This chapter is to introduce Roger Chillingworth to the readers. It's also give information on the relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. Chillingworth was admired throughout the town, because he was the only skilled doctor. He was a religious man and took great interest in Dimmesdale's preaching. The Minister became sick, and the sickness only worsened. Chillingworth had offered to help him, but he generousily refused his help. It got to the point where everyone began to suspect the Minister of being suicidal. The puritans began to believe that the arrival of Chillingworth was God's way of sending aid to the sickly Minister. With the minister's refusal the puritans thought of his rejection as a sin. That's when Dimmesdale finally gave into the offer. 
    Roger Chillingworth became his medical advisor and the two ended up spending a lot of time together. The Minister was fascinated with the clergyman's way of thinking. Soon they started to live together so that Chillingworth could observe every aspect of the Minister's life and determine his illness. The name of this chapter is The Leech for a reason. A leech sticks to a person and sucks their blood. It's a metaphor for Roger Chillingworth. 
    One day Roger Chillingworth found plants growing near an unmark tombstone and told Dimmesdale that it was an indicator of the wrong-doings of a sinner who never confessed:
“They are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.”-Hawthorne
    The Minister was taken back but soon defended the "dead sinner", which led the Chillingworth suspicious to why the Minister quickly came to defense. They begin to have a argument for this dead sinner. It became a metaphoric conversastion.

    Once Hester and Pearl approached Governor Bellingham in the garden, the noticed they weren't the only visitors. Of course the visitors were Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. Hawthorne seems to like adding a good coincidence to his writing. When Bellingham notices Pearl's bright red dress, he questions it to Hester. Hester who is already on the brink of losing her daughter, angers Bellingham with dressing her daughter in an "inappropriate" manner. She explains to him that her clothes are made to teach Pearl a lesson that she has learned by wearing the scarlet letter. Bellingham is still not sure whether Hester should keep the child, so he asks Pearl who made her. Everyone suspected her answer to be God himself, but Pearl with her elfish ways answered that she was plucked of the rose bush outside of the prison door. Hawthorne is symbolizing Pearl for her beauty again, and comparing it to the rose bush outside the prison. 
    Hester pleaded to keep her only child. She stated that God had sent Pearl to her and it was her right as Pearl's mother to raise her. She called for Dimmesdale's help and told him that it was his job as a minister to understand the circumstance. Dimmesdale strangely defended Hester by saying that God had given Pearl to her as a blessing out of her sins. Not only was she a blessing, but a punishment too. The wise minister had spoken and Governor Bellingham couldn't go against his words. He believed everything Dimmesdale had told him because he believed it was everything God was telling him. Pearl, noticing all of this, made a loving gesture towards Dimmesdale:
    "Pearl, that wild and flighty little elf, stole softly towards him, and, taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself,—“Is that my Pearl?” Yet she knew that there was love in the child’s heart..."-Hawthorne
    Dimmesdale hesitated to kiss her on the forehead, but he did. This raises questions to why the two are so loving towards each other. The whole meeting had turned out to be all about Pearl.

    Hester Prynne was supposed to deliver a pair of gloves she had  embroidered to Governor Bellingham, yet that's not the only thing she was hoping to deliver in her visit. She was hoping to persuade him into letting her keep Pearl. Although Hester was worried of losing her one and only person who keeps her company, she walked towards his house with determination. Hawthorne's description of the house, made it seem to have a cheerful vibe and it put Hester and daughter in awe. 
    Irony plays a role in this chapter. As soon as Pearl spotted the red roses in the garden she demanded to have one. Just like the red roses outside of the Prison, this symbolized beauty in a morbid setting. Hawthorne made it clear that the rose was implying to beauty. In the beginning of this chapter, Hawthorne uses Pearl as a symbol and describes her as the scarlet letter itself:
her, in contriving the child’s garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play...But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and, indeed, of the child’s whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!"-Hawthorne
    

