Back to Brook

Mrs. Lemon told us the brook would flow back into our reading, so I was prepared. I was not disappointed with what the brook had to offer this time around.

The brook first made its reappearance in chapter 18 when Hester rips off that scarlet letter and neary throws it into the brook. You go girl. Things are looking up until we get to chapter 19, when the family reunion between Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale doesn't go quite as planned.

Hester assures Dimmesdale that Pearl will be overjoyed to see him, saying "She loves me, and will love thee" (Hawthorne 186). As is often the case with children, Pearl does the polar opposite of what her mother needs for her to do. Rather than cross the brook into the arms of her awaiting mother and father, Pearl begins to shriek and have what the Gibson family would refer to as a "total come-apart." Dimmesdale immediately the significance of the child being on the opposite bank of the brook: "I have a strange fancy, that this brook is the boundary between two worlds, and that thou canst never meet thy Pearl again" (Hawthorne 187-88). This line from Dimmesdale felt very ominous, and it left me wondering if this family will ever have a happy ever after. Hester soon sees the real reason for Pearl's tantrum-- the scarlet letter. Although Hester cast off the letter and decided to breathe the free air, she realizes that "Pearl misses something which she has always seen me wear" (189). Hester puts back on her emblem of torture, and little Pearl is appeased. I can only imagine how uncomfortable this whole scene was for the dear Reverend Dimmesdale.

Although the brook comes close to sweeping away the scarlet letter along with the pain that Dimmesdale and Hester have felt for seven years, it remains as a divide between the two. Hester must cross back over the brook, from the natural world of happiness in the forest with Dimmesdale to the strict moral standards of Puritan society. Dimmesdale too has not yet escaped the clutches of Puritan society, and the happy(ish) family decides to wait a few days before boarding a ship bound for Europe.

These chapters confused left me with more than a few lingering questions. Will Hester and Dimmesdale have their happily ever after? Is Pearl human? Will Chillingworth expose Dimmesdale before he and Hester leave town? What on earth is Dimmesdale going to say in his newly written election sermon?

We'll see which way the brook decides to flow.