The Scarlet Letter Quotes
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Source: The Scarlet Letter
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
"We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep."
"Worthy sir," answered the physician, who had now advanced to the foot of the platform—"pious Master Dimmesdale! Can this be you? Well, well, indeed! We men of study, whose heads are in our books, have need to be straitly looked after! We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep. Come, good sir, and my dear friend, I pray you let me lead you home!"
Context
This line is from the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850).
Reverend Dimmesdale has been having a rough seven years. He's been racked with guilt over his role in turning Hester Prynne into the town outcast. See, she has a scarlet letter on her chest for giving birth to their illegitimate child, but, since he kept his mouth shut about their sexy times, he got to keep his cozy minister position. The guy is a fraud and he knows it.
Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth has made it his mission to psychologically torture Dimmesdale for his crimes. And he's pretty darn good at it. At this point in the book, Chillingworth comes to find Dimmesdale standing on the very same scaffolding where Hester was shamed seven years ago…and talks him out of confessing for his crimes. Hey, why let a good book come to an end?
Chillingworth basically tells Dimmesdale that he's been reading too many books. He's been thinking too much. He's getting too dreamy and reflective during the day and now he's sleepwalked up to the scaffold and thought about doing something stupid—confessing to a crime that he's actually committed. A crime no one suspects him of! Come back to reality, Dimmesdale! There, that's better, isn't it?
Where you've heard it
This is one of those quotes that you might see pinned on someone's wall and think, "Huh, what's that supposed to mean?" Well, now you know, friend. Now you know.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
This is sort of a pretentious thing to say, right? Chillingworth (who, let's not forget, is the bad guy in this story) is basically saying that if you spend too much time with your head in the clouds then you'll end up sleepwalking into some disaster. We'd use this one kind of sparingly at your next get-together.