This entire chapter — note the title — focuses on the spiritual battle warring within Dimmesdale. He has been transformed from the weak and dying man who went into the forest. Hawthorne here examines the nature of the fight and interjects his own comments at various points.
When Dimmesdale says that he will leave after his Election Day sermon so that he will be seen as leaving "no public duty unperformed," Hawthorne writes, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” The formerly weak, pitiful Dimmesdale leaves the forest with a new sense of purpose and energy. His thinking has been transformed by his will and that of Hester.
As if possessed, Dimmesdale returns to the town, a man on fire. He is tempted several times by the irrational, wild, blasphemous, and — what Dimmesdale calls “involuntary” — desire to do wicked things to members of his congregation and perfect strangers. Even Mistress Hibbins recognizes him as a kindred spirit.
