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Chapter 16 - A Forest Walk

Hester and Pearl walk into the woods together. She decides to meet Dimmesdale there because
it is far from society so his good reputation and name wont be tarnished. They can also have
more privacy from the eye of society. Hester then sees a footpath that in her mind symbolized
her battle with morals and the villages opinion of her.
Pearl: Mother the sun does not love you. It runs away because it is scared of the scarlet letter
on
It runs away because it is scared of the scarlet letter on your bosom. Look there it goes now. Stay
here while I go catch it for I am a child and it will not flee me since I do not yet wear the scarlet
letter.
Hester: not ever my child, I hope
Pearl: why not wont it just come naturally in the future?
Hester: Go child! Run after the sunshine for it will be soon gone!
Pearl runs after it while Hester stays behind smiling. Hester approaches her and the sun seems
to start disappearing.
Pearl: Its going now L
Hester: See I can stretch my hand and grasp some of it.
sun disappears
Hester: Come my child, lets go sit down a little way within the wood, and rest ourselves.
Pearl: I am not tired mother but you can tell me a story while you sit.
Hester: a story! About what!
Pearl: oh a story about the black manHow he haunts this forest and always carried a big book
and how he offers thus big book and iron pen to everybody he meets here. How he then makes

them write their name in blood and then sets his mark on their bosom. Didst thou ever meet the
Black Man mother?
Hester: Who told you this story?
Pearl: the old dame in the chimney corner of the house you watched last night but she thought I
was asleep when she talked of it. Old mistress Hibbins said that your scarlet letter is because you
go every night and met the Black Man in the dark wood. Is it true? Do you go meet him at night?
Hester: Didst thou ever wake and find thy mother gone?
Pearl: Not that I remember. But mother tell me is the black man real? Did you ever meet him?
Hester: Wilt thou let me be at peace if I once tell thee?
Pearl: Yes
Hester: Once in my life I meet the Black Man! This scarlet let is his mark!
They walk deeper into the forest where Pearl sees a brook that babbles like a young child
but not knowing how to be happy because of sad events. Pearl is like the babbling brook
because her life is full of gloom but unlike it she dances and is full of life. Hester hears
footsteps.
Hester: Go child and play and let me speak with he who comes yonder.
Pearl: Is it the Black man?
Hester: Will you go and play child but do not stray far.
Pearl: yes but if its the Black man will you let me stay a moment and see him?
Hester: Go Silly child! It is not the black man you can see him yonder.
Pearl: this is true. He has a hand over his hand is it because when he wrote in the Black mans
book his mark is set there?
Hester: Go now, child.

Pearl goes to play by the brook. Hester moves a little forward to the path Dimmesdale is coming
through. Dimmesdale makes his entrance and is face to face with Hester.

Chapter 17 - The Pastor and His Parishioner


Enter Dimmesdale. He is walking down a path.
Hester: Arthur Dimmesdale!
Dimmesdale: Hester! Hester Prynne! Is it thou?
Hester: Yes it is me.
Hester & Dimmesdale walk a bit & then sit down.
Dimmesdale: Hester, hast thou found peace?
Hester: Hast thou?
Dimmesdale: None! I am most miserable!
Hester: You have deeply and sorely repented. Your sin is left behind you, in the days long past.
Dimmesdale: No, Hester, no! You wear that scarlet letter openly on your chest. I have my own
but in secret! I have not repented! I do not deserve to wear these garments of mock holiness! It is
all falsehood! If only I had a friend, even an enemy with whom I could be known as the vilest of
all sinners.
Hester: Thou hast a friend in me. Thou also hast had such an enemy under the same roof!
Dimmesdale suddenly gets up.
Dimmesdale: What? An enemy?What do you mean?!
Hester: Oh Arthur, forgive me! That old man! The physician! He whom they call Roger
Chillingworth, is my husband!
Dimmesdale: I might have known it. I did know it! Woman, woman, thou art accountable for
this! I cannot forgive thee!

Hester: Thou shalt forgive me!


Dimmesdale: I do forgive you, Hester. May God forgive us both! We are not, Hester the worst
sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old mans revenge
has been blacker than my sin.
Hester & Dimmesdale sit down again.
Dimmesdale: Hester, here is a new horror! Roger Chillingworth knows your purpose to reveal
his true character. Will he continue to keep our secret?
Hester: I deem it not likely that he will betray the secret. Thou must dwell no longer with this
man.
Dimmesdale: But how to avoid it? What choice remains to me? Should I just lie down here, and
die at once?
Hester: Wilt thou dies for very weakness? There is no other cause!
Dimmesdale: Be thou strong for me! Advise me what to do.
Hester: Is the world so narrow? You could travel to London, Germany, or France.
Dimmesdale: I am powerless to go! Wretched and sinful as I am!
Hester: Thou shalt not go alone!

Chapter 18 - A Flood of Sunshine


Hester and Dimmesdale gaze at each other
Narrator: Hester is outlawed and shunned from society, so if she were to leave, it would not
have much of an impact on the town. In fact, people might have even expected her to leave.
However, if Dimmesdale escaped, a huge commotion would break out, for he is an honorable
man who always follows the rules, besides the one sin he committed. He would be leaving town
as a criminal and remain a hypocrite forever.

Dimmesdale: I shall go with you! I can no longer live without you, and this decision will lead
me on the path to a better life. Because of my sin, I am doomed no matter what, so I want to
enjoy what I have left of my life.
Hester: Thou wilt go!
Dimmesdale: Do I feel joy again? I feel so free and alive! Why did we not find this better life
sooner?
Hester: Let us not look back on the past. I undo it all *takes off scarlet letter and throws it*
Hester takes a long, deep sigh. It is such as relief knowing that that letter no longer burdens me.
Narrator: As if nature is sympathetic with Hester and Dimmesdales union, the sun shines
brighter, and it makes everything seem to glow, including the leaves. The woods transforms from
frightening and mysterious to pleasant and welcoming.
Hester: You must know Pearl! She is a strange child, but you will love her, as I do.
Dimmesdale: Will she be glad to know me? I am afraid that she will dislike me for all of the
years I missed.
Hester: I will call her! Pearl!
Pearl slowly approaches them
Narrator: Her slow approach suggests that she has figured out that DImmesdale is her father;
she sees him for who he really is.

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