Later, the minister is asleep in a chair and Chillingworth makes his dark discovery. The spectacular but mysterious reference to Dimmesdale's chest, at the end of the chapter, is an important “clue” that we should remember when we reach Chapter 23. At this point, Chillingworth has identified his quarry.
In this chapter, Hawthorne further develops an important thematic purpose by establishing a firm connection between the body and the soul, the external representation of the inner character (“A strange sympathy betwixt soul and body”). The reader is explicitly lead to interpret the appearances and actions of the characters symbolically with the description of Chillingworth’s appearance and actions as he uncovers the secret that lay on Dimmesdale’s bosom. The major characters, in fact, are more important as symbols than real people. If their actions seem extraordinary or preternatural to one’s sense of reality, he should look carefully to the development of the symbol where objects “loose their actual substance, and become things of intellect.” (See The Custom House commentary.)
