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Previously in Blogging The Scarlet Letter<\/em><\/a>, Chillingworth discovered an undisclosed \u00a0~THING~ \u00a0on Dimmesdale’s chest, and we still don’t know what it is.<\/p>\n Find every installment here<\/a>!<\/p>\n Chapter 11: The Interior of a Heart<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger Chillingworth is evil\u2014this much Nathaniel 2.0 has made clear. Currently, he is plotting \u00a0“a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.” That’s an overstatement if I ever heard one.<\/p>\n Chillingworth \u00a0is \u00a0playing cruel mind games on the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, whose BS radar short circuits every time he so much as glances his doctor. The reverend \u00a0tries to ignore this unsettling feeling \u00a0because he doesn’t have any hard evidence to justify it, so there’s no doubt he’d be the first victim \u00a0in a horror movie. \u00a0Apparently, \u00a0Chillingworth’s diabolical \u00a0smiles\/erratic \u00a0behavior\/speculation from the \u00a0entire town<\/em> \u00a0that he has a nine-to-five in the underworld \u00a0do NOT \u00a0constitute \u00a0hard evidence.<\/p>\n Dimmesdale’s guilt is starting to show through \u00a0his perfectly symmetrical features. He \u00a0has resting grimace face. These qualities are 10\/10 on the Puritan dating checklist, so the more somber and ashamed he \u00a0appears on \u00a0the pulpit, \u00a0the more his congregation falls in love with \u00a0him. \u00a0All the Mrs. Bennet<\/a>-types \u00a0in town are eager to marry off their daughters, “the virgins of his church grow pale around him,” and people are buying land around his grave plot so they \u00a0can hitch \u00a0a ride on his soul caboose when \u00a0he dies and goes to heaven. In conclusion, this escalated \u00a0quickly.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Dimmesdale probably scribbles in his notebook:<\/p>\n Dear diary,<\/em><\/p>\n I’m going to hell. It was nice knowing everyone, especially Hester in the biblical sense.<\/em><\/p>\n -AD<\/em><\/p>\n Every day he hallucinates \u00a0about marching \u00a0up to the pulpit, striking a power pose, and confessing that he is “utterly a pollution and a lie,” which isn’t inaccurate. And he does actually \u00a0pseudo-confess at one point:<\/p>\n He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity; and that the only wonder was, that they did not see his wretched body shrivelled up before their eyes, by the burning wrath of the Almighty! Could there be plainer speech than this?<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n Answer: Yes, definitely.<\/p>\n The congregants respond: “If \u00a0this Puritan precursor to an A-list celeb thinks HIS \u00a0soul is \u00a0an abomination, then what HORRID SPECTACLE is MINE?” (In so many words.) Dimmesdale \u00a0knows \u00a0he’s buying a one-way \u00a0ticket to purgatory \u00a0by not explicitly<\/em> confessing to the \u00a0crime, but he’s holding back because he thinks the knowledge will lead his congregation morally astray.<\/p>\n Next, instead of using \u00a0reliable \u00a0stress-release tactics like \u00a0writing a pros and cons list or consulting a psychic, he \u00a0starts to do real harm to his body. \u00a0He fasts. He hallucinates. He stays awake for days. He hallucinates some more. It’s unpleasant for all of us, and it’s \u00a0making him more \u00a0weathered and \u00a0existential by the minute:<\/p>\n To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,\u2014it is impalpable,\u2014it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In the middle of the night, Dimmesdale gets an idea. He quickly dresses in his customary potato sack \u00a0and walks out the door.<\/p>\n Chapter 12: The Minister’s Vigil<\/strong><\/p>\n Likely sleep walking, Dimmesdale \u00a0heads \u00a0through town towards the scaffold, which I’m now realizing has to be a symbol at this point. More on that later. He climbs up onto it, and “overcome \u00a0with a great horror of mind” cries out into the darkness. For a minute there he’s \u00a0SURE he’s just woken \u00a0the entire town with the \u00a0outburst, but it’s nbd because the select few who did wake up blame it on<\/p>\n the noise of witches; whose voices, at that period, were often heard to pass over the settlements or lonely cottages, as they rode with Satan through the air.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n It’s all good! It’s just the witches.<\/p>\n All of a sudden, Dimmesdale sees someone from a distance \u00a0moving toward him with a lantern. When he realizes it’s Reverend Wilson who’s probs on his way back from a certain Governor Winthrop’s deathbed, he says OUT LOUD: \u00a0“A good evening to you, venerable Father Wilson! Come up hither, I pray you, and pass a pleasant hour with me!”