Question

find 10 quotes of psychological events that take place in chapters 17-24 in scarlet letter

Answer 1

Quote 1:

When Dimmesdale finds out about Chillingworth's manipulation:

"Thou shalt forgive me!" cried Hester, flinging herself on the fallen leaves beside [Dimmesdale]. "Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive!" (17.18)."

Quote 2:

When Dimmesdale wants the world to know who he really is:

"Had I one friend, —or were it my worst enemy! —to whom, when sickened with the praises of all other men, I could daily betake myself, and be known as the vilest of all sinners, methinks my soul might keep itself alive thereby. Even thus much of truth would save me! But now, it is all falsehood! —all emptiness! —all death!" (17.18)"

Quote 3:

Hester on feeling guilty and being blamed:

"The stigma gone, Hester heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit. O exquisite relief! She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom! (18.11-12)"

Quote 4:

Pearl asks her mother to know of Dimmesdale's hypocrisy:

"And will he always keep his hand over his heart?" inquired Pearl. (19.33-37)

Quote 5:

The narrator on Dimmesdale having sold his soul to the devil:

"Wicked mortals" have a lot in common with "perverted spirits" (20.17)."

Quote 6:

Pearl on feeling sad for Dimmesdale:

"What a strange, sad man is he!" said the child, as if speaking partly to herself. "In the dark night-time, he calls us to him, and holds thy hand and mine, as when we stood with him on the scaffold yonder! And in the deep forest, where only the old trees can hear, and the strip of sky see it, he talks with thee, sitting on a heap of moss! And he kisses my forehead, too, so that the little brook would hardly wash it off! But, here, in the sunny day, and among all the people, he knows us not; nor must we know him! A strange, sad man is he, with his hand always over his heart!" (21.10-12)

Quote 7:

On the unfeasible nature of Hester and Dimmesdale's relationship in front of society:

She thought of the dim forest, with its little dell of solitude, and love, and anguish, and the mossy tree-trunk, where, sitting hand in hand, they had mingled their sad and passionate talk with the melancholy murmur of the brook. How deeply they had known each other then! And was this the man? She hardly knew him now! (22.6)

Quote 8:

On Pearl growing up and learning the ways of the world:

Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled. (23.10-12; 30-32)

Quote 9:

The narrator on Hester's gaining wisdom through grief:

The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end! (24.11)

Quote 10:

The nature of Hester's tombstone, which even after death seems to ostracize her:

"It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so somber is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:—""On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."" (24.12)"