Molly has ten years of middle school teaching experience and two master's degrees in teaching.
After seeing the effect that Roger Chillingworth has had on the Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester decides it is time that she tell Dimmesdale the truth, that Chillingworth is her husband. Hester and Pearl take a walk in the forest to wait for the Reverend. Hester sends Pearl off to explore and when she sees Dimmesdale, Hester calls out to him and gets his attention.
When Hester calls out to the Reverend in the forest, he doesn't believe that it is actually her. Even living in their small Puritan town, the two have rarely seen each other in the past seven years, for obvious reasons. Or, probably more like not so obvious reasons. They act as though they are seeing each other's ghosts because it has been so long. They find a spot to sit and make small talk for a while about the weather before getting to the real reason they are there (don't nervous couples still talk about the weather today?)
Dimmesdale asks Hester if she has found peace and she looks at the letter A on her dress. She asks him the same question and he says no. His belief in God and his faith create daily torment, or suffering for the guilt he carries around with his secret. The fact that his honesty with his congregation has just made them revere him more makes the pain and guilt even worse.
Hester tries to console or comfort him by telling him his sins are in the past, long gone and forgotten, because of his penance. But, he disagrees telling her that she can't understand because she gets to display her sins for the world to see, while his burn deep inside his soul. If he only had one friend or enemy that knew the truth. Which is exactly what Hester came to tell him. She gathers her courage and tells him that, in fact, an enemy of his does know the truth and that enemy is Roger Chillingworth, her husband.
When she tells Dimmesdale this information, he changes. This can be seen through the line, ''Never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown than Hester now encountered''. He buries his hands in his face and tells her that he thinks on some level that maybe he did know this. But, the fact that she kept it a secret from him, shame on her. Poor Hester, caught in the middle between being sworn to secrecy seven years earlier by her husband and letting down the man she loves. And, let's not forget the fact that she is still being publicly shunned by her community.
She asks for Dimmesdale's forgiveness and takes him into her arms, pressing his head against the letter A. She asks him again to forgive her and he says yes, because there are worse sinners in the world than the two of them. One of which is Roger Chillingworth, because he ''violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of the human heart''.
They sit together holding hands until Dimmesdale starts to worry about what will happen now. Dimmesdale knows that Chillingworth, no doubt, realizes that Hester wants to reveal his true character to Dimmesdale. Why would Chillingworth keep their secret now? Hester tells him not to worry, that it is Chillingworth's new nature to be secretive. He'll seek revenge in another way. But how is Dimmesdale supposed to go back to living under the same roof knowing about Chillingworth's plot for revenge?
Hester tells Dimmesdale that he can no longer live with Chillingworth. She then shares that she thinks the two of them should run away together. They could go out into the wilderness where they would be free from Chillingworth, but that doesn't sound logical to Dimmesdale. Then she suggests that they go back to Europe where no one knows anything about their past. They could leave behind all the weight and guilt of the past seven years and start a new life together. Dimmesdale isn't so sure, but he sees the light in her eyes and his light up for a second only before dying away. He tells her that he is old and is meant to live and die in the colony, and that she should go alone. But, she tells him that she will not go alone.
Hester meets with Dimmesdale to reveal Chillingworth's true character. Their meeting brings small glimpses of hope that perhaps they both can be rid of the weight of their guilt. Hester counsels Dimmesdale as he feels more weight from his silence than Hester does of her public guilt, but whether or not she can convince him to leave with her is still yet to be determined.
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