The Scarlet Letter Chapters 17 - 20
Hester and Dimmesdale get a moment of privacy in the forest. They get a strange feeling of being dead but embrace each other's hands to ensure they are alive. Hester tries to comfort him, but Dimmesdale seems unaffected. She praises his duties as a Minister, but he calls his soul polluted, which affects goodness. He even describes his repentance as insincere and worthless.
Hester Tells Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her husband. This leads to a 'dark transfiguration' in Dimmesdale, and he criticizes Hester for his suffering. Hester cannot bear his harsh words and caresses him, asking for forgiveness until he says they aren't the worst sinners. Hester agrees, considering their affair to be sacred. Dimmesdale worries that Chillingworth knows Hester's intention of revealing his secret. He might expose them. He is concerned as he can see no way out but death. Hester asks him to leave Salem with her and Pearl to Europe, where they will live happily as a family.
The decision to move to Europe cheers up Hester and Dimmesdale. Hester opts to forget her past and throws away the letter from her body. She smiles and lets her hair loose filling herself with the passionate beauty that she once had. Sunshine, that as Pearl pointed out, was scared of her scarlet letter, now brightens up the whole forest.
Hester and Dimmesdale talk about Pearl, and she is extremely excited to reveal the truth to Pearl. Hester ensures him that Pearl will like him as her father. She calls out to Pearl, who is busy gathering flowers for her hair and clothing.
Pearl approaches both of them suspiciously. Dimmesdale wonders if someone must have noticed a resemblance between them. He fears that Pearl will not like him. Hester knows a little about Pearl's likes and dislikes, believing her to be someone from a different world. She asks Pearl to greet Dimmesdale, but Pearl points towards the missing letter from Hester's chest. Pearl makes Hester place it right where it was and then kisses the letter and her mother. Unaware of the truth, Pearl asks Dimmesdale if he will hold their hands and accompany them to the town. Dimmesdale kisses her on her forehead and denies it. Pearl gets furious and washes her forehead with the river water.
After returning to Salem, Dimmesdale finds his meeting with Hester hard to believe. He thinks over the plans both of them made to move to Europe. Hester has made acquaintances with a ship crew through charity to secure her passage to Bristol in four days. No other timing could be better than this for Dimmesdale as he is to give a sermon in three days for a new magistrate. He has never felt more energetic in years.
Dimmesdale notices another change in himself, the urge to do wicked things. As he walks through the streets, he feels like throwing a blasphemous comment at a deacon and questioning the concept of the afterlife from a widow. He teaches some nasty words to children and engages in swearing oaths with a sailor he is planning to escape. Dimmesdale is worried about what these strange temptations signify. He comes across Miss Hibbins, who suspects Dimmesdale has signed a deal with the devil in the forest.
Chillingworth interrupts Dimmesdale in his study and is dismissed from his medical services. Chillingworth asks him to give a thought once more as the elections are approaching, but Dimmesdale has decided this time. He rewrites his sermon with great inspiration and throws the older script in the fire.
Analysis
Hester and Dimmesdale meet one another in the seclusion of the forest, outside of civilization, and the restrictive laws that have been put down by men. The both of them experience a high level of relief in this secret encounter because they are finally able to associate with one another without any pretense. Until this point, there has always been a gap between their true identities and their public reputations, which is finally filled in each other’s presence. It is evident that Dimmesdale manipulates and covertly directs Hester to suggest that they run away together. He does not wish to leave with Hester because he loves her, but because he cannot conceive of keeping the secret safe with himself any longer. He is afraid of Chillingworth, and the public scorn that would be directed at him, if the people were to learn that he had been involved with Hester. Dimmesdale wishes to flee Salem out of cowardice, while Hester has made her peace with the punishment leveled at her by society, but she loves him and would do anything for his welfare.
Their happy reunion is somewhat soured by Pearl’s reaction, who does not treat Dimmesdale with any degree of softness, and even rejects her mother without the presence of the symbol on her dress. Thus, Pearl functions as her parents’ conscience and indicates that Dimmesdale is not being true to himself.
