Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold at night to ease some of his guilt. He still fears being seen by the townspeople because he doesn't want them to find out his secret. The only people that end up seeing him are Hester, Pearl, and Chillingworth. He invites Hester and Pearl to come and stand with him. They do and Pearl asks him if he will come stand with them during the day the next day. He laughs it off and says that he cant. He is still not brave enough to confess himself.

Passage

'"It is done!" muttered the minister, covering his face with his hands.
"The whole town will awake and hurry forth, and find me here!"'
He has inner contemplation with himself about standing on the scaffold. He is so nervous but he finally gets the

Chillingworth is still trying to make revenge as sweet as possible. He plays mind games on Dimmesdale, just to make him suffer more. His character shines through and his true colors are shown.  His is shown to be a truly cold hearted man who only cares about revenge. Dimmesdale was still preaching but his sermons had changed to be more emotional and more based on sin. The setting is mostly in the church. When Dimmesdale he contemplates going to the scaffold where Hester received her punishment to resolve some of his guilt.

Passage

"More than once, Mr. Dimmesdale had gone into the pulpit, with a purpose never to
come down its steps, until he should have spoken words like the above. More than
once, he had cleared his throat, and drawn in the long, deep, and tremulous
breath, which, when sent forth again, would come burdened with the black secret
of his soul. More than once—nay, more than a hundred times—he had actually
spoken! Spoken! But how? He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a
viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of
unimaginable iniquity; and that the only wonder was, that they did not see his
wretched body shrivelled up before their eyes, by the burning wrath of the
Almighty! Could there be plainer speech than this? Would not the people start up
in their seats, by a simultaneous impulse, and tear him down out of the pulpit
which he defiled?"
The people of Boston really respect Dimmesdale and listen to him. He tried to preach to him about sin, when in fact he was being a hypocrite. However, the people still loved him. This shows the trust that he has gained

Roger Chillingworth has been able to keep his secret from the town this whole time. He hides his identity and that he was ever married to Hester. He claims to be curing Dimmesdale, but he seems to be getting worse. This is the start of Chillingworth getting his revenge. The biggest thing that happened in this chapter is that Chillingworth and Dimmesdale move in together. They become very close and you can feel how close they are to knowing each others identity. The townspeople really looked up to Dimmesdale and they wanted to see him get better. Although with Chillingworth living with him, I don't think that will be possible.

Passage

"Roger Chillingworth possessed all, or most, of the attributes above enumerated.
Nevertheless, time went on; a kind of intimacy, as we have said, grew up between
these two cultivated minds, which had as wide a field as the whole sphere of
human thought and study, to meet upon; they discussed every topic of ethics and
religion, of public affairs, and private character; they talked much, on both
sides, of matters that seemed personal to themselves; and yet no secret, such as
the physician fancied must exist there, ever stole out of the minister’s
consciousness into his companion’s ear. The latter had his suspicions, indeed,
that even the nature of Mr. Dimmesdale’s bodily disease had never fairly been
revealed to him. It was a strange reserve!"
This passage is important because this strange disease that affects Dimmesdale is guilt. He feels badly that he cannot confess and he has to live with it everyday knowing he has to keep his life a secret. Also. this shows that Dimmesdale and Chilling

This chapter also takes place at the governors house. There is conflict and contemplation about whether Pearl should be taken away. The governor thinks Pearl should be given to better parents, because he doesn't think that Hester can teach her the Godly things and she can't teach Pearl what she learned from committing adultery. Hester asks Dimmesdale to help her keep Pearl. Dimmesdale tells the governor that Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester's sin and she is also a blessing. Pearl walks up to Dimmesdale and puts his hand on her cheek almost like they have a connection. 

Passage

  '“God gave her into my keeping,” repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice
almost to a shriek. “I will not give her up!”—And here, by a sudden impulse, she
turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she
had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes.—“Speak thou for me!” cried
she. “Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better
than these men can. I will not lose the child! Speak for me! Thou knowest,—for
thou hast sympathies which these men lack!—thou knowest what is in my heart, and
what are a mother’s rights, and how much the stronger they are, when that mother
has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the
child! Look to it!”'
Hester had purposely not been looking at Dimmesdale, but the moment she thought she might lose Pearl she looks to him for help. She needs him to stand up for her. She tells him he has to make sure she doesn't lose Pearl. This makes Chillingworth a little suspicious about Dimmesdale.  

This chapter takes place at the Governors mansion. Hester is delivering a pair of gloves that she has knit for the governor. She has also come to find out about the opposition to her keeping Pearl. There has been talk in the town that Hester is an unfit mother. They don't think that she can raise a godly child because she has committed the worst sin. Pearl is like a living reminder of everything that Hester has done. She is like a living scarlet letter. She torments Hester everyday.
A Passage

'“Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a
truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by
her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!”'
Now not only is Hester suffering, but so is Pearl. Even after all this time, the hatred and hostility is still there. The community still feels that she deserves punishment, especially for raising a child in her likeness. 

In this chapter we see Pearls character start to develop. She is unlike the other Puritan children, because she lacks the manners. Pearl is a social outcast just like her mother and creates imaginary characters in her head to keep her company. Hester says that Pearl is like the treasure that has come from her sin, hence the name Pearl. Hester tries to bring Pearl up to be a godly young lady and teach her Christian values and about her heavenly father. Despite all of this, Pearl says that she does not have a father.

