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(melancholic orchestral music)

(gentle thoughtful orchestral music)

(light orchestral music)

- Master Bartle is indeed a lucky man. (chuckles)

- Aye, his wife will be silent at least one day.

(woman yelling indistinctly)

(men laughing)

- A pretty spectacle,

my bosom companion seated in the stocks again.

But it pains me more than thee.

- Aye.

But not in the same place.

(bell tolling)

- Ah, here comes your beloved now.

- Oh, Bartholomew.

Bartholomew, stand before me, please.

Please, stand before me.

- Good day, Mistress Abigail.

- Good day, Master Bartholomew.

- Perhaps thou hast seen Master Sampson?

I'm waiting here for him.

- Oh, look, Mother! Master Sampson's in the stocks!

(bell tolls)

- Greetings, Mistress Abigail.

- Sinner!

You had better heed the teaching of the Reverend Dimmesdale

or you will end your days on a scaffold.

- Hey, Ishkaba.

(bell tolls)

(Roger speaking Native American language)

(Ishkaba speaking Native American language)

- Ah.

(bell tolls) (townspeople chattering)

(Roger sighs)

- Good day.?

- Good day, mistress.

Can you serve me food and lodgings?

(bell tolls)

- (chuckles) Lodging, we have none.

But can you not return later for food?

Even now, the bell summons us all to the square.

- Is it a feast day?

- Have you not heard of the scandal

in the Master Dimmesdale's church?

From whence came you?

- From the South, where I was shipwrecked

and spent two weary years among the heathens.

(bell tolls) - Oh.

It must gladden your heart to again be in a land

where iniquity is searched out and punished.

- Truly.

- Even today, a gentlewoman is being punished

by the magistrate for adultery!

- Does her husband accuse her?

- Oh, no. No, she's a widow.

Her husband was a learned doctor.

The plague, which is raging in London, detained him,

so he sent her on ahead.

(bell tolls)

- What happened to him?

- He must be at the bottom of the sea,

for there have been no tidings from him

in over two years.

Being left to her own misguidance,

his wife, Hester Prynne, went astray.

- Hester Prynne!

It's a lie. A purer creature never lived.

- You know her?

- Know her? I'm her husb...

Her husband's best friend.

- Oh.

- Who accuses her?

- Her child.

(bell tolls)

- Hester Prynne, a child?

- Aye, a little girl.

- You mean Hester Prynne has borne a child

in the past two years?

- I do.

(bell tolls)

- It would be well for the public

if we women has the handling of such hussies

as Hester Prynne.

- Well said, goodwife.

We would teach her a pretty lesson.

(drums beating)

(townspeople chattering)

- These people are mad to look upon a gentlewoman's shame.

- But, Master Dimmesdale,

Moses and the law commands that such as she be stoned.

- Yes, but one greater than Moses said,

"He that is without sin, among you,

"let him first cast a stone."

- Master Dimmesdale, you should not take the sin

of one of your flock so much to heart.

- Governor Bellingham, our Lord did pardon such a one.

He said, "Go, woman, and sin no more."

Cannot we do as much?

- Oh, with what could so be pardoned to precede the penalty?

(drums beating)

(townspeople chattering)

- A blessing on ye righteous people

of the colony of the Massachusetts.

(townspeople chattering)

(baby crying)

Make way, good people.

Make way in the king's name.

(townspeople chattering)

- Look, the baggage walks with the dignity of a queen.

Has she no shame?

- Peace, peace. She suffers enough.

(townspeople chattering)

- Hester Prynne, you have been found guilty of adultery.

We are loathed to invoke the full penalty of the law,

so if you have us be merciful,

reveal the name of him that tempted you.

- No.

- Master Dimmesdale, as her pastor,

you know best what arguments to use

to prevail upon her to speak his name.

- Would wrong the nature of woman,

to force her to lay open her heart's secret

before so great a multitude.

- The shame lay in the commission of the sin,

not in the showing of it.

Someone must deal with this sinner.

Shall it be you or I?

