What does Chillingworth say to Hester in Chapter 14 of The Scarlet Letter when asked for Dimmesdale's forgiveness?
Weaving itself into Hawthorne's thorough meditation upon the dark workings of Puritanism, there is in The Scarlet Letterthe examination of the theme of public and private identity. In Chapter XX, Hawthorne concludes about this conflict of identity,
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.
This duality of identity is at the heart of Chapter XIV as Hester initially sends Pearl to amuse herself, and the child plays with a "visionary little maid" in a pool of water where Pearl "beheld her own white feet," symbolizing the adult conflicts to come further in the narrative. As Hester approaches Roger Chillingworth in her resolve to meet with the man who was her husband and plea for the release of him whom the physician has so tightly in his grip,...
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Chillingworth tells her that the magistrates have debated whether or not Hester is to be allowed to remove the A from her bosom. Calmly, Hester responds that "the badge" would fall off on its own were she worthy of its removal. This badge no longer causes Hester as much pain as before because it now identifies her at times as an "Angel"; at other times as an "Able" person, both roles that Hester plays in her dealings with members of her congregation. So, Hester's identity, both public and private, the same. However, this is not the case for Dimmesdale, nor for Chillingworth; consequently, both men suffer. Dimmesdale suffers because of his hyprocrisy and the misery he has caused others, and he is ridden with guilt which he must hide in his role as minister. Chillingworth suffers because he has overstepped the human role in violating the human heart of the minister by obtaining its secrets; the physician has become a fiend in his punitive motives and blind revenge, yet he argues that he is not so, but has merely taken the position of a fiend in learning Dimmesdale's secret guilt and avenging himself.
Now that he knows the secret he has sought, Hester argues, Chillingworth can release the tortured minister from his grip. But, the old leech refuses to leave Dimmesdale alone, contending that they are destined to play out their roles: "It is our fate. Let the black flower blossom as it may!"
Describe Hester and Chillingworth's encounter in the prison cell in The Scarlet Letter.
This scene provides us with some critical information. Hester has just learned that her husband is alive, complicating her situation. She needs medical treatment, and he is a doctor; this is a clever technique that Hawthorne uses to get them together in the prison (as well as getting Chillingworth/Dimmesdale together later in the storm). Hester is afraid that the "potion" that he is mixing is a poison will kill them; he assures them that he has no interesting in doing them any harm; they discuss their past relationship, and both of them admit that there was no love in their relationship, that they both entered into marriage with their own agenda. This information is critical to understanding why Chillingworth seeks no revenge on Hester. Perhaps more importantly, though, it is during this interview that Chillingworth strikes a deal with Hester that may be the only thing she feels real personal guilt about. Chillingworth makes Hester swear that she will not reveal his identity. Although this seems harmless, it becomes horrible for her as she watches Chillingworth destroy Dimmesdale and honors her promise to say nothing.
It's a great scene that sets the stage for what is to follow in the next 7 years ...
While Hester Prynne stands on the scaffold in Chapter III, she is asked by Reverend Wilson to name the man who fathered her child. Responding in the negative, she gazes into the eyes of Reverend Dimmesdale, but while doing so, she hears another voice,
coldly and sternly, proceeding from the crowd about the scaffold. 'Speak, and give your child a father!'
'I will not speak,' answered Hester, turning pale as death, but responding to this voice, which she too surely recognised.
This voice which Hester recognizes is the voice of her husband, returned from the dead. Because of this recognition, Hester, being returned to the prison, is in a very nervous state, terrified at the prospect of this new knowledge being discovered by the Puritan leaders.
When the jailer calls in a physician to attend to the distraught young woman who has had to endure such ignominy on the scaffold and within her own heart, this physician is the owner of the voice that Hester has recognized. Hester is "as still as death." Roger Chillingworth, as he calls himself, has been boarded in the prison while the town officials decide on a ransom with the Indians who have held him captive. While a captive, Chillingworth has learned much of medicinal herbs; with this knowledge and his knowledge of alchemy, he attends to the unsettled child, and then the mother. Naturally, Hester is apprehensive about having her child or herself imbibe anything conjured by Chillingworth.
Chillingworth tells her he would not be so "shallow" as to poison her. He wants her to live so that she will
'bear about thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women--in the eyes of him thou didst call husband--in the eyes of yonder child!'
As Hester sits on the bed, Chillingworth sits beside her in the only chair in the cell. He tells her that he should have foreseen "all this," for he was too old and misshapen for one of her young beauty. Hester retorts that she was honest with him, revealing that she had no love for him. True, Chillingworth replies, but he had hoped that the warmth that she brought to his heart would be enough for them both.
'I have greatly wrong thee,' murmured Hester.
'We have wronged each other,' answered he...
Chillingworth tells Hester that he seeks no vengeance against her, as the
'scale hangs fairly balanced. But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?'
When Hester refuses him, the physician reminds her that he is more prescient that others and will "see him tremble....Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!" At this threat, Hester covers her heart, lest it reveal anything. With dramatic irony, Chillingworth promises Hester that although the man bears no letter on his chest, he "will read it on his heart."
Let him live! Let him hide himself in outward honour, if he may! Not the less he shall be mine!
'Thy acts are like mercy,' said Hester...'But thy words interpret thee as a terror!
Chillingworth makes Hester promise not to reveal his identity because he does not wish to endure the "dishonour that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman"--Chillingworth does not wish to be known as a cuckold. As he smiles at Hester, she asks him (again with dramatic irony) if he is like the Black Man
that haunts the forest round about us. Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?
Eerily, Chillingworth tells Hester "Not thy soul...Not thine!"
This chapter has almost gothic horror to it. The reader is reminded of Poe's narrators who vows an insidious revenge as redress for "injuries."
In The Scarlet Letter, what does Chillingworth say to Hester in the prison cell?
The meeting between Chillingworth and Hester is a pivotal introductory scene in that the reader learns that the two were, and still are, married, and that the child is obviously not his. Chillingworth is a doctor called to tend to Hester and her child, and at first Hester fears he plans to harm her and her child. Chillingworth has far worse ideas in mind, and the conversation soon turns to other areas.
They begin by discussing the demise of their relationship. Chillingworth admits to being an emotionally and physically absent husband and Hester admits to marrying him without love:
Nay, from the moment when we came down the old church-steps together, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-fire of that scarlet letter blazing at the end of our path!"
Chillingworth, as the scorned husband, demands to know the identity of Pearl's father. Hester refuses, as she did on the scaffold. Chillingworth vows to discover his identity and take revenge:
I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!”
This conflict sets up the action for the remainder of the novel and foreshadow's Dimmesdale's demise.
In The Scarlet Letter, what does Chillingworth reveal to Hester in the prison cell?
Chillingworth is Hester's husband that she had actually cheated on. The two were married in England. We don't find this out until later in the story, so I don't want to give away too much, but Chillingworth to us is the strange man she saw in the crowd and reacted to him. She hadn't seen him in quite some time, so when he first sees her with this baby, he instantly knows she had failed to remain faithful.
In chapter 4, Chillingworth meets with Hester in the prison cell and tells her to reveal the identity of her baby's father. She refuses. He also tells her that she must keep his identity a secret.