Chapter 17: The Pastor and His Parishioner

-Dimmesdale and Hester meet secretly in the forest away from the town. At first they question each other’s existence. They then discuss what has happened to them in the past seven years.
~“Were I an atheist,- a man devoid of conscience,- a wretch with coarse and brutal instincts,- I might have found peace, long ere now… Hester, I am most miserable!” (172)

-Hester admits to Dimmesdale that Chillingworth was her husband. Hester’s failure to tell Dimmesdale the truth allowed Chillingworth to torture him longer.
~“Thou hast long had such an enemy, and dwellest with him, under the same roof! (173)
~“But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side! Dost thou not see what I would say? That old man!- the physician!- he whom they call Roger Chillingworth!- he was my husband!” (175)
~“That eternal alienation from the Good and True, of which madness is perhaps the earthly type” (174).

-Dimmesdale is angered by Hester and blames her for his suffering
~“Never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown than Hester now encountered. For the brief space that it lasted, it was a dark transfiguration” ( 175).
~“Woman, Woman, thou art accountable for this! I cannot forgive thee!”(175)

-Dimmesdale forgives her, realizing they are not the worst sinners in the world, Chillingworth is.
~“May God forgive us both! We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin” (176).

-Dimmesdale fears Chillingworth will not, “continue, then, to keep our secret" (177).
~"What will now be the course of his revenge?” (177)

-Hester suggests they move far away to Europe and get away from the town. Hester encourages him to not give up.
~“There thou art free! So brief a journey would bring thee from a world where thou hast been most wretched, to one where thou mayest still be happy! ( 178)