- Poor Master Dimmesdale.

It is a shame that such a scandal

should come upon his congregation.

- Hester Prynne,

I beg you to speak out the name of your fellow sinner.

Be not silent from any mistaken pity for him,

for your silence compels him to add hypocrisy to sin,

though he has not the courage to grasp it for himself.

For the peace of his soul,

do not deny him the comfort of an honest confession,

even though he were to step down from a high place

to share your shame.

(townspeople chattering)

- Speak, woman, speak!

- Aye! - Aye, speak!

Speak! - No!

No, never!

I wish I could bear his agony as well as mine.

- Hester Prynne, so that all men may know

you are guilty of the sin of adultery,

and shun you as a fiend of evil,

it is now ordered that you shall wear upon your bosom

for the rest of your natural life the scarlet letter A.

(townspeople chattering)

- A wise sentence.

She will be a living sermon against sin.

- But she can cover the mark with her hand

and stroll about as bold as ever.

- True, it would be better if they put the brand

of the hot iron on her forehead.

That she could not hide.

- Let her cover the mark as she will.

The pain of it will always be in her heart.

(townspeople chattering)

(thoughtful orchestral music)

(door knocking)

(somber orchestral music)

- You should not have come here.

- Hester, I cannot keep silent.

I will not see you go through life

with that infamous brand,

while people look upon me with reverence.

I must reveal myself for what I am.

- No, no, Arthur!

It would make my burden only the heavier

to see you dishonored.

- How could I stand in my pulpit

and meet the eyes of the people who are hungry for truth,

knowing in my soul that I'm a living lie?

Hester, we must marry.

- Think not of us.

Your duty's with the people.

They've entrusted their very souls to your care.

If we destroy their faith, where will they turn?

What will they do?

- What can a ruined soul like mine

do toward the redemption of other souls?

- You have repented.

Your life is not less holy than it appears in their eyes.

To destroy their faith would be a greater sin, and...

And it would only shatter the love we bear each other.

No, Arthur, it cannot be.

- But what is to become of you?

- My salvation, and yours, can come only from heaven.

Our very lives must be a living penance.

It is God's will.

- His will be done.

Bless you, Hester, and may you find peace.

- May you find peace.

- Hester!

Hester, what's the matter?

- Nothing.

It's-It's been such a trying day, and I am tired.

Please...

Please, leave me alone.

(melancholic orchestral music)

- Your story is a strange one.

Since the divine hand of providence guided you here,

I bid you welcome.

- Thank you, sire.

- Sign the record.

Here.

Ooh! A doctor of medicine?

- Fortunately, it was my skill in that science

that won the friendship of the Indians,

that enabled me to make my way here.

- The colony is indeed fortunate.

We have long needed a skilled man of medicine.

- Thank you.

Now, where can I find lodging?

The tavern is already filled.

- Well, that is indeed a problem.

Oh, Master Dimmesdale?

Master Dimmesdale?

- Yes, sire. - Reverend Dimmesdale,

this is Dr. Roger Chillingworth.

- I bid you welcome. - Thank you.

- Master Dimmesdale, is there not an unoccupied room

where you dwell at Mistress Crakstone's house?

- Yes, sire, there is.

- I'm sure that Mistress Crakstone

will be pleased to let you have it.

- I'll gladly take you there.

- Thank you.

- It's good to hear that you are a doctor.

Mistress Prynne has suffered much today.

Will you attend her?

- As soon as I've secured my lodging.

- It will be an act of kindness.

- One that will give me pleasure, indeed.

(gentle pensive orchestral music)

(door clicking)

(baby crying)

(light thoughtful orchestral music)

Here, drink.

- I have thought of death, and wished for it,

would even have prayed for it

where it fits that such as I should pray for anything.

Yet, if death be in this cup,

I bid you think well before you see me drink it.

- Have no fear, my vengeance is to let you live.

To give you medicines against harm

so that your burning shame

may still blaze against your bosom.

I will see your punishment in the eyes of men and women.

