The Scarlet Letter: Part 3

Hester muses about how Dimmsdale looks way worse than the last time she saw him. She feels partly to blame and knows that Chillingworth has played a part in making him extra pathetic. Since Dimmsdale has an instinctual fear of him, but is unable to do anything about it, she resolves to aid the poor minister.

By now she is less the object of scorn and more like the village oddball that everyone just kind of takes for granted.

In my hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona, it was a lady who walked around in a Victorian dress with a parasol, and a dude who wore a thick winter coat year round. I bet your town has one or two as well. Odd, but harmless.

In fact, her continual generosity to the poor and needy has earned her some respect. Admiration even. She provides for herself and her daughter through her own labor, and she never causes trouble. Some even start to think the A stands for Able. The letter gains the status of a holy icon, akin to a nun’s cross. All who see it bow in deference to her goodness. Legend has it that she once defeated Chuck Norris with her scarlet letter.

As her inner beauty grows, her outer appearance does the opposite, and becomes ever more crone-like. The living purgatory she is relegated to forces her to become callous, cold, and covered in prison tats. She even has a set of knuckle tattoos that spell out “ADULTERY” when she holds her fists together, because she is hardcore like that.

It’s actually a good thing the patriarchy let her keep the Demon Child whether they realize it or not. If they hadn’t, she would probably devote her extra spicy personality to overthrowing the church. Or the patriarchy. Or people who say “literally” when what they are in fact using figurative hyperbole. Any of these would have earned her the death sentence in this dystopia. Instead she has to focus all her efforts on Pearl, so, that’s a silver lining I guess.

After her encounter with Dimmsdale at the pillory the night of the ominous fiery A in the sky, and his reaction to seeing Darth Chillingworth, she realizes that he has had a hand in the minister’s suffering. Her purgatory has gained her more than enough grit to deal with Pearl, so she decides to use her excess energy to take down Darth Chillingworth. Her rise in society has made her at an equal moral level to an old man who has stooped to revenge, so it’s game on.

Adulteress soon has her chance to confront Darth Chillingworth one day while walking on the beach.  He is near the bordering forest path collecting roots and herbs in a basket. She sends Pearl off to play on the beach so she can have words with the old man.

Hester: We need to talk.

Chillingworth: Oh do we now? There has been much talk concerning you, you know. All your good deeds have inspired the council to consider letting you take the scarlet letter off.

H: Nah, think I’ll keep it.

C: Fine by me. You do you.

Hester stares at him and realizes that his countenance has utterly changed from a wizened, tired old man to an eager, devilish grin. His eyes have even turned red with a blazing fire of revenge burning within. Her continued stares prompt him to ask:

C: Do I have something on my face?

H: Only an evil that would make me weep were I so inclined. But that’s beside the point. I’m here to talk about our mutual friend the miserable minister.

C: Oooh! My favorite topic!

H: When I made that vow to you to keep your identity secret I felt I had no choice, but now I think I made a mistake. You cause him untold misery and make him die a living death every day.

C: You’re right, you didn’t have a choice. I told you I would discover the identity of your baby daddy and rat him out. I have discovered it, yet I am true to my word. In fact, were not for my doctor skillz he would have died from shame within a couple of years even if he had never been found out. He’s only alive due to my aid, so what harm have I done really?

H: Would have been better to die than live the existence you have relegated him to.

C: True dat. But this way I get to poison my own soul by poisoning his. It is literally the entire purpose of my existence in this book. Don’t I look all super evil? Like, way more evil than when you married me? I will now ramble about how all this revenge is actually his fault using logical arguments that are full of fallacies. The short version of my ramble is that I am incapable of taking any responsibility for any of this.

H: Can’t fault that sound logic. Your desire for revenge was definitely his choice. Hasn’t he suffered enough though?

C: Nope, he owes me extra for vaguely defined reasons that the narrator will not explain more fully. I am your stereotypical villain at this point: very little backstory explaining my motivation, yet singularly defined by my evil goal of evil.

