Another view of Hester identified in the chapter title is that of the narrator, not the Puritan community. Her life, having “changed from passion and feeling to thought . . . she assumed a freedom of speculation . . . which [the Puritans], had they known it, would have held to be a deadlier crime than that stigmatized by the scarlet letter.” The narrator speculates that, had it not been for her responsibilities to little Pearl, Hester “might have come down to us in history, hand in hand with Anne Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious sect” and quite probably would have been executed for “attempting to undermine the foundations of the Puritan establishment.” Tellingly, the narrator remarks, “The scarlet letter had not done its office.”
This chapter also describes Hester’s motive in speaking with Chillingworth, a conversation that will take place in the next chapter. Having seen the terrible toll Chillingworth is taking on Dimmesdale, she decides that she is partly to blame. Now she must do something to redeem her error in not identifying him to her former lover.
