Yes, he's right.
If there's war, what is to stop our praying Indians
from rising up
and slitting our throats as we sleep?
Faith, Thomas. Faith.
I know what will stop them.
Arthur's friendship with Johnny Sassamon.
Johnny would never betray Arthur.
He worships him.
As Peter worshipped
Jesus.
Gentlemen. Doctor.
If there's a true war,
God help us all.
for neither we nor the savaged will survive it.
I see the governor appreciates the signs less than yee,
his Godly advisors.
It is not always easy.
Strangely, the same thing happened in Virginia.
Before the attack,
there were signs that went unheeded.
What manner of signs?
The bad winter. The crop failures.
Far too many Quakers and foreigners in the town.
Some minor elements
of witchcraft, etc.
Exactly!
Our first sign was that
of Hester Prynne and her women's meetings.
Then the severe winter.
The failed crops.
You see, sir,
my colleague has feared from the start,
that in the matter of Mistress Prynne,
witchcraft was involved.
Then why in all this time have you not taken measures
to cleanse your colony?
What measures do you speak of?
Did you examine the women present at those meetings?
Have you queried the midwife,
or inspected the child for the witch's marks?
I shall fear no evil.
I prepare us a table in the presence of thine enemy.
My cup
runneth over.
Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me.
I will dwell in the house of the Lord.
The babe's clean,
at present.
Hester,
we shall leave your child with you for the present,
but you must assure us it will be raised a Christian.
Yes, yes.
Yes.
I've been your friend today.
But it cannot always be so. No.
For inside me I grow more wretched by the day.
I yearn so much for thee.
I fear I might destroy
her whole world to win her back.
Tell old Harriet what's troubling you.
I never imagined
how cruel and cunning their punishment could be.
Stonehall y Cheever stop to preach at me in the street.
The people pointing and shouting.
Even the children.
And that horrible drummer boy following me everywhere.
Perhaps it was all for naught.
I wonder if to be a woman is worthwhile at all.
Even for the happiest of women.
Courage, child.
Take heart. At least you've known what it is to love.
But what if I've repaid it by destroying him?
What if
everything I believed so strongly was a lie?
Vain and
selfish.
Prynne's cruelpunishments
were succeeding.
The seasons ran theircourse.
The distance between them was impassable.
My mother took the terrible risk ofwriting to my father,
reminding to keep theirlove and his silence.
The subtle but constant presence ofPrynne
was a torment
that threatened my father's very soul.
As forPrynne,
his lust forrevenge
fed on itself
so that he hungered formore.
Good morrow, Mituba.
What a pleasant day for a ride.
Poor Mituba.
You're renowned for your loyalty to your Mistress, and I see why.
Was your dry lunch a communication from her lover?
I have the power to arrest you as an accomplice t adultery
and bring you before the magistrates for questioning.
And since you are a slave,
they might whip you to death.
Easy. Easy.
I only want to help the one we both love.
To free herself from the grasp of a fiend.
Dear Lord, this is it!
He made you strip naked before him!
Totally naked!
Was there a presence in the room?
Now think! Think!
He might have come in one of his many disguises.
Did he come as a bird?
Oh, God. I feel
the presence of Lucifer!
Save yourself before it's too late!
Gentlemen, please!
Enough!
Go home, Mituba. You've been a wondrous help.
Commend us to your Mistress.
Go home.
So there is a malignancy
to be cut our here.
But what kind of witness will a slave be in court?
The bird, obviously. is Harriet Hibbons.
What is it, Pearl?
- Forgive me, Hester. - Harriet.
Yours was the first place I thought of to hide.
What is it?
They've, they've, they've ah...
broken into my house. They're looking for me in the woods.
I've been named
as a witch!
In the name of God!
Halt there!
Yes, sir!
What's the meaning of this intrusion?
Stand aside, woman!
We know the witch is in here.
There's no one inside
but me, my child and Mituba.
So unless you have a warrant, be gone.
Reverend Dimmesdale.
What's happening, major?
We've cornered ourselves a witch.
Here in Hester Prynne's cottage.
If there's a witch inside the house, major,
I'll find her.
Right.
One man at the door.
- Soldier! - Sir?
Pearl's grown tall.
She's an elf.
Willful.
Dear God, Hester.
It's been so long.
You'r thin.
Are you hiding someone, Hester?
Why do you...?
Why are you risking
further anger from the elders?
Because she is no witch! She's committed no crime
beyond speaking her mind!
If she is innocent,
I assure you no harm will befall her.
Arthur. After all that has happened,
how can you still trust these iron men?
Don't you see what's happening?
Last month they brought Sally Short for questioning.
They held her for 2 days. Last week it was Mary Rollins.
They just questioned them!
What's the crime in that?
The crime is they had nothing!
Don't you see
this is some malevolence?
- What has become of you? - God, woman!
What are your demands?
I've given up everything I own sacred!
I'm in Hell!
In the eye of your husband, who lurks at my side day and night.
In the eye of all who come to me to unburden their soul!
I'm a pollution!
I'm a lie!
They are the pollution!
They are the lie!
But you allow them to destroy all that is good in you!
What's happened to the man I love?
Does he not still live inside thee?
Our love, woman, was a folly.
And the voice we heard,
we have been punished for listening to!
What have I become?
To betray the onlyperson on earth who had shown herkindness.
What could feel worse than that?
Mituba?
Poor, mute Mituba.
