burning brightly against everything else and seemed to draw all eyes. The meteor lit up everything against the dark cloudy night sky as well. It appeared as if Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl “stood in the noon”, which Pearl had persisted about. She wanted Dimmesdale to stand with them and join her in their public shaming that she and Hester went through everyday. The meteor lit up everything as if it was daylight, just what Pearl was asking for. The meteor was representing Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin. Some of the townspeople even said that it looked like a burning

A.

7. Dimmesdale reacts to the glove as though it is nothing, as though it reveals nothing, but in reality is really startled. His heart races faster but he waves it off as though it is insignificant. He reacts to the Sexton’s meaning of the meteor as an A for Angel just the same. He believes the meteor was for his sin, not for Governor Winthrop becoming an Angel. He reacts as though he didn’t know anything about the meteor when he knew exactly what it mean. Dimmesdale acts like it is nothing important to both of these events because he doesn’t want anyone to know about his secret or to give anyone any reason to be suspicious of him.


Chapter 13 (XIII)

1. Hester has become more independent yet more hollow of a person. She didn’t want anything from society and neither interacted with anyone. She did what she could to feed herself and Pearl. Whatever she had left of her time and belongings, such as food and clothing, she devoted to helping the poor. She was very warm and caring for the sick as well. She became so kind that her scarlet letter’s meaning changed. Hester’s fierceness in her eyes that she had in the beginning of the book was still there because she never let herself fall in society. Physically she also lost her beauty and became more of a reserved and plainer woman. Her youth was gone and her eyes became colder and the light in them slowly faded.

2. She became so helpful and warm to the poor and sick that the scarlet letter on her chest no longer meant “adultery”, but that it stood “able.” The symbol changed from representing sin to representing the power and love someone can spread; it changed from provoking avoidance to seeking comfort. Though people left immediately after they felt better and never greeted her again, the symbol’s meaning changed all the same.

3. The shunning made her become more isolated from everyone. She never greeted anyone that she had once helped but touched the A through pride. She never would have done so before but is now used to her relationship with people in society. She became more independent and powerful in her own way. The shunning also allowed her to think more freely than she ever could have before. She used to be stuck in how everyone else thought and the “proper” way to do things. Now she could accept anything she wanted without anyone trying to force their way on her because she rarely interacted or spoke with the townsfolk. She was free from the strict rules and beliefs of the colony.

4. Hawthorne means that the scarlet letter hadn’t fulfilled its duty; its job. It was supposed to make Hester live a life of misery, suffering, and serve as a punishment. It did change her life with isolation and how she was in society. It taught Hester to pick herself up and set up a life for her daughter and herself. She began life anew without any setbacks.

5. Hester Prynne is now free able able to carry herself through society alone. People have learned to look at her differently and praise her for it. Roger Chillingworth has as changed as well, but for the worse. People see the evil in him and how he has become Devil-like due to it. When he saw his wife- Hester- standing on the platform for public shaming, he felt betrayed by her act. This led him to vow revenge. Hester could barely meet his eyes and didn’t want to speak to him alone. Now, she is more than ready to face her husband. She found him, “stooping along the ground,” representing how he had fallen and she was going to win against the evil. This is all because of Hester being tested so long for her sin. She had changed the meaning of the scarlet letter and shown society that she could and was managing her life perfectly well. Hester passed her test and rose to be better than Chillingworth and win against him and society.

6. Hester decides to meet her husband Roger Chillingworth. She was going to save Dimmesdale from his clutches. She didn’t want honored man soon on the brink of lunacy to suffer from Chillingworth anymore, so she was going to face her husband and save him.


Chapter 14(XIV)

1. Hester Prynne meets Roger Chillingworth in an old peninsula, where there are many plants and roots.

2. Chillingworth has changed drastically from what Hester remembers him. He used to be calm and reserved with a wise and studious air. Now he was eager and searching for something and had a guarded yet alarmed expression constantly. When he smiles it only displays the darkness even more. His advancing age showed as well and he had a staff for walking due to his deformed figure. He had become an agent of the Devil from a mortal man. He has become so obsessed and drawn into his revenge that he can’t see what he is doing wrong. Only when he admits to Hester does he realize what he has become yet he still pursues to torture Dimmesdale. He believes he has done Dimmesdale a favor by keeping his secret and for “helping” him as a doctor so long.

3. Roger Chillingworth says that he has taken care of Dimmesdale more than any king could pay a physician to take care of anyone. He says that without him, the priest would have died due to the guilt from Hester’s sin a long time ago. He also states that he kept Dimmesdale’s secret about being Pearl’s father and been her partner in her sin. Dimmesdale is fearing the secret will come out and he isn’t ready for it, so Chillingworth is protecting him by keeping it, even if Dimmesdale doesn’t know that he knows.

4. Chillingworth admits how much of an evil demon-like creature he had become while taking to Hester. He confesses that he was the one afflicting so much pain to Dimmesdale. He admits to himself how he went from a mortal man to a demon. He realizes how obsessed he had become with his revenge and how inhuman he was acting. Everyone else noticed it and now here he was admitting to Hester that he was like a demon.

5. The punishment isn’t done because Chillingworth still wants to continue his revenge and make Dimmesdale suffer more despite admitting what he has become. He blames Dimmesdale for being the cause of the fiend he has become. He is still obsessed with his revenge and has made it his life goal.

6. Chillingworth says that he doesn’t have the power to forgive, that only Fate will tell what will happen. He means that it is in the Hands of God as to who will be pardoned or not. He tells Hester that even though she had wronged him, she was just as sinful as everyone else as he was no demon creature other than what evil had caused once spreading. Only Fate would decide what was to come and who was to be forgiven.