A scaffold is a raised platform used as a form of ignominy in a public situation. During The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are three scenes that take place on the scaffold. In each scaffold scene the reader learns the four main characters are at each scaffold scene. The four main characters are Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Throughout all the scaffold scenes, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows how each character is impacted.
The beginning of the novel jumps right into the first scaffold scene. At this scene the reader sees Hester holding baby Pearl. Hester is beautiful, has long brown hair, and a scarlet letter A on her bosom. Above the scaffold on a balcony is the Governor, the Reverend, and the priest Dimmesdale.
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The people on the balcony are attempting to get Hester to admit the person she committed sin with, but she will not. In the crowd, Hester spots Chillingworth. He is Hester’s estranged husband from England. Throughout this scene, Hawthorne shows the impact of the scaffold scene on each of the four main characters. First off, the reader sees Hester and Pearl. Hester is standing tall and strong, she also refuses to give the name of the other person. Pearl is too young at this point for the reader to learn anything about her character, but it is important to realize that she is there. “Characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent and indescribable grace, which is now recognized as its indication”(Hawthorne 46). This quotation shows the reader that even though Hester is standing on the scaffold to be publically shamed, she still has a state of dignity. In addition, it is clear that this scaffold scene impacts Dimmesdale as well. Further in the novel, the reader learns that Dimmesdale was Hester’s partner. Through this scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is practically begging Hester to say that it was him so the guild he had would be eliminated. This is displayed in the following quotation by Dimmesdale, “I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life”(56). Finally, the last character to analyze is Chillingworth. Chillingworth is in the crowd during this scaffold scene. He is too embarrassed to admit any of the guilt of being Hester’s husband, so he simply raises his finger to show Hester that he doesn’t want anyone to know. “...he slowly and calmly raised his finger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his lips”(52). In the first scaffold scene, Hester is strong, Dimmesdale is guilty, and Chillingworth is timid and embarrassed. In the middle of the novel, the reader sees the second scaffold scene.
It was late at night when Dimmesdale was on the scaffold on the night of the death of Governor Winthrop. Dimmesdale is on the scaffold due to his own guilt and self punishment. As Hester is passing by with Pearl, Dimmesdale asks them to join him on the scaffold. Soon after, there is a large meteor showing a scarlet letter A across the sky. Dimmesdale interprets the A as a symbol of his guilt, just like the A on Hester’s bosom. The reader also learns that Chillingworth is present below the scaffold. This scene clearly impacts Dimmesdale the most, but it also has impacts on the other three characters as well. Dimmesdale is so incredibly guilty about the sin he committed, that he has decided to torture himself in hopes that people see him standing on the scaffold. He feels stronger when he’s with Hester and Pearl, but the becomes weak again when Pearl asks him to stand with them the next day. “Nay, not so, my little Pearl! Answered the minister; for with the new energy of the moment, all the dread of public exposure, that had so long been the anguish of his life...”(121). This quotation shows the minister dying emotionally. This scaffold scene truly shows Dimmesdale suffering more than ever from the guilt he has bottled up inside. Hester is very quiet during this scene, much like the last scaffold scene. She is still strong and beautiful. The scaffold impacts Hester in a sense that she needs to be strong …show more content…
and rigid. However, Pearl is impacted quite greatly in this scene. The reader realizes that Pearl knows Dimmesdale is her father and she wants him to admit it. Pearl also knows Dimmesdale is hurting and with this information she is slightly conniving in the sense that she wants him to admit the truth. “But wilt thou promise, to take my hand, and mother’s hand to-morrow at noontide?”(121). Finally, there’s Chillingworth near the end of the second scaffold scene. This scene also has some immense impacts on Chillingworth. It almost seems as if he is feeding off Dimmesdale’s guilt. Chillingworth really becomes more evil with this scene. “...it might well be that the physician was not careful then, as at all other times, to hide the malevolence with which he looked upon his victim”(123). Clearly all the characters are present, and at this scene had some kind of impact portrayed on their character by Nathaniel Hawthorne. At the end of the novel, the reader finds out about the third scaffold scene.
