Sunday, September 11, 2011

In "The Scarlet Letter", Chillingworth picks a medicinal weed from a grave. Where did he say it grew from? Chapter 10

asks the
physicianwhere he got a bundle of unpleasant looking herbs. Chillingworth responds he picked
them from an unmarked grave. He then tells Dimmesdale that they grew from the dead man's heart
because the man was harboring a dark secret that he never confessed.


Dimmesdale dismisses this idea as a mere fancy and says that God doesn't work that way.
Nevertheless, the conversation reveals that Chillingworth suspects that his companion is
harboring a secret. Chillingworth perceives in him an "animal" spirit he wants to
probe.

When Chillingworth persists that confession is good for the soul,
Dimmesdale agrees, saying that he has heard many a deathbed confession that relieved a person's
conscience. But he states that he also understands why a person would keep a dark secret buried,
as doing so could allow the person to continue to contribute to society. As Dimmesdale puts
it:

nevertheless, [from] 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.

Dimmesdale critiques a society that is so
judgmental that people feel forced to hide their sins.


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