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Mira Sharma
Ms. Sidle
English III AP, Period 7
2 October 2014
Spiritual Versus Scientific
Puritan society is infamous for the mindsets of its members. In The Scarlet Letter
romantic medicine, Jane F. Thrailkill assesses the contradictions between the mindsets of
scientific people and spiritual people, establishing that the two groups possess conflicting ideas
regarding the significance of uncommon and unknown entities such as medicine. The author
provides substantial evidence to demonstrate that spiritual people interpret events as signs from
God and confide in Him, while scientific people view events as strings of mere coincidence and
trust in medicine. Thrailkill incorporates different authors views to contribute to the credibility
of her stance.While Thrailkill acknowledges various aspects of The Scarlet Letter, she
accurately concludes that Nathaniel Hawthornes main purpose is to express the different
mindsets of scientific people and spiritual people.
Given the Scarlet Letters setting in the seventeenth century, many people lacked
sufficient knowledge about medicine. Thrailkill correctly explains how the lack of knowledge in
medicine contributes for the reasonings people acquire for the subject of illness. When Roger
Chillingworth learns of herbs healing properties, he combines life of the mind with empirical
knowledge of the world (Thrailkill 5) Chillingworth roots his beliefs in science; accordingly, he
is one of few people who attain knowledge needed for a scientific understanding of human
illnesses. Armed with this knowledge, he understands that herbs and medicine can cure illnesses,
and does not need to trust God as the soul source of healing. When Arthur Dimmesdale claims
the physicians medicine is ineffective, he comes to the realization that the actual source of the

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ministers affliction lies in the realm of the spiritual (Thrailkill 10). As a religious man,
Dimmesdale believes that medicine can only treat an illness to a certain extent before a superior
being must intervene to mend the rest. The minister is unfamiliar with the herbal remedies
Chillingworth uses, and thus, does not trust them. Dimmesdale is uncertain whether the illness is
to be the souls disease, then do I [Dimmesdale] commit myself to the one Physician of the
soul (Hawthorne 91). Lacking medical knowledge and expertise, Dimmesdale retreats to what
he finds comfortable- trusting in God. In order to strengthen her stance, Thrailkill references and
recognizes other critics analysis of The Scarlet Letter. Historic critic, Stephanie Browner
deduces that Chillingworth fixes the object of his scrutiny with the blank, unassuming, and yet
knowing gaze of a new [scientific] medicine, (Thrailkill 2). Thrailkill includes the thoughts of
other authors to provide a second opinion. Chillingworth, a man of science, continues to put his
faith in medicine despite facing scrutiny from the townspeople.
Thrailkill indicates that, because people in the community interpret life events using
either a scientific or spiritual perspective, different community groups support conflicting views
on Chillingworths arrival. The spiritual community depicts Chillingworths arrival as a sign
from God to save Dimmesdale from death. In contrast, the scientific community perceives the
advent as a coincidence. Those in the spiritual community understand the physicians arrival in
religious terms (Thrailkill 6) and believe that he had been chosen for his spiritual guide the
Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 80). To some in this community, Chillingworths arrival
can be interpreted only spiritually; no other explanation beyond pure fate would suffice. The
spiritual and scientific communities also seek to describe the meteor event in

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ways that align with their respective community frameworks. The spiritual people encounter the
solitary human mind battering itself against a material world it can never actually know, a
dualistic realm in which the representations gesture impotently to things they can never
adequately embody (Thrailkill 11). Upon encountering the meteor event, the spiritual, Arthur
Dimmesdale, believes the phenomena is a sign from God. As the meteor lit up the sky, the shape
of the letter A appeared as well with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave
it (Hawthorne 102). Spiritual people seek reason in God regardless of circumstance; and strive
to find religious meaning in unnatural or supernatural events; while the scientific tend not to
scrutinize these events as carefully. Thrailkill recognizes the writings of Stanley Fish which
concludes that a certain kind of theological thinking forestalls interpretation (Thrailkill 3). The
inclusion of Fishs analysis, reinforces Thrailkills conclusion of how spirituals depictions are
influenced in terms of theological logic. Fish states that spirituals ideals are limited due to their
faith in God, which reiterates Thrailkills argument of spiritual mindsets.
Puritan society compromises two types of thinkers, the scientific and the spiritual. Those
in the scientific community emphasize the importance of logic, while the spiritual root their
beliefs in God. Thrailkill provides significant evidence by illustrating numerous instances in
which both parties interpret atypical events and ponder evidence differently.

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Word Count: 773

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Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. Ed. Leland S. Pearson. Norton
Critical ed. New York: Norton, 2005. 4-166. Print.
Thrailkill, Jane F. The Scarlet Letter romantic medicine. Studies in American Fiction 34.1
(2006): 3+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Sept. 2014.