In his interview with Hester Prynne within the prison,
Roger Chillingworth declares that he will discover the identity of who is the father of
Hester's child, and this man will be his and he will own the man's soul. Then, in
Chapter X of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne writes that
Chillingworth has become the physician of the Reverend Dimmesdale initially to merely to
attain the truth; however, as he has proceeded with his investigation, "a terrible
fascination" has seized upon the old man, and he has become
obsessed.
[He] dug into the poor clergyman's
heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a
sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the
dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption. Alas for his
own soul, if these were what he
sought!
And, like the miner
who seeks the mother lode, Chillingsworth continually probes, questioning Dimmesdale on
all sorts of topics, constantly watching the minister, delving deeper and deeper into
the soul of the minister. As he questions Dimmesdale, Chillingworth tells himself, "Let
us dig a little further in the direction of this vein!" as he seeks the secrets of
Dimmesdale's heart. Finally, the physician strikes the vein that contains gold. For,
while the minister sleeps, the "miner" pulls aside the vestment of Dimmesdale views that
which makes him feels ecstasy: he has discovered the
mother-lode.
No comments:
Post a Comment