Chapters 17-18

Hester tells Dimmesdale about Chillingsworth. I'm surprised they haven't met sooner and professed their love for each other. Hester and Dimmesdale work everything out and want to flee to Europe. Hester realizes that solitude and isolation are a worse punishment than public scrutiny.

I don't understand why it took so long for this transformation of Hester. She realizes that Chillingsworth is a worse sinner than both herself and Dimmesdale.

I wondered all along if there was any love left for hester and arthur. I decided that they had decided to cut all communication from one another so as not to cast suspician about their previous relationship.
Where as once Pearl had been kind o Dimsdale now she finds him a threat to her relationship with her mother.
What about dimsdales almost overwhelming desires to commit blasphemous acts thre or four times as he heads back to town? I think he has been under such constraint that after deciding to leave with Hester all the little things that have tempted him at times just came rushing to the surface. i did not like that the author intimated that Dimsdale should not have been thinking too much about that last sermon he was going to give. But hey, we have 'Chill' ingsworth and 'Dim' sdale! maybe the guy was just not that bright!

I think Dimmesdale is not too bright. He hasn't figured anything out about his roommate Chillingsworth. It took Hester to enlighten him.

This is one of the first times that I have started to feel like the characters have a personality or a sense of their own identity. Up until now, the story has been completely focused around the Puritanical views and laws. The characters were defined by their 'sin'/action, just now do they seem to have substance.

I also think that it is difficult to differentiate what was realistic and known at the times, compared to what is known now. EXAMPLE: What Karen said about Pearl being a bit jealous of Mr. Dimsdale taking the attention from her mother, which to me seems to make sense, but I think is more of a modern day way of viewing children's emotions. Where as SparkNotes points out her attachment with nature, and her dislike of Dimsdale being more related to continued sin.
I think that when I am evaluating Pearl's role in the story, I continue to struggle with this concept.

Very interesting.