The Scaffold Scenes In The Scarlet Letter

There are many important scenes throughout The Scarlet Letter. The most important scenes include: when Hester is introduced with Pearl, when Dimmesdale is holding one of his vigils, when Pearl is almost taken from Hester, the walk in the woods with Dimmesdale, and the ending scene when Dimmesdale confesses his sin.

The scaffold shows how the punishment imposed on us by others may not be as destructive as the guilt we impose on ourselves. When Hester was standing on the scaffold she is not thinking about being punished. She is having flashbacks to earlier times and feeling guilty for what she had done. The scaffold is a platform used for redemption and a symbol of the harsh Puritan code.

The scaffold appears early in the when Hester Prynne is forced to climb up to the scaffold where her punishment will be carried out. The mother and child are gawked at and humiliated, as they are forced to stand there on display for the town. Hawthorne writes:

In the second scaffold scene, it seems as if Hester has changed from sinner into a citizen who now has a job in society, and that she no longer yearns for Dimmesdale and Dimmesdale no longer covets her. However, this is not true. Hawthorne writes, “The moment that he did so, there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through all his veins…The three formed an electric chain.'; (page 105) The reader learns from this quote that Dimmesdale and Hester still have a great love for each other. It is also from this quote that the “A'; on Hester has not worked as well as it was intended. Hester still has a great love for the man with whom she had an affair and this may never change. Furthermore, her banishment has given her time to focus on her love for Dimmesdale. Here the scaffold represents Hester’s unwillingness to not love Dimmesdale.

In contrast to the first scaffold scene, the second one happened during the night, completely unseen by the other villagers. Again, we see Dimmesdale and Hester (and Pearl), but this time, the lovers appeared to be both on the platform of shame. In this passage, Dimmesdale finally decided to act upon his guilt since he “had been driven hither (to the scaffold) by the impulse that Remorse which dogged him everywhere” (132-133). This scene symbolizes a moment of great insight for the minister because he started to understand a way to repent himself. As Dimmesdale touched his little girl’s hand, he experienced “[an]other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart and hurrying through all his veins, as if the mother and the child were communicating their vital warmth to his half-torpid system” (137). The miserable sinner, who lived in utter darkness and despair for such a long time, at last began to grasp his responsibility towards Hester and Pearl and his role in the redemption of all three characters. However, Dimmesdale’s insight was not complete because he was still bounded with fear. When Pearl asked him to expose his sin to the public and admit her as his legitimate child, his courage

First, Hester’s time spent on the scaffold, alone with her three month old child, then shortly after when Roger Chillingworth tends to her and Pearl while she is still in the prison. A third important scene being Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl on the scaffold in the darkness with a red letter ‘A’ blazing in the sky above them. Next, is Hester and Arthur’s meeting in the forest where they share plans for the future as well as a kiss. And lastly, the last moment on the scaffold where sins are revealed and forgiven as the Reverend passes away in his love’s arms. Of course there are other key points in the novel, but these are just a few major points in the

In the first scaffold scene Hester Prynne is depicted standing alone while clutching her baby. She has been sentenced to the scaffold for three hours to face public condemnation. In the Puritan society, where this novel is set, public shame is a source of entertainment. On this occasion the townspeople are present to watch the judgment of Hester.

From the beginning, we see that Hester Prynne is a young and beautiful woman who has brought a child into the world with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the bosom of her dress and standing on the scaffold for three hours. The scaffold is a painful task to bear; the townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her

Dimmesdale realizes that he must confess his sin and face whatever consequences may lie ahead of him, whether or not his confession is seven years past due. Before reaching the “well-remembered and weather-darkened scaffold,” where Hester Prynne had encountered the “world’s ignominious stare,” Arthur Dimmesdale cautiously comes to a pause (246). Only two people in the crowd, Roger Chillingworth (Hester’s husband) and Hester Prynne, understand why Dimmesdale halts before ascending up the scaffold. He will finally reveal his identity to the town and release the guilt that has built inside of him for seven years. As Hester and Pearl are about to accompany Dimmesdale up to the scaffold, Chillingworth “trusts himself through the crowd” – or, from Hawthorne’s description, “so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look,” Chillingworth “rose up out of some nether region to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do” (247). Ignoring Chillingworth’s effort to stop Dimmesdale, the three mount the scaffold and face the eager crowd. In one of Dimmesdale’s final speeches, he claims that Hester’s scarlet letter “is but the shadow of what he bears on his own breast” (250). The moment after Dimmesdale reveals his ‘scarlet letter’, he stood “with a flush of triumph in his face as one who had won a victory” (251). As Dimmesdale had wished, his remorse and internal pain is forgotten once he reveals his true identity, allowing his soul to experience its elapsed freedom.

