What does Hester say to Dimmesdale in the forest in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Hawthorne's contains a
tense episode in , whendecides to meetin the forest and reveals her relationship to
Chillingworth. While the question does not say specifically what quotation you refer to, this is
the chapter that offers their only intimate encounter in the novel and contains a few statements
of note.

First is Hester's revelation, after which Dimmesdale at first claims
he cannot forgive her and that he has suffered most from their predicament:

"Oh, Arthur!" cried she, "forgive me! In all things
else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did
hold fast, through all extremity; save when thy goodthy lifethy famewere put in question! Then I
consented to a deception. But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side!
Dost thou not see what I would say? That old man!the physician!he whom they call !he was my
husband!"

Given the novel'sand 's insistence on the
importance of "being true" to oneself, Hester's insistence that she was guilty only of
failing in this when she promised to conceal Chillingworth's identity.

The
most shocking claim, however, seems to be her statement:

"What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each
other. Hast thou forgotten it?"

Hawthorne'sis so
purposefully complex that the use of the word "consecration" seems shocking when
speaking of adulterous sexuality. This claim takes the initial premise of the novelthat the two
are tormented by their past sinful encounterand transforms the act into something
holy.

This same chapter also finds Hester offering Dimmesdale a path out of
the misery the town holds for them both. Her strength allows him to imagine another way of being
in the world that doesn't demand the sacrifices the Massachusetts Bay Colony expects. Hester's
clarity of mind, compared to Dimmesdale's morose gloom, offers a redemptive and healthy
alternative.