Dimmesdale’s sickness does not seem to get better. While being his leech, Chillingworth realizes that Dimmesdale’s illness may be caused by the stress created from keeping a great secret. Chillingworth learns the influences caused by keeping secrets, but he is also keeping a secret. He is not only being a leech to his patient's illness, but also to the patient’s sin. When Pearl throws a bur she attached to Hester’s Scarlet letter towards Dimmesdale, she identifies him as a sinner, and throws an extension of her mother’s sin towards Dimmesdale, foreshadowing that Dimmesdale and Hester must have a relation that cannot be directly revealed. This chapter gives a definition of what sin can do to one’s health, and how sin feeds off of sin making