When Prynne summoned her,
she wanted only to undo the harm sh'd caused her Mistress.
Peace in this House!
Peace, I say. Peace!
You find these proceedings humorous, Mistress?
Do you expect me to take them seriously?
You're a bunch of grown men
poking around my private parts looking for witch's marks!
The slave, Mituba...
Peace, I say. Peace!
The witness, the slave Mituba, has been found dead.
I told you she was a witch!
- Mistress Hibbons is a witch! - She's a witch!
Witch!
Have you lost all reason?
There's no witchcraft here!
This is murder!
Guards,
restrain this woman!
Satan is not at work here among the women!
But if he's here, perhaps is at work among you men!
Here Satan speaks!
Governor?
I have evidence to render.
As you know,
Mistress Hibbons midwifed Mistress Prynne's
baby Pearl.
Sweet Pearl.
Bastard!
No!
Pearl.
I wish you were my girl.
Poor fatherless child.
Would you like to learn a game?
Yes. Now do what I do.
If I pinch my nose.
You too. Very good, very good.
Now,
pull up my shirt and show my tummy tum-tum.
Now show me your tummy tum-tum.
Pull up your shirt.
Behold the witch's mark!
Behold the devil's own child!
The devil's own child! The devil's own child!
This woman is innocent!
Innocent? Since you first spoke of this woman,
all we've dreames and toiled for in God's name has been threatened!
I've heard enough!
Have you listened?
Factions! Arguments! Dissent!
That is the work of Satan!
The town was in an uproar.
My fatherrisked one last meeting with my mother,
convinced that ifthey were to hang
Harriet, it would not be long
before my motherand I would be seized... and hung.
I had to speak out.
I couldn't stop myself.
Damn your husband!
You and Pearl must go in hiding. Tonight.
I cannot.
I cannot run.
What are you saying?
Forgive me.
Whatever happens,
promise me you'll look after Pearl. I.
God, woman, how much further must you take this?
As far as my strength will take me.
If Harriet is to hang, I must hang with her.
I'll ask the other women to stand with us.
They can't hang us all.
Hester, are we ever to know a life together?
I love thee.
I love thee and always will.
I will always love thee.
Lord God, we stood before thee naked once,
and now we stand before thee
naked again, as a family.
God! Thou has given me this as a gift,
and I will not give it up!
Not while I have the strength.
Arthur?
Evening Mistress Prynne. Expecting someone else?
Ah, no.
Didn't you call out for Arthur?
The only Arthur I know is... Dimmesdale.
You misunderstood me, I didn't say...
I should have guessed long ago.
You naughty girl.
So you fucked our minister.
God, I'm about to savour a priceless morsel!
Up we go!
Did he suck your breasts?
Did he lick you?
Where did he lick you?
Show me!
How I wanted to put it in you!
This is to make you pay for my fantasies.
While you were torturing me,
you were giving it to another.
Damned witch!
Get out!
Do up your britches and get out!
Bastard! Get out of here!
How I will enjoy watching you and the pastor hang!
Open up, doctor!
There are matters between us we must discus immediately.
So, Arthur Dimmesdale.
At last justice is done!
�Ha sido asesinado!
Call out the militia! Call out the guards!
It's a sign! The Lord has sent us a sign!
We have strayed!
See how he punishes us!
It's Brewster. Those savages
have killed him!
My son! My son!
Damned heathens!
Lock up the praying Indians,
before they murder us in our beds!
Get the praying Indians!
Praying Indians into the compound!
We are loyal to you!
By order of the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
you are under arrest for the crime of heresy.
Stop this. It was one of us who killed Brewster.
I have proof.
Bastard!
Johnny, run to Metacomet's place by the river.
Tell him to come and save his people. Run, man!
Here come the witches!
Open the cell.
- Never mind the child. - Pearl!
- Get in, woman! - Pearl?
Worry not, Mistress.
I'll see she's raised up to fear the Lord.
Open up, murderer!
There is no witchcraft here!
If we hang these women,
then what have we become?
Who are we
to condemn
on God's behalf?
I love this woman.
I am
the father of her child.
And in God's eyes,
I am her husband.
If you must hang someone,
to appease
your anger and fear,
then hang me.
Hang him!
Bastards!
Hester!
Where's my daughter, Pearl?
She's in the meeting house!
You are free, my people. Go back to Metacomet!
Go back to the forest!
Bellingham will do anything to conceal this madness from England.
He has sworn to me that he will remove the letter.
And make thee a public apology.
How close they are, love and hate.
We're no less bound by one than the other.
Rest in peace, Roger Prynne.
This letter has served a purpose.
Though not the one
they had intended.
So why would I stay here?
To be accepted by them? To be tamed by them?
- There is no perfect world. - No, not perfect.
But we came here to make a new one.
And for Pearl's sake,
I must do just that.
Hester.
Hester!
Look at me.
If I look at you, I won't be able to leave
Then leave.
Brave the wilds!
But Hester,
I'm not letting you go without me.
They're watching us.
In the faraway Carolinas,
they were at last to find a measure ofthe happiness
that hade been denied them forso long.
My fatherdied before I reached my teens.
Some say that was a punishment.
My motherneverremarried norloved another.
Some say that was a punishment.
As forme,
I do not see it that way.
Myparents shared a love like no other.
I know the spirit ofthat love lives within me.
And will live within my children forever.
Who is to say what is a sin in God's eyes?