The Scarlet Letter: Chapter 4

The color-coded bars in this section make it easy to track the themes throughout the work. Each color corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart. For instance, indicates that all five themes apply to that part of the summary.

Summary Analysis Themes

When Hester and Pearl return to prison, Pearl cries uncontrollably. The prison guards allow a doctor in to help calm her. Posing as a physician, Roger Chillingworth enters and gives healing concoctions to Pearl and Hester. Hester fears Chillingworth might actually be poisoning her, but drinks his remedy.

Though Chillingworth and Dimmesdale both sin by abandoning Hester, only Hester endures punishment for sin. Outcast and alone with Pearl, Hester can’t even trust her own husband.

Chillingworth forgives Hester for betraying him. He asks her to tell him the identity of the father, but once again she refuses. He then asks Hester to protect his identity by swearing never to identify him as her husband. Hester remains suspicious of Chillingworth and thinks she might be sealing her own doom by agreeing to keep his secret, but does it anyway.

Hester hides Dimmesdale and Chillingworth’s identities to protect them. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth conceal their own identities to protect themselves. Though a “sinner,” Hester is selfless.