    A pearl is made in an oyster through heat and pressure. The making of a pearl is a metaphor for Hester's Situation. Her daughter was created out of a sin, yet Pearl came out beautiful. I guess in a Puritan's mind, they expected her to come out with red skin and horns. Just like her mother, she inherited that wild spirit that made her unique amongst other puritans. She was born an outcast due to her mother's punishment and didn't socialize or play with other children. Even though there's only Hester and Pearl to keep each other company, you can tell that it seizes some of the loneliness. In this chapter it reveals that Hester is living in a cottage in the woods, on the outskirts of the town. Hawthorne is using personification to describe Hester's loneliness and isolations towards the town. It aslo says that the cottage is near the shore. The shore represents Hester's yearning to leave.  It's obvious there's a special bond between the her and her daughter. Whether Hester is in her lonely, isolated cottage or in the marketplace, little Pearl is there to keep her mother company:
    "Never, since her release from prison, had Hester met the public gaze without her. In all her walks about the town, Pearl, too, was there; first as the babe in arms, and afterwards as the little girl, small companion of her mother, holding a forefinger with her whole grasp, and tripping along at the rate of three or four footsteps to one of Hester’s."-Hawthorne
    In this chapter, you get the sense that Hester is worried for her child. Sometimes Pearl can do unexplainable, weird things that leaves her mother questioning to if there's evil inside her. Yet again, Pearl is only a child, but in a Puritans way of thinking it could be easily mistaken for something unholy. Hester's paranoia displays itself in this chapter:
    "At last, her shot being all expended, the child stood still and gazed at Hester, with that little, laughing image of a fiend peeping out—or, whether it peeped or no, her mother so imagined it—from the unsearchable abyss of her black eyes."-Hawthorne

    After Hester Prynne's penalty and she returns to the prison, she cannot be calmed. The jailer, Master Brackett notices that the baby can't also be calmed. He believes that the baby is drinking Hester's depressed emotions from her milk. Brackett calls for a doctor and of course out of ironic circumstances the doctor is Chillingworth. In this chapter, Chillingworth's jealousy is greatly revealed:
    “He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, as thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart. Yet fear not for him! Think not that I shall interfere with Heaven’s own method of retribution, or, to my own loss, betray him to the gripe of human law. Neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life, no, nor against his fame; if, as I judge, he be a man of fair repute. Let him live! Let him hide himself in outward honor, if he may! Not the less he shall be mine!”-Hawthorne
    This creates a complication and the threat of affliction in the novel. It also leaves readers questioning to who the father might be. In a way, I feel pity for Chillingworth. He's a deformed, lonely man who let Hester Prynee into his life and heart only to be betrayed. Although I think he had it coming, leaving her alone for such a long time.  Hester's feelings for Chillingworth were obvious:
"thou knowest that I was frank with thee. I felt no love, nor feigned any."-Hawthorne

    In this chapter, Hester becomes aware of an Indian amongst the crowd and an English man standing next to him dressed in a combination of English and Indian garments. Of course, Hawthorne goes into great detail with this gentleman. You can tell from Hester Prynne's reaction is that this character is important to the story:
     "Again, at the first instant of perceiving that thin visage, and the slight deformity of the figure, she pressed her infant to her bosom, with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered another cry of pain. But the mother did not seem to hear it." -Hawthorne.  
    It turns out that this man is the husband she cheated on. The husband who lived in England and sent Hester to American to live while he finished up some business work. I find it very ironic that he arrived on the day of her penalty. 
    When Reverend Wilson tries his best to persuade her to tell the truth about Pearl's father, he only fails and his fury gets rejected. That's when he calls to Reverend Dimmesdale to persuasion. Suspicions start to grow when you read about Dimmesdale's nervousness. The novel clearly stated that he was nervous yet i didn't pick up on it till his reaction was revealed: 
    “She will not speak!” murmured Mr. Dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony, with his hand upon his heart, had awaited the result of his appeal." -Hawthorne
    Dimmesdale was leaning over the edge of the balcony, with his hand over his heart. This raises questions to the readers.