<\/p>\n Nathaniel 2.0: Jk jk jk \u00a0he said it in his head.<\/p>\n (\u00e2\u2022\u00af \u00b0\u00e2\u2013\u00a1 \u00b0\u00ef\u00bc\u2030\u00e2\u2022\u00af\u00ef\u00b8\u00b5 \u00e2\u201d\u00bb\u00e2\u201d\u0081\u00e2\u201d\u00bb<\/p>\n Wilson walks \u00a0right by the scaffold. Remember, it’s pitch black out. Dimmesdale imagines the townspeople \u00a0looking at him up there \u00a0with \u00a0“amazed and horror-stricken visages<\/a>.” \u00a0He chuckles to himself at this image, and I want desperately to think \u00a0he has a sense of humor, but it’s probably because he’s been awake for 72 \u00a0hours.<\/p>\n Dimmesdale \u00a0is shocked when his \u00a0laugh is met with another laugh, as am I. \u00a0No, it’s not the Town Beadle as I’d hoped; it’s PEARL and it is definitely past her bedtime. \u00a0She and Hester are \u00a0on their way home from \u00a0taking measurements of Governor Winthrop’s corpse so that she can \u00a0embroider his funeral garb. Dimmesdale invites the \u00a0pair \u00a0up on the scaffold and they join \u00a0hands \u00a0in a Kodak moment:<\/p>\n There came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through all his veins […] \u00a0The three formed an electric chain.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Not only is this my favorite sentence so far, but the \u00a0diary entry from \u00a0when \u00a0I held my first \u00a0official SO’s hand on the scaffolds of middle school (the bleachers).<\/p>\n Pearl asks if Dimmesdale can join she \u00a0and Hester on the scaffold the following day at noon. He says he’s busy tomorrow but can definitely reschedule \u00a0for Judgement Day<\/a>. Classic dad joke. Without warning, a \u00a0giant meteor illuminates \u00a0the sky and \u00a0Dimmesdale thinks \u00a0he sees a red letter \u00a0A<\/em> \u00a0written in the clouds. To be honest, this \u00a0seems \u00a0self-absorbed.<\/p>\n Pearl points across the street, which is brightened for a brief minute under the light of the meteor, and Dimmesdale knows at whom she’s pointing before he even looks. Nope, \u00a0still not the Town Beadle\u2014it’s Chillingworth, standing there like a \u00a0Lion King<\/em> \u00a0hyena<\/a>, looking \u00a0on with the pleasure of Satan if all the wasted souls of the earth were being \u00a0cast into hell before him. Dimmesdale feels “overcome with terror,” as he obviously should.<\/p>\n Dimmesdale<\/strong>: Psst, Hester. Who is Chillingworth? I mean, who \u00a0is he ACTUALLY I just want to draw your attention to the fact that Chillingworth makes \u00a0no comment on the situation he just walked into, which is \u00a0Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale HOLDING HANDS \u00a0on the \u00a0SCAFFOLD \u00a0in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT under a METEOR SHOWER.<\/p>\n After church \u00a0the next day, a groundskeeper tells Dimmesdale that \u00a0he found one of his preacher’s \u00a0gloves on the scaffold, and that<\/p>\n Satan dropped it there, I take it.*<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n He also informs his minister that there’s a rumor going around \u00a0about \u00a0a red \u00a0A \u00a0<\/em>that \u00a0appeared in the sky last night, and that it means \u00a0Governor Winthrop \u00a0has become \u00a0an \u00a0A<\/strong>ngel.<\/p>\n Dimmesdale wipes off his sweat mustache and leaves.<\/p>\n Thoughts\/conclusions:<\/p>\n The plot is thickening. Who besides myself is on Team Pearl?<\/em><\/p>\n Find the next chapter and every installment \u00a0of Blogging Scarlet Letter HERE<\/a>, and an index of all our \u00a0Blogging the Classics titles HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Previously in Blogging The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth discovered an undisclosed \u00a0~THING~ \u00a0on Dimmesdale’s chest, and we still don’t know what it is. Find every installment here! Chapter 11: The Interior of a Heart Roger Chillingworth continue reading<\/span>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/scarletletter_14.jpg\")
\n<\/span>Youtube \/ HenriLeChatNoir<\/a><\/em><\/small><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/img.sparknotes.com\/content\/sparklife\/sparktalk\/scarletletter_17.jpg\")
Youtube \/ NBC<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n
\nHester<\/strong>:
\nPearl<\/strong>: I KNOW WHO HE IS
\nDimmesdale<\/strong>: Who?
\nPearl<\/strong>: Jk
\nDimmesdale<\/strong>: Are you kidding me
\nPearl<\/strong>: Nope
\nChillingworth<\/strong>: Mr. Dimmesdale! You must be sleep walking. Let me take you home.
\nDimmesdale<\/strong>: How did you know I was out here?
\nChillingworth<\/strong>: \u00a0Oh, I didn’t! I was with \u00a0Governor Winthrop as he \u00a0shuffled off his mortal coil. \u00a0You seem off tonight\u2014let me take you home.
\nDimmesdale<\/strong>: Ok! Btw you are my living nightmare and I’m trembling \u00a0in absolute horror.<\/p>\n\n