H: In that case I’m gonna reveal the truth of this whole thing to him, thus negating your purpose.

C: [smirks in smug satisfaction] Do what you gotta do.

H: Ugh, could you just not? You’re making everyone, including yourself, miserable. Maybe just stop and redeem yourself.

C: Nope, no can do, my continued evil actions are not my choice. It’s fate. Like I said, I am incapable of accepting responsibility.

As Darth Chillingworth walks away, Hester looks for any sign of wilting vegetation in his passage. Surely the earth would wither anywhere he touched it. She tries not to hate him, but it’s hard when he is just the absolute worst. Enough of that, though. She goes down to the shore in search of her Demon Child.

The Demon Child has been busy torturing small animals, as all good demon children are wont to do. By the time Heater arrives, she has fashioned a letter A out of seaweed on her chest.

Hester: Ooo fancy. Do you know why your mother wears that A on her bosom?

Pearl: For the same reason the minister puts his hand on his chest all the time.

H: And what reason is that?

P: I have no idea, but I have a feeling that Darth Chillingworth knows.

She suddenly wonders how much this tiny tot knows or comprehends. Is she trying to express sympathy in some way? She muses over that for the next couple of pages. The narrator ends the chapter by informing us that Pearl’s new favorite question is: What does the scarlet letter mean?

Pearl: Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. What does it mean?

H: Oh hush now.

P: Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. What does it mean?

H: Look, don’t worry about it, okay.

P: [Deep intake of breath] But MoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOmm!!!!!!!!!

Oh the joys of motherhood.

Hester looks for an opportunity to catch Dimmsdale while he is away from the prying eyes of Darth Chillingworth. Perhaps while he is walking in the woods or seashore. She gets her chance one cloudy day when she hears that he has gone off to visit a fellow minister serving as a missionary to the Native tribes. She arranges to be on the path when he gets back.

Pearl: Mom! Look, the sun peaked it’s head out over there! It is probably running away from your scarlet letter so I’d better go catch it. I don’t have my own letter yet, so I can sneak up on it.

Hester: Let’s hope you never have a letter.

P: Why? Won’t I get one when I’m older.

H: I would rather not answer that, so instead I will distract you. Oh look, the sun is running away! Better go catch it!

Pearl, being easily distracted, runs off to catch it and, surprisingly, succeeds! She stands in a pool of sunshine. But as soon as Hester reaches her hand into the light it disappears in ominous foreshadowing.

H: Le sigh. Why don’t we sit and rest.

P: I’m not tired, but I’ll sit with you if you tell me a story.

H: Okay, what do you want to hear a story about?

Actual quote from Pearl: “O, a story about the Black Man!” answered Pearl, taking hold of her mother’s gown, and looking up, half earnestly, half mischievously, into her mother’s face. “How he haunts the forest, and carries a book with him, – a big, heavy book, with iron clasps; and how this ugly Black Man offers his book and an iron pen to every body that meets him here among the trees; and they are to write their names with their own blood. And then he sets his mark on their bosoms! Didst thou ever meet the Black Man mother?”

She claims that an old lady told her the Scarlet Letter was the mark of the Black Man and that Hester signed her name in his book. Of course Hester denies it, but it would explain how Demon Child became the Demon Child, so it’s actually the most scientifically plausible explanation.

After that they sit and listen to the babbling of a little brook that sounds super sad, and the chat about the sad little brook and its sad little story. The narrator goes into great detail about how the babbling of the brook is actual the brook repeating the many sad stories it has heard over the years. The word sad is used a lot. In fact I am not surprised that Mr. Physiognomy hasn’t used bigger synonyms like melancholy, or forlorn, or chagrin, or some other word that he can charge the publisher for. In any case, it’s an all around sad scene. After a time they see the minister so Hester tells Pearl to run along and play while she talks to him, but to come back at her call.

