Scarlet letter

Chapter One: The Prison Door Summary A large crowd of Puritans stands outside of the prison, waiting for the door to open. The prison is described as a, "wooden jail...already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front." The iron on the prison is rusting and creates an overall appearance of decay. Outside of the building, next to the door, a rosebush …

…visible, thus contradicting the words that Dimmesdale has just spoken. Although Chillingworth is in the scene, he is no longer the main threat to Dimmesdale. By invoking divine intervention in the form of the meteor and then the large letter "A" in the sky, Hawthorne is in essence telling the reader that Dimmesdale is doomed to his fate. Thus Chillingworth can no longer influence the outcome of events, although he naturally does not realize this.