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The Scarlet Letter: Chapter 11,
“The Interior of a Heart”
Martin Arcibal
Christine Alimboyao
Kelley Henderson
Shane Hall
AP English, Language
and Composition
Rhetorical Analysis
• The Interior of the Heart”
- a connection between the dark secrets
concealed by Rev. Dimmesdale and the
Puritan society
- emphasis on hypocrisy
• the mocking of Puritan beliefs and ideology
• Confusion of justice and vengeance
- “All that dark treasure to be lavished on the
very man to whom nothing else could so
adequately pay the debt of vengeance
(Hawthorne 136)!”
Rhetorical Analysis (cont.)
 Existence of a religious hierarchy
- “Their voices came down, afar and indistinctly, from the upper
heights where they habitually dwelt (Hawthorne139).”
 Ignorance (delusion)
- “He had spoken the very truth and transformed it into the
veriest falsehood (Hawthorne 141).”
 Association of lust to religious fervor
- “The people knew not the power that moved them thus…
The virgins of his church grew pale around him, victims of a
passion so imbued with religious sentiment that they imagined
it to be all religion, and brought it only, in their white bosoms,
as their most acceptable sacrifice before the altar (Hawthorne
139).”
Characters:
Dimmesdale:
And yet, but the constitution of his
nature, he loved the truth and loathed the
lie, as few men ever did. Therefore, above
all things, he loathed his miserable self!”
(Hawthorne 141).
Chillingworth:
He became, thenceforth, not a
spectator only, but a chief actor in the
poor minister’s interior world. He could
play upon him as he chose” (Hawthorne
137).
Symbols and Biblical Allusions
♥ Grass: “And all this time, perchance, when poor Mr. Dimmesdale was
thinking of his grave, he questioned with himself whether the grass would
ever grow on it because an accursed thing must there be buried.”
♥The other clergymen: Other clergymen are mentioned and elaborated on in
this section to contrast their mentalities and qualities with those of
Dimmesdale.
♥ Pentecost: The Pentecost is a celebration that takes place fifty days after
Easter. In the Scarlet Letter the allusion is “All that they lacked was the gift
that descended upon the chosen disciples at Pentecost, in tongues of flame…”
Biblical reference as described in the Book of Acts 2:1-6, says essentially that
the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and gave them the “tongues of
flame” which allowed them to understand one another despite language
barriers.
♥Enoch: who is sometimes referred to as Saint Enoch the Patriarch, although
very few acknowledge him as a saint; he was a descendent of Adam, and a
quote describing him from the bible is that: “Enoch walked with God; he was
not; for God took him.” The allusion to him in the Scarlet Letter is: “I whose
daily life you discern the sanctity of Enoch…”
THEMES
– Ignorance:
• Despite Dimmesdale’s admissions to the fact that
he has committed a great sin, his society ignores it
and places him on an even higher pedestal.
– Hypocrisy:
• Dimmesdale is unwilling to reveal what his sin
actually is, which forces his listeners to think of
him as even holier than they originally thought.
– Vengeance and Sin
• Chillingworth becomes obsessed with proving
Dimmesdale’s guilt. This causes the deterioration of
Chillingworth’s mental as well as physical being.
– Perception
• In their society, both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale
are viewed as entities of goodness and purity,
whereas their true characters are contradictory to
such perceptions.
Fin