        Chapter two is where the story begins. Nathaniel Hawthorne spends a great deal of the beginning of the chapter describing the setting. His descriptions of the prison and its door were already revealed in chapter one, yet he continues his descriptions of it in chapter 2. He states that it was a bright sunny day, with people among the prison waiting anxiously to see who was going to be punished. Hawthorne adds:
"But, in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It might be that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authority, was to be corrected at the whipping-post..."-Hawthorne
     This information is important because it's the first passage in the book that gives you a hint on how a Puritan's mind works. With a harsh Puritan's character, the audience amongst the prison door can't determine the prisoner or their crime. They can only determine his or her fate, because they've had so many executions or public punishments for simple reasons.
    A group of women are gathered around each other in the audience. They know that Hester Prynne is the one who is being punished, and some are quite pleased with it. I started to question why they were talking poorly about Hester Prynne, until the description of her made it obvious that they were jealous of her beauty:
     "The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes."-Hawthorne.
    It was obvious that Hester Prynne was trying her best to cover up her dismay. Hawthorne made a good first impression on the main character. He also makes the scarlet letter a well-known symbol by adding great details of it, and how Hester decorated it with golden lace. In her hands she holds her newborn baby, Pearl. Nathaniel Hawthorne makes it clear that she is beautiful just like her mother, yet does not go into great detail with her until chapter six.

    “Don’t you know,” cried the ship’s captain, “that this doctor here—he calls himself Chillingworth—has decided to try ship’s cooking along with you? Yeah, sure, you must have known. He tells me that he is a member of your
party and a close friend of the gentleman you spoke of—the one that is in danger from these sour old Puritans.”-Hawthorne
    Hester and pearl walk through the market on this Holiday, that welcomes the new Mayor. Pearl questions to why Dimmesdale won't hold their hands during the day and only during the night. Her mother beats around the bush with the question by saying they'll all hold hands one day and she mustn't talk about it in the public. Pearl is in awe of the scenery and is excited to see all the happy faces. Everyone in the market is either wearing brown or gray, while Pearl is wearing pastel colors. Hawthorne wanted to make her unique. Then Hester spots Chillinworth talking to the same sailor that agreed to let her, Pearl and Dimmesdale board his ship. Shocked, Hester talks to the sailor and he tells her that Chillingworth will be joining them on their journey to Europe because the need a Doctor. Hester is shocked and becomes stressed towards her new situation. This adds a conflict towards the end of this novel. The mood shifts from being anxious to hopeless due to Chillingworth ruining their plans. There's no escaping him and readers begin to wonder if Hester's and Dimmesdale's sin will go public.

    Dimmesdale isn't the only one being overwhelmed by guilt. Hester notices his unhealthy condition and begins to suspect Chillingworth might be the cause of it. Even though she made a promise, Hester's guilt has driven her to tell the truth. She decides to confront Chillingworth on the beach. She notices the seven years change in Chillingworth. He was no longer studious, calm and quiet man he once was. He looked fierce and this shocked Hester. 
    Once Hester had told Chillingworth that she wants to reveal the truth, Chillingworth quickly jumps to his defense by saying he's done nothing wrong to Dimmesdale. This I believe is not true. He's put more stress upon Dimmesdale by questioning his sins and making his condition worse. 
    "Forgive, and leave his further retribution to the Power that claims it! I said, but now, that there could be no good event for him, or thee, or me, who are here wandering together in this gloomy maze of evil, and stumbling, at every step, over the guilt where with we have strewn our path."-Hawthorne
    Hester tells Chillingworth to forgive and let go of his yearning for revenge. Her metaphor for this situation is strong. Chillingworth also uses a strong metaphor by saying she planted a seed of evil inside him when she stumbled in her life. He tells her to let the black flower bloom and leave him be.

   "The chain that bound her here was of iron links, and galling to her inmost soul, but never could be broken." -Hawthorne
When Hester's sentence is finally over, she passes up the opportunity of leaving the town. Instead she decides to remain in the town to suffer through her guilt. She was granted the license to live in a small, abandoned cottage on the outskirts of the town. A lonley cottage near the shore. The shore representing Hester's yearning to leave. The chain is a symbol in the novel, that reprsents the strength of Hester's guilt. Her guilt is compared to an iron chain that forces her to stay where she is. Pearl's father lives in the town, and she obviously doesn't want to move away from him.  
    In the Novel, Hester is gifted with a skill that makes a living for her and her little daughter Pearl. She can make beautiful clothing. Her work can be found all over the town. It can be found on babies, women, men and even the dead. Though she makes these garmets, she is prohibited to make a wedding dress as another punishment and indicator for her sin.  There's a sense of lonlieness and isolation in this chapter when it describes Hester's life. She can't go anywhere withought being reminded of her sin, becauses it's right there on her chest. Through her punishment she had become more sensitive to what people that of her:
    "From first to last, in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture."-Hawthorne