Dimmsdale looks super melancholy and forlorn as he walks. As if he has no desire left to live. The only remarkable thing about him is how he keeps his hand on his chest.

They see each other with shock. In such a strange setting, neither is entirely sure the other is real and not some forest sprite. In a classic narrative trope they ask each other something only the real Hester and Dimmsdale would know. They realize they actually are who they claim to be, and go together to sit by the brook.

Hester: So….this weather eh?

Dimmsdale: Yep, it’s weather alright.

Hester: Sure is.

D: …….

H: ……..

D: …………….

H: ………………….

D: So, uh, you find any peace in this life?

H: Have you?

D: Yes but actually no.

H: But think of all the good you do for the townsfolk! Doesn’t that cheer you up?

D: Nope, makes me feel even worse. See previous chapters for details. I wish I had even one friend, or even an enemy. Someone who knew my true nature and could ridicule me every night, then I wouldn’t have to do it myself.

H: Well, now that you mention it, have a bit of a good news bad news situation for you! Good news is that you actually do have an enemy! Bad news is that he has been living under your roof.

D: [recoils in horror] Wait, what?!? That can’t be true!!

H: Yeah, our buddy Chillingworth? That was my husband.

D: [Recoils in extra horror] I should have known! In fact, I did know! Why didn’t I listen to my gut!?!?

H: Yeah, that’s my bad. I was trying to spare you pain, but that kind of backfired.

D: Although cars won’t be invented for another couple of centuries I would be inclined to agree that your plan did indeed backfire. I can’t forgive you.

H: Nah, you can, let God judge me. You shouldn’t let hatred taint you any further.

They hug, he finally gets over it.

D: Okay, fine. Plus, what Darth Chillingworth has done is worse than either of us.

H: That’s the spirit!

D: Right! Now that I am over the shock, what should I do? I don’t want to keep living with a dark lord vengeance who is a actively tormenting me. I’m pretty dim, as you know, so you tell me what my plan should be.

H: No one is forcing you to stay here. You could go literally anywhere else and start anew.

D: You mean like you had the option of doing and didn’t?

H: That’s beside the point.

D: Haven’t you been paying attention? It is now well established that everyone in this book is required to stay where they are most miserable because of vaguely defined reasons!

H: What reasons?

D: Can’t get bogged down in the details like that Hester. I’m staying, cuz that’s what the author wants, and that’s that.

H: Even though that is what I chose to do, I am going to spend a full page lecturing you about why you shouldn’t.

D: Look at me. See how scraggly I am? I don’t have the strength to face the wide world alone.

H: So don’t face it alone then.

The past seven years have been very different for Hester and Dimmsdale. Outlawed by society, Hester has basically been allowed to be a free range human, doing whatever she wanted, all the time. Having already committed the worst possible crime, no one expected anything else of her.

Dimmsdale, on the other hand, had been kept reined in by society and held under the constant watchful gaze of all he led. He was expected to be a model citizen at all times. As his fame and mythos of being a holy man grew, so did the expectation that he be an extra super duper model citizen. A vicious cycle of being liked by a society with impossible standards I suppose.

Given the choice between exposure and execution in a town that has brought him nothing but misery, Dimmsdale and Hester decide to go against the author’s wishes and abscond to parts unknown. I have a feeling that the author will not let that happen though. In the meantime it’s high fives and unicorns all around! Dimmsdale suddenly feels invigorated. Hester takes off the scarlet letter and flings it aside. She lets her hair out from under her cap and they both feel pretty all around pleased with themselves. Even the forest is delighted at the big ‘ol FU to the Puritans they both give and suddenly sunshine bursts forth all around!

What joyous new plot developments will we have now? My guess is none, since happiness hasn’t entered this book yet, and it’s a bit late in the game for that happen. Will they escape to a new land? Will they be lynched? Will more events happen? Find out in the exciting conclusion to The Scarlet Letter!!!