Yea, even in the eyes of your own misbegotten child.

So drink.

- Roger, I have wronged you greatly.

- [Roger] We have wronged each other.

Mine was the first wrong,

for thinking that one so young

could mate with one as old as I.

- You know I was frank.

I felt no love for you, nor pretended any.

- True. It was my folly and your weakness.

So, between you and me, the scale hangs fairly balanced.

But, Hester, a man lives who has wronged us both.

Who is he?

- That you shall never know.

- Never?

If he walk the earth, I'll find him.

If he be in hell, I'll follow him.

- No, no! The burden's mine.

You must not harm him.

- Have no fear, I shall not betray him to the law.

Let him hide himself in outward honor if he may,

nonetheless, he shall not escape me.

- [Hester] Roger Prynne!

- Prynne?

Roger Prynne lives no more.

I demand of you that you breathe not to a human soul

that you had ever called me husband.

Henceforth, I shall be known as Roger Chillingworth.

- Why not announce yourself openly, and cast me off at once?

- Because I care not for the dishonor

that follows the husband of a faithless woman.

Therefore, let me be known to the world as one already dead.

- I will keep your secret.

- As you've kept his, I hope.

(baby crying)

And now, Hester, I leave you alone.

Alone with your infant, and your shame.

(playful orchestral music)

(hammer banging)

- It would be easier to take the wheel off

if you remove the water casks.

- Quiet! I was about to do so.

(wood clatters)

(water splashing)

(children clamoring)

This work would go much faster

were my helper a man, instead of a midget.

- Oh, yea? - Aye.

- My name is Sampson, and I'm as strong as my name betokens.

- Sayest thou?

- Sayest I.

- Couldst thou, unaided, support the cart?

- Of a certainty.

- Then position thyself.

(hammer thuds)

(playful orchestral music continues)

(wheel rattling)

- Hey!

- It will take but a moment.

- Is there not a board left?

- I have finished, goodwife, use mine.

- [Woman] Oh, thank you!

(water splashing)

- What is this world coming to?

Just look at this.

Only five years old and beginning to wear already.

- I think five years' wear is good enough.

- That's the trouble with you young folk,

you have no sense of good or bad.

- Well said, Mistress Abigail.

When I was a girl, things were very different.

- 'Tis disgraceful.

Only last week, Thomas Cooke was seen

kissing his wife on the Sabbath.

- Oh! - Is it so sinful

to love a wife on the Lord's day?

- For shame! That's the work that they do to you.

Take heed, young woman,

lest you end up like yon miserable sinner.

- I always said her punishment was much too light.

- Pearl!

Pearl!

- She has great skill with a needle.

I would that I could employ her to make my wedding garments.

- Wedding garments?

'Tis enough that honest folk let her

earn her livelihood with her needle,

but to permit her to sew on wedding garments,

well, that would be an ill omen.

- [Hester] Where were you, dear?

- Picking flowers.

- (gasps) Aren't they lovely?

- Who made the flowers, Mother?

- God did.

- Who made me?

- God the Heavenly Father made all things.

- I found the flowers in the field.

Where did you find me?

- (laughs) I found you on a rosebush.

Oh!

You run on, dear.

- [Pearl] Bye!

- Look at that child dancing like a heathen.

- Like mother, like child.

It would be better if that young one

were given over to a more God-fearing woman for training.

(water splashing)

- [Children] Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

(hammer thudding)

- Hey, Master Hockings.

- Oh. - Will you repair my basket?

- Oh, it'll be a pleasure.

It's quite heavy.

- Mistress Billings was ill.

I did her washing, also.

- Hey!

- It will take but a moment.

(Sampson groans)

- [Children] Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Boom! - Halt!

What are you doing here?

- Marching.

- Go away, you cannot play with us.

Go away!

(children laughing)

Crybaby

- [Children] Crybaby! Crybaby!

- Stop it! Stop it!

- Crybaby!

- Stop it! (sobs)

- [Children] Crybaby! Crybaby!

Crybaby!

