xxx/ellauri086.html on line 682: Because Dimmesdale´s health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, the newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister´s illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale is Pearl´s father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale´s vestment aside, Chillingworth sees a symbol that represents his shame on the minister´s pale chest.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 684: Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the square where Hester was punished years earlier. Climbing the scaffold in the dead of night, he admits his guilt but cannot find the courage to do so publicly in the light of day. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale´s deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband.
xxx/ellauri086.html on line 704: The major theme of The Scarlet Letter is shaming and social stigmatizing, both Hester´s public humiliation and Dimmesdale´s private shame and fear of exposure. Notably, their liaison is never spoken of, so the circumstances that led to Hester´s pregnancy, and how their affair was kept secret never become part of the plot.
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