{"id":1393028,"date":"2016-09-28T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.sparknotes.com\/?p=1393028"},"modified":"2017-02-23T16:22:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T21:22:37","slug":"blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-5-chapters-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/blogging-the-scarlet-letter-part-5-chapters-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging The Scarlet Letter<\/i>: Part 5 (Chapters 9-10)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Previously in Blogging The Scarlet Letter<\/a>, \u00a0Hester got invited to a devil \u00a0party and Dimmesdale was Captain Obvious.<\/p>\n

Find every installment here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Chapter 9: The Leech*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brace yourselves: there is no dialogue in this chapter.<\/p>\n

Roger Chillingworth, if you’ll remember from last time, is bearing \u00a0a greater semblance to \u00a0Gollum<\/a> \u00a0than ever before. He \u00a0has glo’d down, so to speak.<\/p>\n

As much as I hate to say it, Roger is a great physician \u00a0by Puritan standards, and Hester’s community \u00a0welcomes him like a saint. (As long as that saint was canonized by the Protestants and not the Roman Catholics.) He may be \u00a0good at his job, but I can’t help feeling \u00a0he’s a little Bob Kelso-esque<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSmiles never reach his eyes. Scrubs \/ ABC<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

A \u00a0few things happen almost simultaneously. Some of these events we already know about, but they’re reiterated here:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Chillingworth rolls into town.<\/li>\n
  2. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale \u00a0starts looking sicker \u00a0than anyone had ever seen him.<\/li>\n
  3. Hester does scaffold time for adultery.<\/li>\n
  4. Chillingworth goes Jerry Springer to \u00a0find out who the father of \u00a0Hester’s baby is.<\/li>\n
  5. He adopts Arthur Dimmesdale \u00a0as his “spiritual guide.”<\/li>\n
  6. Dimmesdale adopts Chillingworth as his personal physician.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Are these coincidences? I can say with conviction: maybe.<\/p>\n

    In any case, the community is desperate for \u00a0their minister with the lats<\/a> \u00a0of David Hasselhoff \u00a0and the voice<\/a> of \u00a0Morgan Freeman \u00a0to make a speedy recovery, for religion purposes.<\/p>\n

    Here’s what happens next: \u00a0Chillingworth and Dimmesdale start spending a lot of time together. \u00a0They take long walks on the beach. \u00a0Chillingworth \u00a0strives “to go deep into his patient’s bosom […] like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern.” \u00a0(What?) \u00a0Many women flirt with Dimmesdale \u00a0but \u00a0he turns them down to discuss existential questions with Chillingworth \u00a0over pancakes. \u00a0They \u00a0MOVE IN TOGETHER.<\/p>\n

    \"\"Roger and Art \u00a0in their Massachusetts home – Movieclips \/ Youtube<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

    The only thing I embellished on was the pancakes. I’m not insinuating anything, but I’m also not not<\/em> \u00a0insinuating anything, because \u00a0there is Chillingworth\/Dimmesdale fan fiction on the internet and if we’re being \u00a0honest it writes itself.<\/p>\n