- There you are, Mistress Prynne. It's as good as new.

- Thank you.

(children yelling)

Stop it!

- [Children] Crybaby!

- Stop it!

- [Children] Crybaby!

- You should be ashamed of yourself!

- She started it! She's to blame!

(stone clatters) (Abigail gasping)

- Digerie, come here!

Who did it?

- She did it!

- You little heathen!

I'll teach you! (Pearl whimpers)

- Look to your own children, mistress!

My child was not to blame!

- Yours is the blame.

If you were an honest, God-fearing woman

and brought your child up in a proper manner,

this would never happen.

- Say what you will about me,

I can tolerate your insults,

but lay not a hand on my child or you will rue it!

- How dare you speak like that to me!

If you taught your child its proper place,

there would be no trouble

because my children know better

than to have anything to do with your brat!

[Mistress Abigail] You're a disgrace to the colony,

and your child will end just like you.

It would be a blessing if she were taken away from you

and brought up in a Christian manner.

- [Arthur] Silence, Mistress Abigail!

- I was but telling this woman-

- Silence, Mistress Abigail!

You've said enough.

- Thank you, Master Dimmesdale.

Come, dear.

(townspeople murmuring)

- It is a strange child.

It is easy to see her mother in her.

I wonder if by studying the child,

one could learn who the father might be.

You take the burdens of your flock too much to heart.

Your health won't permit it.

- It's all right, Roger.

I'll be all right.

(townspeople chattering)

- There, there, don't cry. (Pearl sobbing)

- Mother, why won't they let me play with them?

- Now, now.

- But, Mother, I want to play, too. (sobbing)

- Pearl, dear, you love your mother, don't you?

- Of course, I do.

- Well, you would not want to go off and play

and leave me all alone, would you?

- Of course not. - I like to play, too.

- Do you?

- Of course, I do.

And we'll not let them play with us, either, will we?

- No! And we'll play soldiers, too!

- Yes!

- And I'll be the captain!

- The captain!

Now, let's see.

Here's your sword.

- Thank you.

But where's yours?

(both laughing)

Boom!

- [Pearl And Hester] Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

- Halt!

Forward, march!

- [Pearl And Hester] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

(door knocking)

- [Beadle] His Excellency Governor Bellingham

demands your immediate attendance.

- Well, what does he want me for?

- I do not know. Make haste.

- I'll be there as soon as I change my dress.

- [Beadle] Very well.

(door clunking)

- Hester Prynne, the point has been discussed

whether we do well to entrust your child

to the guidance of one who has stumbled and fallen.

The child needs to be instructed

in the truths of Heaven and Earth.

What can you do for her in this way?

- I can teach my child what I've learned from this.

- Woman, it is because of the stain

which that letter indicates,

we would transfer the child to other hands.

- Nevertheless, this badge has taught me,

it daily teaches me,

lessons whereof my child may be the wiser and better.

- We shall judge for ourselves.

Oh, Master Dimmesdale, examine this child

and see whether she has such training

as befits one of her age.

- Come here, child.

What's your name?

- Pearl.

- Can you tell me who created you?

- Nobody. Mother found me on a rosebush.

- This is awful!

We need inquire no further.

For the child's welfare,

she shall be taken out of your charge.

- No! No, no!

She's mine!

God gave her to me in place

of all the things he's taken from me.

She's my happiness, and my punishment, too.

You cannot take her.

- My poor woman, the child shall be well cared for.

Far better than you can do it.

- God gave her into my keeping, and I will not give her up!

You speak for me.

You are my pastor, you know me better than these men.

You know what a mother's rights are.

Speak for me!

Don't let them take my baby away.

- There is truth in what she says.

God gave her the child,

and there is a sacredness in that relation.

- Make that plain, Master Dimmesdale.

- The Heavenly Father has sent this child as a blessing,

and also, as a punishment,

a constant reminder of her fall from grace.

This child was meant above all things else

to keep her mother's soul alive.

For Hester Prynne's sake, then,

and no less for the poor child's sake,

let us leave them as providence has seen fit to place them.

