Now Hester hears the voice of Dimmesdale giving his sermon; while she cannot hear the words, she does hear sympathy, emotion, and compassion mixed with a “low expression of anguish.” He may not be telling the world of his sin, but Hester hears the sadness and despair in his tone because she is so in sympathy with his heart.
Then Pearl scampers off through the crowd in her bright red dress and sees the shipmaster, who gives her a message for her mother: Chillingworth has secured passage for himself and Dimmesdale on the ship. When Hester hears this, she glances around the crowd and sees the same faces that were at the first scaffold scene. The chapter ends with the lines “The sainted minister in the church! The woman of the scarlet letter in the marketplace!” Who would believe “that the same scorching stigma was on them both?”
