The Scarlet Letter

What is Hawthorne foreshadowin with the stranger's prediction that the name of the father will eventually be disclosed?

Chapter 3 on what page

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If there is irony implicit in the fact that Chillingworth is demanding Hester to give her child a father—since he should be the father of his wife’s child—it is also ironic that Dimmesdale, the actual father of Pearl, has to keep up his appearances as the town minister who is to try to make Hester confess the name of her child's father. She responds by telling him that she will bear both his and her shame, and that her child will never know her earthly father. Dimmesdale then publicly admits defeat and ceases trying to make Hester tell him the name, leaving the crowd unsettled and leaving Chillingworth with a sordid mission. Later in the novel, once we learn all the secrets that Hester is carrying, we look back at this scene with fond amusement, realizing that all of our main characters are holding back the truth with facades.

In essence, the quote foreshadows two things:

1) Chillingworth is going to investigate Pearl's parentage himself.

2) The reader will learn all of the facts behind Pearl's birth no matter how shocking.

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-scarlet-letter/study-guide/section2/