The Passage
'“Yes; I am little Pearl!” repeated the child, continuing her antics.
“Thou art not my child! Thou art no Pearl of mine!” said the
mother, half playfully; for it was often the case that a sportive impulse came
over her, in the midst of her deepest suffering. “Tell me, then, what thou art,
and who sent thee hither?”
 “Tell me, mother!” said the child, seriously, coming up to
Hester, and pressing herself close to her knees. “Do thou tell me!”
“Thy Heavenly Father sent thee!” answered Hester Prynne.
But she said it with a hesitation that did not escape the
acuteness of the child. Whether moved only by her ordinary freakishness, or
because an evil spirit prompted her, she put up her small forefinger, and
touched the scarlet letter.
“He did not send me!” cried she, positively. “I have no Heavenly
Father!”'
Despite all of her mothers efforts, Pearl just didn't accept that she had a heavenly father. This proves the differences between Pearl and the oth

The setting of this chapter takes place in Boston. She is given the opportunity to leave Boston but refuses. Hester says by herself and away from everyone else. She and Pearl stay with Pearl at a cabin, on the outskirts of town. Hester is able to support herself financially because of her needle work. Many Puritan women do not have jobs, but Hester really isn't like other Puritan women. She is asked to knit things for every kind of special occasion except weddings. This was due to her adultery. Hester also was a helper of the poor, she helped them out by sewing things for them. In this chapter we start to see a change in Hester because her public humiliation is basically over.

A passage
"Lonely as was Hester’s situation, and without a friend on earth who dared
to show himself, she, however, incurred no risk of want. She possessed an art
that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its
exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself. It was the
art—then, as now, almost the only one within a woman’s grasp—of needle-work. She
bore on her breast, in the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her
delicate and imaginative skill, of which the dames of a court might gladly have
availed themselves, to add the richer and more spiritual adornment of human
ingenuity to their fabrics of silk and gold. Here, indeed, in the sable
simplicity that generally characterized the Puritanic modes of dress, there
might be an infrequent call for the finer productions of her handiwork."

Hester's sentence is over but she keeps the "A" on. The "A" is like advertisement for the great work that she can do. Many people saw the beautifully sewn piece and ask her to make things for them. The "A" has really helped her financially gain job opportunities.

In this chapter, Hester is back at the prison. After two years, she has the opportunity to talk to Chillingsworth. Chillingworth tries to give Hester and the baby medicine, but thinking it is poison she refuses it. He tells her he would rather her be alive so he can get revenge on her fellow sinner. He also says he could do no better for the child if it was his own. He makes Hester promise that she will keep his identity a secret just like she has of the baby's father. He still loves Hester even after she has done this, and says the fault the fault is both of theirs. We see Chillingworth say many times that he will not stop until he has gotten revenge.

The Passage
'“We have wronged each other,” answered he. “Mine was the first wrong, when
I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay.
Therefore, as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no
vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scale hangs
fairly balanced. But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is
he?”'
Chillingworth is saying that even though they have wronged each other, the other man has done more wrong to the both of them. He is trying to get Hester to tell him who the child's father is. He says he married Hester when she was too young. He is really trying to start his plan of revenge.

For a punishment Hester must take Pearl and stand on the scaffold for 3 hours. We are introduced to Roger Chillingworth, who we find to be Hesters husband. It took him two years, but he is finally in Boston. He sees Hester and her baby and asks who the father is. Chillingworth is told that Hester does not want to reveal the identity of the father. Dimmesdale, the pastor, asks Hester who the father of the baby is and she tells him her child will only know of her heavenly father, not her earthly one.


'“She will not speak!” murmured Mr. Dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony,
with his hand upon his heart, had awaited the result of his appeal. He now drew
back, with a long respiration. “Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman’s
heart! She will not speak!”'

Dimmesdale is speaking about the strength that it is taking her to take the punishment alone. She is being kind enough to the man to not bring his name into the mix so he does not have to  be punished or killed also.

The chapter opens with a dark setting, the crowd watches Hester leave the prison and walk to the scaffold. The townspeople gossip about her and she is immediately judged. Hester has the "A" beautifully sewn into her dress and an infant in her arms. Hester has the flash back of the man she married and then she left to come America and he was left behind. We see the infant and realize that she had committed adultery. Hester's guilt shines through and the women of the town judge her for how beautiful and fancy the "A" looks. This shows us that Hester is a great seamstress. However, the father to her baby is nowhere to be found. The scaffold was the place for Hester to confess her sins but she wouldn't confess the name of her lover. She took the blame and judgment all alone. In this chapter the narrators tone is bleak and dim. We are let wondering if the baby's father will confess himself and if Hester's husband will ever show up. 

A Passage 
'"What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown or
the flesh of her forehead?" cried another female, the ugliest as well as the
most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. "This woman has brought shame
upon us all, and ought to die; Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in
the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it
of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go
astray"'

The people are angry because they do not think her punishment is severe enough. They live in a society where adultery is punishable by death and that is what they think Hester deserves. A mark of shame will not do justice to the crime committed. They also think she should be ashamed because she was a part of Reverend Dimmesdale's congregation.