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"...where, in compliance with a custom thus early established, and ever since observed, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale was to deliver an Election Sermon."
Dimmesdale, still guilty but now at peace, will give a sermon in front of many people, and could say something he shouldn't.

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"By this time the preliminary prayer had been offered in the meeting-house, and the accents of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale were heard commencing his discourse."
The reverend has finally started his sermon, which the whole chapter has built up to.

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"Her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a delusion, and that, vividly as she had dreamed it, there could be no real bond betwixt the clergyman and herself."
There's suddenly doubt that Hester and Dimmesdale are meant to be together, and about them ending up running away with Pearl like they planned.

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"...still, if the auditor listened intently, and for the purpose, he could detect the same cry of pain. What was it? The complaint of a human heart, sorrow-laden, perchance guilty, telling its secret, whether of guilt or sorrow, to the great heart of mankind; beseeching its sympathy or forgiveness,--at every moment,--in each accent,--and never in vain!"
The audience can hear the reverend's pain and guilt in his passionate voice, and he could very well tell the truth about himself at any moment.

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"These, after exhausting other modes of amusement, now thronged about Hester Prynne with rude and boorish intrusiveness."
The people outside the church were giving all their attention to Hester, and making her feel like she did when she first stood on the scaffold.

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"...tormented Hester Prynne, perhaps more than all the rest, with their cool, well-acquainted gaze at her familiar shame. Hester saw and recognized the self same faces of that group of matrons, who had awaited her forthcoming from the prison-door, seven years ago..."
Everything that happened seven years ago seems to be replaying itself.

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"And yet the men of civil eminence, who came immediately behind the military escort, were better worth a thoughtful observer's eye."
All kinds of people and a lot of them are in town, and will hear the reverend's sermon.

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Essential Question: How do sin or the perception of sin, along with guilt and revenge, affect people physically, psychologically, and emotionally?

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Essential Question: How do sin or the perception of sin, along with guilt and revenge, affect people physically, psychologically, and emotionally?

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Dimmesdale was affected mentally, psychologically, and physically by guilt. In this chapter, his guilt makes him irrational. Guilt once also made him depressed and physically sick, but in chapter 22, he finally feels a lot better about his guilt, and has such a weight off of his shoulders, that he appears to be ailing no more, and feels truly happy for the first time in a very long while.

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"Couldst thou surely tell, Hester, whether he was the same man that encountered thee on the forest-path?" ~Mistress Hibbins
Since Hibbins knows that Hester and Dimmesdale met in the woods, she could do anything she wanted with that knowledge.

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"It was the observation of those who beheld him now, that never, since Mr. Dimmesdale first set his foot on the New England shore, had he exhibited such energy as was seen in the gait and air with which he kept his pace in the procession. There was no feebleness of step, as at other times; his frame was not bent; nor did his hand rest ominously upon his heart."
Dimmesdale is a lot happier and at peace, and could finally admit his guilt while in such a carefree state.

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"Seen in conjunction with Hester Prynne,--kindly as so many now felt towards the latter,--the dread inspired by Mistress Hibbins had doubled, and caused a general movement from that part of the market-place in which the two women stood."
Hester and Dimmesdale need to keep a low profile since they soon plan to runaway, but Hibbins is bringing attention to Hester.

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"Next in order to the magistrates came the young and eminently distinguished divine, from whose lips the religious discourse of the anniversary was expected."
Everyone respects the reverend and will be listening to his sermon, and hear everything he has to say.

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"The Puritans looked on, and, if they smiled, were none the less inclined to pronounce the child a demon offspring, from the indescribable charm of beauty and eccentricity that shone through her little figure, and sparkled with its activity."
Pearl is drawing yet more attention to Hester and herself.

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Alliteration: "...she gazed silently, and seemed to be borne upward, like a floating sea-bird, on the long heaves and swells of sound."
Simile: "They had fortitude and self-reliance, and, in time of difficulty or peril, stood up for the welfare of the state like a line of cliffs against a tempestuous tide."
Simile: "...the crowd gave way before her, and seemed to fear the touch of her garment, as if it carried the plague among its gorgeous folds."