Inthere is
only one mention of 's chest, and it is after the meteor is witnessed by the villagers, when he
stood at the scaffold withand Hester in what is described as an "electric chain"
formed by the three.
At that point, the narrative reads:
And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and ,
with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the
connecting link between those two.
At this point in the
narrative,had been suspecting that something other than physical is gnawing away at the
minister. He discovers that Dimmesdale, out of the guilt and sadness he feels from what occurs
with Hester, has carved a letter "A" on his chest. This act of self-mutilation is
essentially his own way to "share" the pain of Hester's humiliation. Unfortunately, he
still refuses to divulge the true nature of his sin and continues to keep it a secret. No matter
how many letters Dimmesdale carves on his chest, he still needs to come out clean and redeem
himself the proper way.
Therefore, the reason why Dimmesdale continuously
puts his hand over his heart is because that is the location of the letter that he had put on
his chest, and the pain that he carries due to it is bad enough to keep him in a consistent
state of ailment.
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