- You speak, my friend, with a strange earnestness.

- We will leave the matter as it now stands,

providing that you send the child to Reverend Dimmesdale

for proper Christian training.

- It shall be done.

- Bartholomew, wilt thou please go away.

- Ingrate! I am but trying to aid thee.

- I've done my courting these past five years

without thy aid, and I do not need it now.

- Hmm. Five years and no progress.

- 'Tis well nigh impossible to court a woman

with her children always present.

- A mere trifle.

- Sayest thou.

- Sayest I.

If thou wouldst but let me speak for thee,

the bands will be posted on the morrow.

- Of a certainty?

- Of a certainty.

Remember, I will be the spokesman.

- Thou art a friend, indeed.

(door knocking)

- Look to your appearance.

(door clicking)

- Oh, thank you, Master Bartholomew.

Will you come in?

- Thou art a great aid, indeed.

- A mere trifle.

(clears throat) Mistress Crakstone,

I have come on an affair of the heart.

- Won't you sit down, Master Bartholomew?

- Abigail.

For well nigh five years...

(door clicking)

(children giggling)

- Digerie, Humility, come here.

Study your catechism.

- For five years, a man has, uh...

- A rare coincidence.

'Tis the self-same courting trumpet,

my first husband used when he asked me to marry him.

(Bartholomew speaking faintly)

(children giggling)

- What did you say?

- I said, "For well nigh five years,

"someone has loved thee dearly."

- Excellent. Proceed.

(Bartholomew speaking faintly)

- Oh, Master Bartholomew.

- I said, "He is no longer content

"to worship thee in silence."

- What did she say?

- (chuckles) She said, "Oh, Master Bartholomew."

(Bartholomew speaking faintly)

(Abigail speaking faintly)

I said, "Has he your permission to speak to you

"on a question that is close to his heart?"

- What did she say?

- She said, "Speak with an open heart."

Here.

- Will you marry me?

- [Abigail] No!

(courting trumpet clatters)

- She said, "No!"

- [Roger] Good day, gentlemen.

- Good day, Doctor.

I see you've been gathering herbs.

- [Roger] Yes, to make medicine for Master Dimmesdale.

- Poor man, people do say he is much too saintly

to remain long on this earth.

How is he today?

- As well as could be expected.

- 'Tis a blessing they dwell together.

Only his constant attention sustains the minister's health.

- A touching devotion.

But what is more noble than a loyal friend?

- Aye! What is more no...

(flowers thudding)

- [Arthur] Is that you, Roger?

- [Roger] How are you feeling this afternoon?

- No better.

Ah, no worse.

- Ah, have patience, my friend.

- What a peculiar-looking herb.

Where did you find it?

- In the graveyard,

on a grave that had no marker to commemorate the dead man,

save these dismal leaves.

Perhaps it grew from his power

[Roger] and carries some hideous secret

which he had done better to confess during his lifetime.

- Perhaps he earnestly desired it, but could not.

- [Roger] Why not?

- Some men are kept silent by their very natures.

They shrink from showing their sins to the eyes of men.

- Even that is better than to suffer

the hellish tortures of a guilty conscience.

- Maybe so.

- Arthur, as one in charge of your physical well-being,

have all your ills been laid fairly open to me?

- What do you mean?

Why do you ask?

- A bodily sickness is often but a symptom

of a spiritual alarm.

If you would have me heal the bodily evil,

you must firstly open the trouble in your soul.

- If it be the soul's disease

then I commit myself to the one physician of the soul,

not to you.

- I am sorry.

Forgive me, Arthur.

There is a woman who has none of the misery

of a hidden sinfulness.

Is she less miserable, think you,

for the scarlet letter on her bosom?

- I do believe it.

- Is Master Dimmesdale at home?

- Yes.

- I've brought little Pearl for her lesson in catechism.

(door slamming)

(door knocking)

- Master Dimmesdale.

- Yes?

- Mistress Prynne has brought the child for her lesson.

- Oh, thank you, Abigail.

