us to Roger Chillingworth, the "elderly" doctor, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the young reverend. Renaming himself upon his arrival at the village, Chillingworth has hidden his past from everyone except for Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Assuming a new identity, he incorporates himself into society in the role of a doctor. Because the townsfolk had very little access to good medicine, he is welcomed and valued. In addition to the European body of knowledge he carries with him, he also mixes some of "native" or "natural" remedies because he was captured by Indians and lived with them for a time. The "leech" (doctor) has attached himself to Dimmesdale because the younger man has been suffering from health problems. Specifically, Dimmesdale has heart trouble. But because they are both intellectuals, Dimmesdale's relationship with Chillingworth involves more than just an exchange of pills or elixirs: they also have frequent and deep conversations. The inwardly tortured minister soon becomes Chillingworth's great puzzle; Chillingworth relentlessly and mercilessly seeks to find the root of the minister's condition. Though Chillingworth wants to know all about Dimmesdale (even his most private secrets), Dimmesdale has grown suspicious of all men, confiding in no one. During one of their conversations about shame and redemption, they see Pearl dancing in the graveyard and putting burrs in the shape of an "A" on Hester's chest. When Chillingworth asks about secular and spiritual health, Dimmesdale simply, and testily, says that such matters are only between himself and God. At the end of the chapter, Chillingworth comes upon Dimmesdale asleep and pushes aside the shirt that Dimmesdale is wearing. What he sees on Dimmesdale's chest makes the leech rejoice. Initially, most townsfolk see Chillingworth's arrival as a Divine deliverance. At the end of Chapter 9, however, the narrator notes that now Chillingworth appears to them to be "Satan himself,...
