("Satan dropped it there, I take it, intending a scurrilous jest against your reverence.") The sexton also asks about the great red letter A that appeared in the sky the past night. Remembering her promise to Chillingworth, Hester remains silent.Īfter the next morning's sermon, the sexton startles the minister by returning one of his gloves, which was found on the scaffold.
Overcome with terror, Dimmesdale asks Hester about the true identity of Chillingworth. At the same instant, Dimmesdale is aware that Pearl is pointing toward Roger Chillingworth who stands nearby, grimly smiling up at the three people on the scaffold. Looking up, Dimmesdale seems to see in the sky a dull red light in the shape of an immense letter A. Twice, Pearl asks Dimmesdale if he will stand there with them at noon the next day the minister says he will stand there with them on "the great judgment day." As he speaks, a strange light in the sky illuminates the scaffold and its surroundings. Hester and Pearl, who are returning from Governor Winthrop's deathbed, mount the scaffold, and the three of them stand hand-in-hand, Hester and Dimmesdale linked by Pearl. Realizing the mockery of his being able to stand there now, safe and unseen, where he should have stood seven years ago before the townspeople, Dimmesdale is overcome by a self-hatred so terrible that it causes him to cry aloud into the night. Now, in the damp, cool air of the cloudy May night, Dimmesdale mounts the steps while the town sleeps. After leaving the house, Dimmesdale walks to the scaffold where, seven years earlier, Hester Prynne stood, wearing her sign of shame and holding Pearl.
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