- I'll leave you with your pupil.

- You want to please your mother, do you not?

- Yes, Master Dimmesdale.

- Come to me, my child.

Now pay heed to what I teach you.

- Yes, Master Dimmesdale.

- God is the Heavenly Father.

He's the father of all children.

- But they have a real father.

I want one, too.

- If-If it will make you feel any happier,

think of me as your father.

I am as a father to all my flock.

Do you know your letters?

- [Pearl] I know that one.

- What is it?

- It's the great letter A.

- How do you know?

- 'Cause Mother always wears it here.

"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned

"and done this evil in thy sight,

"that thou mightst be justified when thou speak

"and be clear when thou judge.

"Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward part,

"and in the hidden part

"thou shalt make me to know thy wisdom.

"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,

"and in sin did my mother conceive me.

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

"Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

"Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,

"and renew a right spirit within me.

"Cast me not away from thy presence

and take not the Holy Spirit from me.

"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation-

- Amen!

- [Arthur] "And uphold me with thy free spirit.

"Then will I teach transgressors thy way

"and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

"Deliver me my blood guiltiness, O God,

"and thou God of my salvation,

"and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

"O Lord, open thou my lips

"and my mouth shall show forth thy praise,

"for thou desireth not sacrifice; else would I give I-"

- I was not asleep.

- Thine eyes were closed.

- I was but meditating.

- And just how thou knoweth the way to heaven,

so well thou could find it with thine eyes closed?

- "Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion.

"Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

"Then shalt thou be pleased

"with the sacrifices of righteousness,

"with burnt offering and whole burnt offering,

"then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar."

There is one who is ill and not with us this day.

So let us pray that Sister Allerton may soon be well.

Heavenly Father, deliver thy child who is ill

and not with us this day.

If it be thy will to take one of us,

take me,

I who wear the black garments of the priesthood

am utterly a pollution and a lie.

Spare this righteous woman and take me,

the vilest of sinners and an abomination in thy sight.

Let the words of my mouth be acceptable unto thee, oh, God,

my strength and my redeemer.

- [Congregation] Amen.

- An inspired sermon.

- A godly youth.

- He is, indeed, a saint.

- God cannot refuse his prayers.

Mistress Allerton must soon be well.

- Yes, indeed. - Good day.

- Good day. - Good day.

- If our good pastor beholds such sinfulness

in his own white soul,

what horrid spectacle would he see in thine?

- Or thine.

(townspeople chatter)

- Mother?

- Yes, dear?

- Mother, may I tell Mistress Allerton

the minister prayed for her?

- Yes, dear, we'll tell her tonight.

It will make her very happy.

(thunder rumbling)

- This one would be nice.

Better leave before it's dark.

- I'll not leave you alone.

- It won't be for long.

The doctor will soon be here.

- Well, I'll wait till he comes.

Here, drink this. It'll make you strong.

- Hester, I have greatly wronged you.

Will you forgive me?

- Oh, hush.

(thunder rumbling)

- Ah, you're looking better this evening.

Our minister's prayers are beginning to bear fruit.

- With his prayers, and Hester Prynne's broth,

it's no miracle I'll recover.

- Come on.

- I hear good tidings of you on all hands.

Only yesterday, the council was debating

as to whether the scarlet letter

should be taken off your bosom.

- Were I worthy to be rid of it,

it would fall off of its own nature.

- Well, if it suits you better then wear it.

(thunder rumbling)

- [Hester] Goodnight, Mistress Allerton.

I will see you tomorrow.

- Goodnight, Mistress Prynne.

(door clicking)

- We have treated her most unkindly.

No one ever went near her, save Master Dimmesdale,

and he only went out of duty to her soul.

- Yes, I am convinced daily he has done much

for her soul.

- Nine o'clock and all's well!

Lights out!

Lights out!

Nine o'clock and all's well!

(thunder crashing)

(thunder crashing)

- Heavenly Father, behold in the incident,

I have sinned before heaven and in thy sight.

