Your questions both relate to the effects of secret sins. In "The Scarlet Letter" there is irony to the title as the focus of Hawthorne is upon the secret sins that the Puritans withheld from society rather than the acknowledged ones.
At their meeting in Chapter XIV, Chillingworth tellls Hester that by her "first step" she planted the germ of evil. He says that although he is not fiend-like, he has "snatched a fiend's office from his hands....Let the black flower blossom as it may!" Chillingworth admits that he once had a human heart, but he has "become a fiend for his [Dimmesdale's] torment." Chillingworth has sinned greatly, having violated the sanctity of the human heart.
The worm of malevolence has eaten into the soul of Chillingworth and is evidenced in his decaying physical appearance just as the beauty of Hester's hair and complexion have diminished with her deprivation of human contact. Also, Dimmesdale's health has deteriorated from psychological torture both by his conscience and by Chillingworth whose influence has been "dwelling on him as a curse."
There is a phenomenon that occurs with those whose minds are so fixed upon an idea that it is somehow evidenced on their physical aspect. With Dimmesdale, Hawthorne suggests this phenomenon: "It was revealed." Since there is a singleness denoted by "it," readers have assumed that the minister has an A just as on Hester.
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