Shrewsbury 1
Austen Shrewsbury
Mrs. Tamara Kunkel
English III
January 25, 2010
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Chapters 23 & 24 Rewrite/Summary
`The sermon delivered by the Reverend Dimmesdale weighed heavily upon the parishioners, who, despite their past affirmations that he was indeed the most saintly of men, felt somehow that their spirits had been touched by the Devil in receiving the Election Day homily. Truly the Reverend had appeared better in health, for it was agreed upon by all that Roger Chillingworth had, while residing in the domicile of the minister, trickled slowly upon him an unholy ailment of the Black Man. Though, in the thoughts of the congregation, there nagged a nameless fret, which repeated into their minds the harsh words of the minister. His usual denunciation of wrongdoing - from simple peccadillo to ghastly sin – was forthright and formidable, leaving little room for any other interpretation than the imposing point that he aimed to achieve. This, however, was not the core of his latest homily. The minister had stood before the alter this day, and, appearing to receive a great epiphany, articulated his sermon in a fervent manner. He spoke at length of the liberating confession of one's sins, to which all present agreed, making a show of nods. Conversely, the Reverend seemed to contradict himself as he concluded his sermon with a theory that one whose sins remained veiled is not one condemned. Revered minister or no, the parishioners could not dismiss this blatant reversal in his previous philosophies and teachings. It was the cause of the turnaround which most perplexed and disturbed them. Perhaps with a reclusive heart, yet constantly in the manner of a confident man, had not the minister persistently spouted his ideals of veracity through confession? Certainly now there boiled beneath his divine exterior an iniquitous design. Indeed Mr. Dimmesdale planned an escape, and in contract with none other than the core of his hidden and deprecating transgression. For, upon abandoning the alter at which he delivered his unholy revelation, the minister, if so he may still be called, sought Hester Prynne. Hester herself took the hand of the child Pearl, who by all accounts was very keen and observant to those situations that otherwise would not concern her. Though her mother still withheld from her the clandestine plot of escape, the child was aware by the guarded atmosphere surrounding her mother and the minister that a scheme was afoot. Mr. Dimmesdale found Hester with Pearl, and they - Hester the single known sin and Dimmesdale the single unknown sin of the settlement - set forth to the docks, past the inattentive inhabitants of Boston. There at the gangway, the threshold of freedom from the hampering sin that had disturbed their existence for so long, the minister, the misread sinner, and the mischievous child, of deity or of devil, joined in a soulful amalgamation. Who then appeared was none other than the physician, Roger Chillingworth, who had
