Chaper 10 - The Leech and His Patient

Ch. 10- The Leech and His Patient

Summary-
   Roger Chillingworth is now living with Dimmesdale and is trying to figure out what is making him so sick. He starts to believe that Dimmesdale has a secret that he is keeping to himself and that is affecting his well-being. Chillingworth persistently tries to get him to confess to the secret or at least admit that he has one, but Dimmesdale is sure to give nothing away. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth discuss secrets and whether one should take them to the grave or confess to them well they are still alive. Well they are talking, they hear Pearl outside with Hester.

1. Dimmesdale’s Secret and the Puritan Society
   In the Puritan society, people believed that God had already chosen who was going to go to Heaven and who would go to Hell. Because of this, everyone was supposed to look poised and collected, like they were the one of the chosen ones. They would appear as if nothing was wrong and they had this perfect life. This is part of the reason why Dimmesdale keeps his secret and doesn’t tell anyone that he is Pearl’s father. He is supposed to appear like he has everything under control, especially because he is a minister, but also to appear like he is one of the chosen few that will go to Heaven. When he is talking to Chillingworth he says, “‘Guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare, they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them; no evil of the past be redeemed by better service’” (Hawthorne 101). He is saying that in the eyes of men, everyone has to appear good and “clean” because if they do not, they will be seen as worthless and “no good can be achieved by them.” He has to keep his secret of else no one with think highly of him as they do know and he will certainly not be seen as one of the few people that get into Heaven.

 
2. Flowers and Graves
   While Chillingworth is trying to find herbs and things he can use to make medicine for Dimmesdale, he comes across a grave with no tombstone or anything to acknowledge the dead man who was buried there. He finds weeds and herbs there and he thinks that they grew and represent the secrets that the man buried with him. He says to Dimmesdale, “‘They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him’” (Hawthorne 100). In this scenario, the flowers represent the secrets men have and they can either confess to them while they are alive or not and be buried with them. So far, Chillingworth plans to be buried with his secret about being Pearl’s father and not tell anyone about it.

 
   Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are discussing the topic of secrets when they hear Pearl and Hester outside. They see Pearl dancing on a grave and she takes some burrs from near the grave and places them on the scarlet letter. The narrator describes this and says, “ [...] Little Pearl paused to gather the prickly burrs from a tall burdock which grew beside the tomb. Taking a handful of these, she arranged them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom, to which the burrs, as their nature was, tenaciously adhered. Hester did not pluck them off” (Hawthorne 102). The burrs are similar to the flowers that Chillingworth found on the other grave. Both were, in fact, found right near a gravestone and have to do with secrets. When Pearl places the burrs she found on her mother’s chest she is almost telling her that she knows Hester has a secret and that is that she knows who the father of Pearl is, but won’t tell anybody. Pearl wants to know who the father is and by pulling these burrs off of the grave and putting them on the scarlet letter, it is almost a way of telling Hester that she will find out her secret and won’t let her take it to the grave like the other man buried near there did. She wants Pearl to have these flowers now and tell her secret while she is alive.

 
   A short while later, she looks up and sees Dimmesdale and Chillingworth looking at her and she throws some of the burrs at Dimmesdale. She is trying to convey a similar message to Dimmesdale that she did to Hester. Although she may not know he is her father, she has an idea that he has a secret and she also wants him to tell the world what it is and not take it to the grave with him either.

Wow Factor
Bad Case of Loving You-

 
“Doctor, doctor, give me the news / I got a bad case of lovin' you / No pill's gonna cure my ill / I got a bad case of lovin' you”

   Chillingworth is trying to find out what is wrong with Dimmesdale, when really it is his affection towards Hester and his secret that he is Pearl’s father that is ailing him. “No pill's gonna cure my ill / I got a bad case of lovin' you.” This line from the song relates to Dimmesdale because until he tells the community and everyone else what he did, nothing can help him. Anything that Chillingworth gives him might help, but it won’t completely cure him because his sin and not being honest about what he has done is really what is making him sick, as Chillingworth thinks.

“Looking for Alaska” by John Green

      Two of the main characters, who go by the names “Pudge” and “The Colonel” go to a private school with a girl who goes by the name “Alaska.” They were all hanging out and then went to bed and Pudge and the Colonel were woken up in the middle of the night by Alaska crying saying that she needed to leave. They helped her get her things and let her leave without telling anyone what happened and figured she would come back. The next morning, they find out she was killed in a car crash. Throughout the rest of the novel, Pudge and the Colonel, but especially Pudge feel really guilty that they just let her leave like that and didn’t try to stop her.
   This relates to “The Scarlet Letter” because in both novels, a character knows something no one else does and can’t tell anyone about it or they could get in serious trouble. Dimmesdale knows he is the father of Pearl but because of the Puritan society, he can’t say anything or he could be seriously harmed. In “Looking for Alaska,” Pudge can’t say anything because he could get in a lot of trouble for letting Alaska leave when she wasn’t allowed to and not telling anyone even after they all knew what happened to her.