Although I didn't understand at first that Chillingworth was actually poisoning Dimmesdale while he was supposed to be treating him, this aspect of his revenge made more sense, as I got further into the book. The cruelty of it was terrible, but it accomplished his goal of torturing him while he should have taken his rightful punishment for the crime he committed from the beginning. My opinion of Arthur Dimmesdale changed quite a bit from when I was first introduced to him until the end of the book. At first I thought that he was a cold heartless, cowardly man for not taking his part of the blame in the two-sided crime of adultery. His actions forced Hester to take all of the disgrace on herself. I believe that her disgrace was increased because there was no second person to take some of it. The townspeople looked at her as though she had committed the crime all by herself. The amount of guilt that Dimmesdale carried with him for not confessing right away was phenomenal. The longer he waited, the harder it became for him to confess, the more his guilt built up, and the easier it was for Chillingworth to torture him. The fact that he became physically sick with guilt amazed me, especially since I didn't realize that part of his sickness was credited to Chillingworth until later. His vigil and meeting with Hester and Pearl in the wee hours of the morning on the scaffold was the turning point of my impression of him. Pearl's role in the story, I felt, was the scarlet letter come to life. This is shown in several ways. She is a product of what Hester's red "A" represents and is usually dressed in shades of scarlet. She is described as having elfish qualities about her. Elves are most commonly thought to be mischievous and evil, which are both characteristics of the adultery the scarlet letter represents. In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of Pearl's character is her reaction to seeing her mother without her brand and cap when she meets with Mr.