Hawthorne brings all the principal characters together at a third scaffold scene in this chapter, which begins with the triumph of Dimmesdale’s sermon and ends with his death.
Dimmesdale’s sermon is a personal triumph. In fact, Hawthorne ironically compares him to an angel who had “shaken his bright wings over the people” and “shed down a shower of golden truths upon them.” This final irony between his public and private lives is revealed when he confesses his sin on the scaffold to all of the people who think of him as a saint. He gives up everything: his child, his love, his life, and his honor. The relationship to God that he has been preaching about cannot be based on a lie. God sees everything, and Dimmesdale, no matter how hard he has tried, cannot outrun the truth that his conscience and his mind believe. Sailing to Europe will not bring him beyond the reach of God’s knowledge.
Not only does Dimmesdale confess, but he must do so alone. Although Hester helps him to the scaffold where she was punished seven years before, she cannot help him make his peace with God. The Church, in the form of Mr. Wilson, and the State, symbolized by Governor Bellingham, both try to hold Dimmesdale up as he approaches the scaffold, but he repels them and goes on alone. He does turn to Hester prior to his death and ask for her strength, guided by God. Having escaped the clutches of Chillingworth, he turns to Hester with “an expression of doubt and anxiety in his eyes.”
