Chapter 4 Summary

When Hester returns to jail, we find her visited by the newcomer, who caught her in the strange glance when upon the scaffold. Master Brackett, alarmed by Hester's state of nervous agitation, but more so from the child, who is convulsed with pain, has thought to bring a physician to the jail. The physician, presented as a man well skilled in the "Christian modes of physical science," is introduced as Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is a bit more than the traditional Puritan man of medicine, for he is a student of alchemy and Native American medicine.

Hester is very apprehensive of his being there. Indeed, he knows her well. One gathers he is, indeed, the husband of Hester, returned from his travels, only to have found her on the scaffold, announcing her adultery to the world. She fears he will take revenge on...