e people to take her punishment, while Dimmesdale has not. Chillingworth makes use of this fact to torment the preacher, but the real torment comes from inside and perhaps manifests itself not only in his general decline but in the stigmata on his chest. The ambiguities of Hester's position are apparent in Pearl, the child who is both light and dark, a symbol of Hester's sin and also a symbol of her redemption. The child's reaction to Dimmesdale points out the nature of his suffering and his sin, for she asks why he will not stand with she and her mother on the scaffold and why he holds his hand to his chest.
The reaction to all four of the primary characters is both positive and negative, with the most positive reaction being for Hester and the most negative for Chillingworth. Chillingworth is the character who brings out the greatest shift in thinking. At first, the reader may have some sympathy for this man, given that he has been betrayed by his wife, but the more the reader learns
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