The first scaffold scene mainly focuses on Hester and her scarlet letter. In this scene the scaffold unifies Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. Hester’s situation is changed because she is now being publicly humiliated. Chillingworth is in the crowd of townspeople watching Hester, and he wants to find out who the baby’s father is. Dimmesdale is also there, but no one suspects he has anything to do with Hester’s

The settings in which Dimmesdale’s public and private lives are set are distinguished. The scaffold is considered the public setting in the novel; not only is this where Hester was humiliated in front of the community, but it is also where Dimmesdale makes his final plea for the townspeople takes place. Generally, the forest is where the private conversations occur; it is where Hester and Dimmesdale talked to each other in privacy for the first time since their affair and where their sinning happened.

In the third scaffold scene, Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale reunite together on the scaffold. As others recognize who her secret lover is, the community perceives Hester as a sympathetic figure. When Hester is standing with Dimmesdale on the scaffold, he confesses his immoral actions and shows his version of the scarlet letter on his chest. After seven years the Reverend proclaims, “In the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what---for my own heavy sin and miserable agony---I withheld myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me!” (226).

By this point, it becomes evident that Dimmesdale is beginning to feel guilty with remorse for his actions and as a consequence, he is approaching insanity, due in part to Chillingworth’s methodical torture. Spotted on their returning walk home, Hester and Pearl are invited to accompany Dimmesdale on the scaffold. The chapters involving the first scaffold scene had Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl separated but now as they stood atop the scaffold together, “The three formed an electric chain” (Hawthorne 137). Wanting to repent for his sins, Dimmesdale has taken the first steps in doing so but Pearl points out that his repentance is in no way complete as he cannot stand in front of the townspeople during the day and confess with them. During this isolation from society, Hester recognizes the extremity of Chillingworth’s mental abuse and thus reveals his identity in an act of mercy.

Hester’s scarlet letter is a piece of clothing, the “SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom” (Hawthorn 51). Her interpretation of the extremity of her sins is one of self composure and calm. She views her sins solely as a "violation in the natural order" of the environment and therefore cannot even perceive her sin as being evil except through outside influence. Dimmesdale on the other hand, has a scarlet letter carved in his chest. This is revealed when Dimmesdale was giving his revelation, in which “he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed!” (Hawthorn 232). Dimmesdale 's personal interpretation as to the extremity of his own sins is a "violation of God 's law," which is the law that he is totally dedicated to and supported by. Dimmesdale 's interpretation of his sin is much more severe than Hester 's, it is a violation and direct contradiction of his own self consciousness and physical existence. Therefore the appearance of his A, even though it is never directly described in the novel, must be powerful, broken, and brutally dishonest (...a ghastly rapture; Hawthorne pg.95). Since the Scarlet Letter on Hester is visible to the public, she was criticized and looked down on. “This women has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (Hawthorn 49) is said by a female in the marketplace talking about Hester. She becomes a stronger person through living this hard life.

The harsh townspeople force her up on the scaffold to be humiliated in front of the whole town. Not only is she sent up on the scaffold with her sin revealed by the “A” for everyone to see, Hester becomes an example of what a woman should not come to be. The author is talking about Hesters experience on the scaffold and her pregnancy, “Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion”(32). Hester looses her individuality and is labeled by the townspeople and known for the Scarlet Letter. Further, the townspeople singled her out as an alien or outcast of the town forcing her to live an abnormal live. She was ridiculed and known for her one sin, unable to have acceptance back into society. Although the townspeople feel as if Hester has brought sin upon there lives, she clearly have not harmed any of the townspeople physically, and they have no grounds to punish Hester. The cause of the townspeople's harsh disciplinary acts on Hester originates from a strict, unrealistic standards of puritan society and the zero tolerance of any ungodly behavior observed in the town. Due to the absence of proper justice, Hester's sentencing is left up to the harsh townspeople in which they show no mercy or