The Forest Meeting

The Forest Meeting is the emotional and moral fulcrum of The Scarlet Letter, the long-deferred encounter in which Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, after seven years of estrangement and secrecy, finally speak openly in the wilderness. It is the scene where Hester reveals Roger Chillingworth's true identity, where the minister confesses his misery, and where the two lovers dare to imagine a future together—a future that will be shattered before it can begin.

Circumstances and Approach

Hester, having resolved to tell Dimmesdale the truth about Chillingworth, learns that the minister has gone to visit the Apostle Eliot among his Indian converts and is expected to return the following afternoon. She takes little Pearl—her inevitable companion—and sets out into the forest. The path they follow is a narrow footpath that straggles into the primeval woods, which to Hester's mind images the moral wilderness she has wandered for so long. The day is chill and sombre, with a gray expanse of cloud overhead; a fitful sunshine plays along the path but withdraws as they approach, leaving the spots where it had danced the drearier. Pearl, noticing this, tells her mother that the sunshine does not love her because it is afraid of something on her bosom, and runs to catch it herself, succeeding where Hester cannot. They sit down on a luxuriant heap of moss in a little dell, beside a brook that murmurs sadly, and Hester sends Pearl to play while she waits for the minister.

The Encounter and Confession

When Dimmesdale appears, walking slowly and leaning on a staff, he looks haggard and feeble, with a nerveless despondency in his air that he never shows in the settlement. He keeps his hand over his heart, as Pearl has remarked. Hester calls his name—"Arthur Dimmesdale!"—and he starts, at first not recognizing her in the dim light. When he sees the scarlet letter, he asks if she is in life, and she answers that she is in such life as has been hers for seven years. They touch hands, cold as death, and sit down together on the moss. After preliminary remarks about the weather and their health, Dimmesdale asks if Hester has found peace; she smiles drearily and asks him the same. He answers that he has found nothing but despair, that the people's reverence only adds to his misery, and that he longs for someone—even an enemy—to whom he could reveal himself. Hester then tells him that he has such a friend in her, the partner of his sin, and that he has long had such an enemy dwelling under the same roof. When Dimmesdale demands to know what she means, she reveals that Roger Chillingworth is her husband. The minister reacts with a violent passion, a dark transfiguration of his face, and then sinks to the ground, burying his face in his hands. He says he cannot forgive her, but Hester flings herself beside him and begs his forgiveness, and he finally grants it, saying that Chillingworth's revenge has been blacker than his own sin.

The Plan to Flee

With the truth confessed, Hester urges Dimmesdale to leave Boston. She argues that the forest track leads onward to freedom, that the sea can carry him back to Europe, and that he can begin a new life as a scholar or teacher among the red men or in the cultivated world. Dimmesdale protests that he is too weak, that he has no strength or courage to venture into the wide world alone. Hester answers, "Thou shall not go alone!"—and with that, all is spoken. The decision is made: they will flee together. Dimmesdale, feeling a strange joy, says that Hester is his better angel and that he seems to have risen up all made anew. Hester, in a flood of relief, undoes the clasp of the scarlet letter and throws it among the withered leaves, then takes off her cap and lets her dark hair fall upon her shoulders. The sunshine bursts forth, transforming the forest, and for a moment they are free.

The Child at the Brookside

Hester calls Pearl, who has been playing in the forest, but the child refuses to cross the brook. She stands on the far side, pointing her forefinger at her mother's breast, where the scarlet letter is missing. Hester realizes that Pearl misses the accustomed token and, with a sigh, retrieves the letter and fastens it again to her bosom. Only then does Pearl cross the brook and embrace her mother. When Dimmesdale tries to kiss her, Pearl washes the kiss off in the brook and remains apart, watching them silently. The interview ends with the dell left in solitude, the brook murmuring its added tale.

Consequences and Significance

The Forest Meeting is the turning point of the novel. It is the only time Hester and Dimmesdale speak openly as lovers and co-conspirators, and it gives them a brief, intoxicating vision of escape. But the scene also contains the seeds of its own undoing: Pearl's refusal to accept the transformed Hester, Dimmesdale's lingering guilt, and the revelation that Chillingworth has already booked passage on the same ship. The forest, which for a moment seemed a place of freedom, becomes a place of decision that will lead to the scaffold. The meeting reveals the depth of Dimmesdale's suffering and Hester's strength, and it sets in motion the final act of the tragedy.