Chapters 12-19

    Several crucial turning points unfold in these 8 chapters, but I want to focus specifically on chapter 12. In this chapter, the four main characters are gathered at the scaffold for the first time since the beginning of the novel, when Hester stands alone facing the town. Despite being located in the same place, these two scenes could not be more different. The first scaffold scene takes place publicly in the daylight, with the town's scorn being directed solely at Hester. The chapter evokes the crushing feeling of Hester's shame and humiliation. In chapter twelve, however, the moment occurs during the midnight hours while the town sleeps. Both Hester and Dimmesdale take their places on the scaffold, but the scene is primarily focused on Dimmesdale's buried guilt. Readers witness the inner workings of his subconscious mind, which is arguably the source of his prolonged agony. The knawing feeling of his shame is further exacerbated by Pearl's repeated question, "Wilt thou stand with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?" (Hawthorne, 139). In the first half of the chapter, readers are under the impression that Dimmesdale wants his secret to be revealed, but Pearl's comment reaffirms his fear of public scrutiny. And so, he decides to keep the truth locked away. This is Dimmesdale's second refusal to publicly acknowledge his relationship with Hester, and on a more figurative level, his second denial of Christ/God's will. 

    Later on, when the red light miraculously flashes in the sky, it is suggestive of supernatural occurrences, but Hawthorne purposefully gives a natural explanation, insinuating the light's deeper meaning is a figment of Dimmesdale's imagination. Hawthorne says, the light was "doubtlessly caused by one of those meteors, which the night-watcher may so often observe, burning out to waste" (140). The answer as to whether the ominous A actually appears/holds a deeper meaning is ambiguous because the author does take time to describe how celestial abnormalities could be perceived as prophecies. Hawthorne reflects, "It was, indeed, a majestic idea, that the destiny of nations should be revealed, in these awful hieroglyphics, on the cope of heaven" (141). However, shortly after this, Hawthorne shifts back to a more practical interpretation of the situation. He states that the flashing A "could only be a symptom of a highly disordered mental state, when a man, rendered morbidly self-contemplative by long, intense, and secret pain, had extended his egotism over the whole expanse of nature, until the firmament itself should appear no more than a fitting page for his soul's history and fate" (141). To put it simply, Dimmesdale's guilt has grown so far out of his control that he is projecting his shame onto the world around him. What may have been a typical meteor shower is wrongly considered to be supernatural. The idea that this moment is simply a figment of Dimmesdale's imagination is not very mysterious, but it is indicative of his declining mental state. As the story continues to unfold, we can assume that Dimmesdale will continue to spiral out of control. - Hallie