Summary:
This chapter begins with Dimmesdale returning to town after agreeing to go to Europe with Hester. He is amazed by his regained health and his new view of the town. His agreement with Hester has given him his strength back and he is now realizing different things about the town. He's been gone for a few days and it feels like years. Dimmesdale is relieved that Hester's charity work got his family onto a ship to Europe. He is also ecstatic that it leaves in four days, because he can give a sermon at Election Day before he leaves. As he walks into town, he encounters various church members. With each encounter, he feels as if he can't hold back his corrupting ideas. He feels as if the Devil is trying to make him say things to shatter others beliefs. When Dimmesdale returns home, he tells Chillingworth that he no longer needs his medicine because he is feeling better. Once Chillingworth leaves, Dimmesdale throws his old sermon for Election Day. He starts a new sermon which he writes with passion that he has now found inside himself due too his visit to the woods.
Hester's Effect:
After Dimmesdale's meeting with Hester, he is changed. He sees the town differently and feels different. The decision he made with Hester has changed him. "The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale's feelings, as he returned from his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical energy, and hurried him townward at a rapid pace" (166). Dimmesdale is beginning to feel free from his sin because he now has a way out. Now that he has agreed to go to Europe with Hester, he no longer feels the burden. Even though sin is a bad thing, the fact that he is choosing to be good with Hester has helped him and brought him relief that led to physical improvement. Not only has the meeting brought better health, but new a new outlook on the town. Hawthorne describes, "As he drew near the town, he took an impression of change from the series of familiar objects that presented themselves. It seemed not yesterday, not one, nor two, but many days, or even years ago, since he had quitted them" (166). Dimmesdale recognizes familiarities in the town, but he feels as if he has been gone for a while. He feels as if everything has changed since he left. He has a new perspective on things within the town since he met with Hester. Hester is having a positive effect on Dimmesdale. Their meeting has helped him feel a sense of relief from his sin and affected him in positive ways.
Dimmesdale's Encounters:
On Dimmesdale's walk to his house, he encounters many different church members. Each person he meets is younger and more innocent than the first. Dimmesdale wants to let go of everything he is feeling, "at every step he was incited to do some strange wild wicked thing or other, with a sense that it would be at once involuntary and intentional" (167). He first meets with an old deacon. He was shaking and turning pale because he couldn't say what he wanted. He was laughing on the inside thinking about what the deacon would say to his new thoughts. An old widow then talks to him and he thinks, "The instilment thereof into her mind would probably have caused this aged sister to drop dead at once, as by effect of an intensely poisonous infusion" (168). Dimmesdale leaves the old woman with a smile on her face, and he doesn't remember what he told her. His beliefs and ideas are so far from the Puritan ideals that if he told people they would think he was crazy. His last encounter is with a pretty young woman who found relief in the church. As he talks to her he feels as if the devil is trying to sway him to say something to corrupt her. He fights the urge because he does not want to ruin the church for her. He then comes along a group of young children, and he gets an impulse to teach them "wicked words". He fights the urge and his last encounter is with Mistress Hibbins, the rumored witch. She asks him to take her to the woods next time. It is said that she is haunted by the devil, and he feels the same. After he takes in all that has just occurred he exclaims, "What is it that haunts and tempts me thus? [...] Am I mad? or am I given over utterly to the fiend? Did I make a contract with him in the forest, and sign it with my blood? And does he now summon me to its fulfilment, by suggesting the performance of every wickedness which his most foul imagination can conceive?" (170). Dimmesdale thinks that his agreement to leave with Hester is causing the devil to force him to let out his evil. He wonders if going away from the Puritan ideals and beliefs is a bad idea. These new revelations cause him to go home and start a new sermon full of passion.
Gossamer Thread:
I connected this chapter with this clip from Scrubs. Carla has just found out a secret from her friend Elliot, and she is tempted to tell it to everyone. She feels as if she can't keep it bottled in her. She wants to tell but she knows if she does it will have bad consequences. Carla's secret links to the new feelings Dimmesdale has and he is torn whether or not to tell them or not.
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