Gentzel - Moral: Hawthorne flat out says that this is what the whole novel's moral is about: being truthful. He says that we must be truthful, not just of good things, but about our worst sins. He goes to the extreme of saying to reveal our worst. Or if not the exact worst, something which would infer the worst. Dimmesdale was unable to be at peace until he revealed his worst. Since Hester revealed her worst early on, she was free from the curse at the start. Hawthorne also doesn't say to reveal the worst truth to just a couple of your close friends. Rather, to reveal this worst truth "to the world." He wants everyone to be fully open with the truth, not just the good truths, but the bad ones too. In fact, especially the bad truths. This is the moral of The Scarlet Letter. However, one must wonder whether or not it is best to reveal the whole truth. Some things are better left unsaid.

Gentzel - Ignorance: There is symbolism in how there were several people who claimed to have seen no letter A on Dimmesdale. This can be symbolic meaning how some people refuse to see the sins. Some people will ignore and hide from the truth being revealed out of fear. It is clearly not questioning if Dimmesdale truly revealed the truth to all of the persons in absolute truth because he clearly did. Instead, it's people refusing to let them see the truth. The second reason could be to make the letter A that appeared seem more symbolic than actually there. Since only some of the people saw it and some didn't, it may or may not have truly been there and been an actual event. Instead, it may have just been some developed rumor or supernatural event (like the letter A meteor). The author makes a point to say that the persons who did not see it were "highly-respectable" and not just hallucinating morons.

Gentzel - The Fortune: This is a very befuddling section. Chillingworth leaves to Pearl his wealth. Through the rest of the novel, Chillingworth is held as evil. He is held as the devil. However, he is being nice to Pearl. Why is this? My argument is that he is (for lack of a better word) apologizing to her. Chillingworth has no reason to hate Pearl. It was not her fault that Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale. Chillingworth simply wanted revenge. Since the A took revenge on Hester, and Chillingworth tortured Dimmesdale until death, he has no more reasons to do hateful acts. Those two were the only ones he needed to curse. Since he cursed Pearl's dad and knew her mother was cursed by the A, he felt some sort of need to make it up to Pearl by leaving his wealth to her. He would not be kind or human enough to say it to Pearl's face, but he did it the only way such a shell of a human could.

Chillingworth's Corruption: In the beginning, Chillingworth was shown as a man who is merely odd and creepy. However, at this point in the novel, he has completely transformed into the devil. The author explains that this is due to his seven years of devotion towards cursing and torturing another man (Dimmesdale). This was all Chillingworth had for entertainment and enjoyment through these seven years. Because of this, all Chillingworth has left is to torture and cause pain to Dimmesdale. In fact, he no longer appears to get much joy out of it as Hawthorne describes him as an "unhappy man." So he tortures Dimmesdale not to cause joy, but simply to relieve his own pain and burden as he no longer is able to experience joy due to the undergone transformation. In fact, I would argue that through torturing Dimmesdale, Chillingworth tortured himself. Any pain Dimmesdale feels, Chillingworth does too.