[Arthur] Hester.

Hester Prynne, is that you?

Hester Prynne, is it you?

- Yes. - Come up.

Come here.

Come

You have both been here before, but I was not with you.

- Arthur, have you not found peace?

- No, nothing but despair.

- But the people reverence you.

Does that bring you no comfort?

- More misery.

When I look inward

and see the black reality of what they idolize,

I would their reverence would turn to scorn, into hatred!

- You wrong yourself.

Your sin is left behind you long ago.

(thunder crashing)

- Look! The letter A!

Even the heavens proclaim my guilt.

- Please, it's a storm.

Come, Arthur, come, you should not stand here.

- No! No, no!

Now I stand where I should've stood five years ago,

by your side!

Who's there?

- [Roger] Your good friend Roger Chillingworth.

- How did you know I was here?

- I knew nothing of the matter.

I was returning from the bedside of Mistress Allerton.

My good friend, surely the Lord's work

does not demand that one even so pious as you

could attend his flock at such an unseemly hour as this.

You must rest,

else these night whimsies will draw upon you.

Come, let me take you home.

(thunder rumbling)

- [Beadle] 10 o'clock and all's well!

(rain pattering)

- Good day, Mistress Prynne.

You sent for me?

- Yes.

Pearl, dear, run out and play.

- [Pearl] All right, Mother.

- So, Mistress Hester

has a word for old Roger Chillingworth.

[Roger] Speak freely and I will answer.

- Five years ago, you made me pledge secrecy

to the fact that you were my husband.

In doing so, I was false to the only man

to whom I should've been true.

- What choice had you?

My finger pointed at this man

would have hurled him from his pulpit into a dungeon.

- Better it had been so.

- What evil have I done the man?

That he lives at all is owing to me.

- You keep him alive only to feed your vengeance!

You burrow and rankle in his heart.

You cause him to die daily a living death,

and, still, he knows you not.

[Hester] Better he had died at once.

Have you not tortured him enough?

- No! No!

I live only for that.

- Be once more human.

You have it at your will to pardon,

do not reject that privilege.

- No, Hester, never.

- Very well, do what you will.

But he shall know you in your true like.

- May I not do something for you?

- No, no.

I'll be all right.

Just going for my walk.

- [Bartholomew] Mistress Crakstone.

- Oh!

- I'm seeking Master Sampson.

He said he would be here.

- Won't you sit down and wait for him?

Oh!

- What is this?

- [Bartholomew] 'Tis nothing at all.

- Nothing at all?

My best friend and the woman I love.

For shame, thou a snake in the grass!

- Oh, be calm, Sampson, I can explain.

- There is naught to explain!

You know full well it is a sin

for a man to behold a woman's nether garments.

- Sampson.

- Quiet, woman, thou hast been dishonored.

If thou hast one spark of manhood in thee,

thou wilt marry this woman.

- Aye, 'twould be the honorable thing to do.

- But thou lovest her, thou marry her.

- After thou hast seen her nether garment?

- Oh.

But thou did see them also.

- So I did.

- But Master Bartholomew did see them first.

- True.

Thou must marry the woman.

I shall ask the Reverend Dimmesdale to post the bands.

- You will have to wait for him.

He's gone for his walk in the woods.

(melancholic orchestral music)

- Arthur!

Arthur Dimmesdale!

I've been looking for you.

Pearl. Pearl, dear, don't go too far.

- I won't.

- Hester.

Hester, you little know

what a relief it is to see you alone.

Had I but one friend, or even an enemy,

who knew me for what I am,

my soul might keep itself alive.

- But I am that friend, Arthur.

And you have such an enemy, under the same roof with you.

- An enemy under the same roof?

What do you mean?

- Oh, Arthur, forgive me.

Truth was the one virtue to which I held fast,

except when your good name was questioned,

then I consented to deception.

I must tell you.

That old man, Roger Chillingworth, was my husband.

(melancholic orchestral music continues)

- I might've known.

The secret was told me in the natural recoil of my heart.

