Reverand Dimmesdale begins to see visions (of Hester and Pearl) and starts to disbelieve the universe. He begins torturing himself physically and mentally.
He decides to stand and hold a vigil on the scaffold in the middle of town, where Hester had stood with Pearl. He goes there, half delusional, screams in pain from the mark upon his chest, although no one hears him, he still thinks of what it would be like if the whole town saw their holy minister upon the scaffold of sin. Wilson passes him but doesnt seem to notice, for he is leaving the death bed of Govener Winthrop. The minister begins to contemplate with fear if all the people of his congregation was to come and watch him, to see their sinless minister was in fact the man upon the scaffold.
Overwhelmed with both the horror and irony of this, he begins to laugh, responded by the airy playful laugh of his daughter Pearl. he had not realized but Hester and her were standing there for they had been at the deathbed providing the burial robe that has been requested of the seamstress. He asks if they will come and stand with him, and they do. The three stand upon the scaffold together, and a rush of energy surges through the minister. Then Pearl asks him if he will stand there with her mother and herself at noon the next day but he refuses. He says that they will stand together at judgement day but not in front of the public of this world.