They both began to feel a strange liberation, and Hester discards her Scarlet Letter and lets her hair down. The day before the ship is about to sail the townspeople gather for a holiday, and Dimmesdale gives his most riveted sermon. Hester also finds out Chillingworth has booked passage on the same ship as Hester and Dimmesdale. But after Dimmesdale's sermon he notices Hester and Pearl, while leaving the church, on the scaffold. He spontaneously mounts the scaffold. At this time he publicly confesses Pearl is his daughter, shows the embroidered Scarlet Letter on his chest, drops dead and pearl kisses him.

Chillingworth enthralled with rage, for his short lived revenge, dies a year later. To put the past behind, Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and many yes later Hester returns alone, still donning the Scarlet Letter. She receives letters from Pearl from time to time. Pearl is...