, Research Paper
ATROPINE Poisoning: WAS IT THE CAUSE OF DIMMESDALE S DEATH?
In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jemshed A. Khan claims that Roger Chillingworth poisoned Arthur Dimmesdale with the drug atropine in Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter. Surely, Chillingworth was a adult male of accomplishment in all Christian manners of physical scientific discipline ( Hawthorne 65 ) and was really knowing about medicative roots and herbs ( Hawthorne 65 ) . Undoubtedly, he could hold been cognizant of how to poison Dimmesdale easy. Although Khan s line of speculation is slightly persuasive and apparently good supported, it does non keep up under intense scrutiny. There is much support in The Scarlet Letter to turn out that Dimmesdale did non decease from atropine.
The chief point of Dr. Kahn s article is to turn out that Chillingwrorth wanted to kill Dimmesdale through the usage of atropine toxic condition, but there are many parts in the novel that suggest Chillingworth wanted to maintain Dimmesdale alive to endure through his ain guilt. Evidence exists really early in the novel that deems Dr. Kahn s theory untrue. During Chillingworth and Hester s talk about who had wronged whom. Chillingworth says I shall plan nothing against his life ( Hawthorne 70 ) . Talking of Dimmesdale, Chillingworth goes on to state, he be a adult male of just reputation ( Hawthorne 70 ) . This transition entirely shows that Chillingworth did non desire to kill Dimmesdale, but would instead allow him endure through what he had done because after all he was suppose to be the prototype of puritan society and Chillingworth knew he would be sorrowing because of this. Another portion in the novel that supports the thought that Chillingworth
wanted Dimmesdale to endure from guilt is when the writer, Hawthorne, explains Chillingworth s motivations in going Dimmesdale s doctor. Hawthorne says that Chillingworth, being a adult male of accomplishment, plunge into the mind of Dimmesdale looking for secrets and cherished ideas that might assist him in the magnification of Dimmesdale s guilt ( 114 ) . The transition on 114 says nil about Chillingworth desiring to kill Dimmesdale. Another portion in
the novel once more suggests that Chillingworth had no purposes of poisoning Dimmesdale. During the last scaffold scene when Dimmesdale eventually resolves to allow his guilt be known to the town, Chillingworth says, There was no 1 topographic point so secret where 1000 couldst have escaped me, –save on this really scaffold ( Hawthorne 230-231 ) ! If Chillingworth were in fact easy poisoning Dimmesdale to decease, there would hold genuinely been no topographic point in the universe where Dimmesdale could hold escaped from Chillingworth non even on the scaffold.
There is even more grounds in the Scarlet Letter that reputes Dr. Kahn s thought of atropine toxic condition as the cause of Dimmesdale s decease. If Chillingworth were inveterate poisoning Dimmesdale, how would he hold received a sudden explosion of energy tardily in the novel as he did after is einghis meeting with Hester in the wood? Dimmesdale came back into town rejuvenated and believing about his and Hester s program to get away to Europe, demoing none of his marks of his recent faint-heartedness and feebleness ( Hawthorne196-197 ) . If Dimmesdale were in fact being inveterate poisoned by Chillingworth, energy explosions, like the 1 he experienced after his meeting with Hester, would non be possible ( 196-197 ) . In add-on to Dimmesdale demoing no marks of his recent unwellness, he starts to see the town and its people in a different manner. This new manner was a kind of evil enlightenment ( Hawthorne198 ) . Now here once more if Chillingworth were poisoning Dimmesdale there would be nil of a natural beginning that would salvage him from decease non even if he had made a treaty with Lucifer himself.
Dr. Kahn s theory of atropine toxic condition does non keep up good under intense examination, and would merely be true through the eyes of a individual who started reading the novel looking for marks of atropine or some other sort of poisoning. To a individual who starts reading the book with no prepossession as to what caused Dimmesdale s decease, the valid mentions in the novel that support the thought of some kind of poisoning are merely coinciding ; and the true ground of Dimmesdale s decease is shown through his overpowering since of guilt.