(gentle thoughtful orchestral music)

(water splashing)

(birds chirping)

Why didn't you tell me this before?

- He pledged me to silence.

- Hester, I can bear no more. (sobbing)

You're strong, Hester, advise me what to do.

- You must dwell no longer with this man.

- How can I avoid it?

- Does the universe lie within compass of yonder town?

There's the broad pathway of the sea.

It brought you here, it will bear you back again.

Begin life anew, there's happiness beyond.

- No, it cannot be.

I have not the courage to venture into a strange land alone.

- You shall not go alone.

- Hester!

- Even now, even now there's a vessel in the harbor.

It sails the day after election.

I will secretly engage passage.

- Hester, this is already the new life!

Why didn't we think of it sooner?

- Let us not look back. The past is gone.

(gentle majestic orchestral music)

(townspeople chattering)

- Hey, boys, we're gonna drink to the governor.

(men chattering)

Hey, Aaron, bring a small tankard of ale.

- [Aaron] Yes, sir!

(footsteps clumping)

- Will you, uh, gentlemen join us in a drink?

- Nay, I am a most unhappy man.

- What? On election day?

Why, this is a time for merrymaking. (chuckles)

- Not for me.

- He is soon to be married.

- Oh, that's a mere trifle! (laughs)

Why, I've got a wife in every port!

- Aye, but thou art a ship's master

and well-accustomed to stormy weather.

- (laughs) Well put, my boy. Well put.

We'll have another drink. (laughs)

- Ah-ah.

You've had enough. Mistress Abigail will be angry.

- (fingers clicking) That's for Abigail.

I will be master in my own house.

- Sayest thou.

- Sayest I.

- Mother wants you!

And if you don't come immediately,

she will come and fetch you!

- (laughing) Here's to the bride!

(townspeople chattering)

- Mother, what are all the people doing here at the square?

- They're waiting to see the procession pass.

There'll be soldiers marching and drums.

(men chattering)

- Well!

Good day, mistress. I've been seeking you!

- What is it, Captain?

- Everything is in readiness.

Cabin for you, the little girl, and one for the gentleman.

- We shall be there.

- Yes, we're gonna sail on the noontide,

and it should be a healthy voyage with the ship's surgeon

and this other doctor on voyage with us.

- Have you another passenger?

- Yes, I supposed you knew.

He said he was one of your party.

Chillingworth's the name.

He said he's a friend of the gentleman you spoke of.

- Yes, he knows him, well, indeed.

(marching drums music)

- Bartholomew.

- [Bartholomew] Yes?

- Take the children by the hand.

- Yes, my love.

(crowd applauding)

- The crowd has gathered to hear your election sermon.

It would be a calamity for their faith to be destroyed.

(marching drums music continues)

What do you think they will say on the morrow

when they discover that their saintly pastor

has fled with the woman of the scarlet letter?

My friend, you are frail.

It is well that I am sailing with you.

- Stop.

Stop!

Stop!

(townspeople chattering)

People of Massachusetts, ye that have deemed me holy,

you that have loved me,

behold in me the one sinner of the world.

At last, I stand where I should've stood five years ago,

by the side of Hester Prynne.

- It's not true! It's not true!

He accuses himself falsely.

His illness has unbalanced his mind.

- No, at last, I see clearly.

You have seen Hester's scarlet letter and shuddered at it,

but there was one among you

whose brand of shame you have not seen.

- Quiet, madman!

- Now, at death's door, I stand before you.

Look again at Hester's scarlet letter.

It is the shadow of what I bear in my own heart.

Stand any here who question God's judgment of a sinner?

Then behold a dreadful witness of it!

(townspeople muttering)

(townspeople gasping)

Pearl.

Pearl, my child,

will you kiss me?

(Pearl sobs)

- Shall we not meet again?

Shall we not spend our immortal lives together?

Look far into eternity with those light-dying eyes

and tell me, what do you see?

- Peace, Hester.

Peace.

(bell tolling)

(townspeople murmuring)

(dramatic orchestral music)