The Scaffold in Nathaniel Hawthrone´s The Scarlet Letter

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.

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

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.

Dimmesdale screams in pain and is fearful that the people of the town will wake up and come see him upon the platform. The narrator tells us that the townspeople took the cries instead for that of a witch (144). This second scaffold scene is slightly different than the first. Most importantly, Dimmesdale chooses to expose his sin at night when no one can see. Also, the fact that he tells Pearl he will not hold her and her mother’s hand on the scaffold in daylight when everyone can see signifies that the minister still does not have the courage to take responsibility for his sins. He has only acknowledged his sin to God and that they will all stand together on judgment day (148-149). On the platform his role is reversed. He is no longer the sullen and heartsick minister, but a wry man who laughs at everything that occurs on ground level. He is no longer the Christian minister, but the pagan whose screams were assumed to have come from a witch and finally, no one would believe that this church symbol, high with esteem and virtue, would be in the same place as Hester Prynne, the lowest woman in town (147).

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

As with any piece, symbolism plays an important role in representing the main ideas of a novel. The plot in "The Scarlet Letter" revolves around three significant events that describe the development of the story. As both starting point and ending point of the novel, the scaffold scenes hold symbolic meaning.

      Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a notable writer in the nineteenth century, wrote a book known as “The Scarlet Letter” in the year 1850. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses excessive amounts of symbolism to aid the reader in understanding precisely what he attempts to portray. A few examples of symbolism used in the writing include: the Scarlet Letter, Pearl, and scenes of conversation among the characters.

The Scarlet Letter was a novel written in the 1850 's by a man named Nathaniel Hawthorne. Throughout the Scarlet Letter he uses scads of literary devices. The literary devices are there to give the novel more depth. The main device he uses in the novel is symbolism. Hawthorne uses the symbolism to make an object have more than one meaning. Three of the elements he uses as symbols are the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the forest. These symbols are seen differently by the Puritan people and the narrator. The narrator sees those symbols as positive benefit for Hester. While the Puritans see those symbols as a negative affect to the community.

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many forms of symbolism in his book The Scarlet Letter. Symbolism is, according to Merriam-Webster, “the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visual or sensuous representations.” This means that the author was using objects to represent an action or idea. The symbols used in his book is either all physical or visible objects. Many of the symbols in the book are about characters.Nathaniel’s ideas came from his bonds with the Puritans. According to CliffsNotes, “the Puritans had great difficulty in loving the sinner and hating the sin”. With the Puritans strong hatred for sin,

In the first scaffold scene, the main focus is Hester and the scarlet letter. Pearl is an infant being coddled by her mother. She also is the physical sign of Hester’s sin. They are standing on the scaffold alone, being humiliated in front of the entire town by the magistrates. Reverend Dimmesdale is standing on the platform with her, giving a sermon. At this point in the novel, Dimmesdale had no significance to Hester and the scaffold, or so we thought. Turns out that he was the mistress in her scandalous love affair. But the only people who

Throughout the novel, the puritans seem to judge Hester so harshly that they can’t see through to her true nature. They continue to isolate her from society and talk negatively about her behind her back. The puritans actions and beliefs can be related to a scaffold. Both seemingly innocent, but once someone understands their true nature, they are the true enemy. The scaffold has such a negative connotation for the puritans. This is very ironic because the puritans are very negative towards the people that stand on the scaffold. Both the scaffold and the puritans represent some sort of evil and a form of disrespect.

The layout of The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne, is portrayed through three major scenes that happen on the scaffold in the town square. The events that occur on the scaffold will determine the path that each of the main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Pearl will take throughout the novel. Each scene marks a different change in the individual’s transformation. The events on the scaffold show the change over time in the person’s mindset and their relationship to the story.