Comment
Note that over and over again, both in the dialogue and in Hawthorne’s descriptive passages, the white man who stands on the edge of the crowd is called the “stranger.” This is Hawthorne’s bow to a literary convention of his day, that is, the introduction of an “unknown” character,, often called the “stranger.” (Both Hawthorne and his literary contemporary, James Fenimore Cooper, borrow this artistic device from the English novelist, Sir Walter Scott.) Each of Hawthorne’s romances features an “unknown” character, as well as many of the tales. It is ironical that the “stranger” (actually Dr. Prynne in disguise) must hear his own story retold by a townsman, but this is a fine device for allowing the reader to gain more knowledge of Hester’s past. The placing of the clergy and the magistrates together on the balcony points to the fact that in a theocracy (a state ruled by God) the state is the arm of the church, charged with enforcing its edicts.) Reverend Wilson’s comments about his fellow clergyman, Dimmesdale, allows the reader to have a good picture in his mind of the young minister before he speaks. (Compare the effect of this speech by Dimmesdale with that of his Election Day Sermon in Chapter XXII, The Procession.”) Dimmesdale describes how he feels about his own involvement in Hester’s sin, but the members of the audience, of course, do not realize that he is telling of his own suffering. When he urges Hester to speak and she still refuses, the young clergyman murmurs an “aside”: “Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman’s heart! She will not speak!” An aside is made up of lines spoken privately by an actor and supposed to be heard by the audience but not by the other actors.) This use of the “aside” shows the influence of the theatre on Hawthorne, as well as his use of melodramatic, Gothic writing techniques of his own day, emphasizing artificial, theatrical devices.
Summary
In this chapter the following things happen:
1. Hester’s husband, Dr. Prynne, appears on the edge of the crowd observing her. He signals that she is not to publicly recognize him. Through a conversation between a townsman and him (he is called the “stranger”), we learn that he has been detained in the wilderness by the Indians, and we get his displeased reaction to the fact that Hester will not name the father of her child.
2. The power of the Boston Puritan theocracy is emphasized, as Governor Bellingham, his military aides, and the Reverends Wilson and Dimmesdale are seen sitting on the balcony high above Hester’s scaffold of penance.
3. One after another, Reverend Wilson, Governor Bellingham, and Reverend Dimmesdale speak to Hester, urging her to name the father of her child. Dimmesdale’s speech mentioning her “fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer” is filled with irony (saying one thing and meaning another). In speaking of Hester’s lover, he is referring to himself – but only Hester and he know this fact. (Hawthorne has not named him as the father of the child, but the reader begins to suspect this to be so.) Hester establishes her love for Arthur Dimmesdale when she says that she wishes she “might endure his agony” as well as her own.
Chapter IV: “The Interview”
Hester and her baby, Pearl, both need medical attention, so a physician named Roger Chillingworth is brought to them in the prison. He is the “stranger” (actually, Dr. Prynne, her husband). After giving them medical care, Chillingworth discusses Hester’s situation, demanding to know the name of her lover. She refuses to tell him. Back in the prison, Hester Prynne is found to be “in a state of nervous excitement,” so much so that the jailer, Master Brackett, thinks it best to bring in a doctor. The infant also seems to be in deep distress. Master Brackett brings into Hester’s cell “the stranger” who earlier that day was so very much interested in her case. (For the purpose of convenience, he is living in the prison until his ransom has been arranged with the Indians.) The physician is introduced as Roger Chillingworth. He asks to see Hester alone, claiming that he will cause her to be more ready to accept “just authority” than she has been thus far. First, he cares for the child, by preparing some simple remedy. Hester thinks he wishes to poison the baby, but he assures her that the medicine will be good for it. Shortly, the infant sleeps. After looking intently for a while at Hester, he mixes a drink to help calm her. She questions him as to whether or not the medicine will kill her. He explains that he wishes for her to live, so that the “burning shame” (the scarlet letter “A”) will continue to “blaze” upon her bosom. At this point, he touches the letter, and it seems to “scorch into Hester’s breast,” as if it were “red-hot.” She drinks the medicine and seats herself on the bed, with him in a chair beside her. He begins to talk, blaming himself for marrying a girl of her youth and beauty. He says that he should have known from the beginning that she would someday be wearing a scarlet letter. Hester quietly replies: “I was frank with you. I felt no love.” He admits that she had not deceived him in this respect. He remarks that his life had been lonely and “cheerless” before he had married her. She had brought “warmth” into his existence. At this time, Hester murmurs that she has “wronged” him. He answers that they “have wronged each other” and that his was “the first wrong” because he, an old man, should never have married a “budding youth.” Thus, Chillingworth says: “I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me the scale hangs fairly balanced.” Then, he demands to know the name of Hester’s lover. She replies: “Ask me not! That thou shalt never know!” He tells her that few things remain “hidden from the man who devotes himself” to the “solution of a mystery.” All others may be deceived as to the man’s name, but he will not be. He declares: “I shall seek this man.” He feels that he will find him, for there will exist a certain bond of sympathy between the lover and himself when he comes near him. Hester’s lover will “tremble,” and Chillingworth will “shudder” in response. Then, Hester’s husband cries out: “Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!” Chillingworth realizes that Hester’s lover will wear “no letter of infamy wrought into his garment,” but he claims he will be able to read the letter on the guilty man’s heart. He will not betray him to the law, threaten his life, or even damage his reputation. Also, the unknown lover may even “hide himself in outward honor.” Chillingworth then asks Hester to do but one thing, and that is to keep secret the fact that he, himself, is Dr. Prynne, her husband. Even though she is not to be known as his wife, he still feels a closeness of connection with her and intends to stay in the town where she, her child, and her lover live. Hester asks why he does not publicly reveal her identity as his wife and cast her off. He explains that it might be that he does not care to be known as the husband of a “faithless woman.” Then Hester swears an oath that as far as the rest of the world is concerned her husband (Dr. Prynne) is dead. Above all, she is not to tell the secret of her husband’s identity to her lover. Chillingworth smiles as he leaves Hester. She asks if he is “like the Black Man that haunts the forest.” She wonders if he has led her into a “bond that will prove the ruin “of her soul. He says: “Not the soul, no not thine!” Thus Chillingworth’s cold and devilish revenge begins.
Comment
Throughout the romance, Pearl is seen as a token, a living representation, of her mother’s sin of adultery. In this chapter the child’s “convulsions of pain” physically parallel the “moral agony” endured the day by the unhappy mother. When the doctor, Roger Chillingworth, prepares to sooth the child by some medicine, Hester is afraid that he wishes to kill her; but he has no such object in mind. When Hester asks him whether he is giving her a poisonous drink, he explains to her that he does not desire her death, for he wishes her to live, and seeks “no vengeance” against her. But he establishes here the point that he does seek revenge on Hester’s lover. Thus, one of the main threads of the plot begins here: Chillingworth’s search for, and revenge upon, the father of Pearl. He indicates that he intends to “ruin” the soul of his victim. Often, Hawthorne tells us about his characters through elaborate descriptions of their actions and thoughts. Note that in this chapter the intimate conversation between Hester and her husband reveals much about their past actions, and helps us anticipate their future patterns of action.
Summary
The developments in this chapter are as follows:
1. Hester, alone except for her child, finally meets face to face her husband, Dr. Prynne, when he comes to the jail to give them medical attention. He has adopted the pseudonym, (fictitious name), Roger Chillingworth. At first, she fears that he wishes them bodily harm, but he assures her that he wishes her to live – to live in shame. His object is to have revenge on her lover, whose name he expects her to reveal to him. When she refuses to tell him the identity of the father of the child, he explains that he will persist until he eventually learns the ma