This happens on the Election Day, for this event there are many people in the crowd. With that being said, people crowd around Hester, but they still isolate her. As people glanced at the scarlet letter it was almost as if it burned into Hester’s bosom. Eventually Dimmesdale gets on the scaffold and asks Hester and Pearl to join him, doing this upsets Chillingworth greatly. All three of them gather on the scaffold once again and Dimmesdale admits that he committed adultery with Hester. Pearl finally accepts Dimmesdale, then he dies. This scene clearly impacts Dimmesdale the most, he is finally able to break free from his guilt and he can tell the truth, even though he dies. “At last-at last! - I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here with this woman...”(197). During this scene Hester again remains fairly quiet. She is mostly concerned about the consequences of announcing the information. The reader sees Hester still with a white cap over her hair and the letter A still on her bosom. She is still strong, and beautiful. Just like the two previous scaffold scenes, they impact Hester in a way where she has to conceal and not feel her feelings and emotions. This scaffold scene does have a great impact on Pearl. Pearl finally gets the recognition she desperately needs from Dimmesdale. She went from a little girl who wanted recognition from her father, to a little girl
who finally feels complete. “Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies...”(198). Chillingworth was also impacted in a major way by the third scaffold scene. When Dimmesdale admits his guilt, Chillingworth dies inside. Since Chillingworth is a man of evil, he was feeding off Dimmesdale’s guilt, and when Dimmesdale was no longer a victim, Chillingworth died inside. The following quotation is from the part of the scene when Dimmesdale calls Hester and Pearl to the scaffold, showing how upset and quick to action Chillingworth was. “At this instant old Roger Chillingworth thrust himself through the crowd,--or, perhaps, so dark, disturbed, and evil was his look, he rose up out of some nether region,-- to snatch back his victim from what he sought to do!”(196). All four of the characters were impacted by the third scaffold scene as portrayed by Hawthorne. Throughout all the scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows how each character is impacted. All four of the major characters, Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth were impacted in different ways through the scaffold scenes. Though each character is impacted differently than the others, their emotions and actions are fairly similar through all of the scenes.
The three scaffold scenes bring great significance to the plot of the Scarlet Letter. The novel is based on repenting the sins of adultery. The scaffold represents a place of shame and pity but also of final triumphs. Each scene illustrates the importance of the scaffold behind them with many potent similarities and differences.
At the beginning of the book, Hester is brought out with Pearl to stand on
The first scaffold scene takes place in the very beginning of the story. Hester Prynne, a woman who has committed adultery and will not name the father of her child, is forced to stand upon the scaffold in shame for three hours in front of a crowd of people. Dimmesdale, who is later revealed as the father, openly denies his sin and even goes as far as telling Hester to "speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer," in order to make sure that nobody suspects him. While the author doesn't make his guilt very obvious, he does give a few hints that suggest Dimmesdale does have some sort of hidden secret. In this scene, the Reverend shows his original strength of character, which he slowly loses over the course of the story.
Not only in this story of the Scarlet Letter, but throughout the early churches, we often see religious leaders in this predicament of coming forward or not coming forward with the truth of their role within certain situations. Hester, on the other hand, is portrayed as strong but also abandoned, because she is standing alone for the sins she could not have committed alone. Dimmesdale also struggles with confessing to Pearl the truth and keeping it from her. At first he is regarded as being selfish for not confessing right away and as a result, when he does confess, it is not well received from Pearl at all. This is not only because she is flustered from finding out, but Pearl knows that Dimmesdale abandoned them at first as he weighed the options.
Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair goes undiscovered until Hester is pregnant and bears a child without having her husband present. As her punishment, Hester is forced to stand on the scaffold in the middle of the market place, with an A on her chest. Dimmesdale has not told a single person that he is the adulterer. He sits in the balcony with the Governor, a judge, a general, and the rest of the ministers, watching the display, without any expression or emotion. Hester and Pearl go to the Governor’s home to deliver a pair of gloves, but more importantly to inquire about the possibility of the government taking away her child. Also there with Governor Bellingham are Pastor Wilson, Reverend Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. After Mr. Wilson asks Pearl a few questions, the Governor decides that Hester is unfit as a mother and that the child would be better off in the hands of the church. Hester begs Dimmesdale, whom she says knows everything about her and has charge of her soul, to speak for her. Therefore, he does, convincing the Governor to let Hester keep Pearl. This is Dimmesdale’s first step to becoming the moral blossom. Late at night, a few years after the previous incident, Dimmesdale takes a walk through the town. He climbs onto the scaffold and pretends to confess; though there is no one out at this time at night. Hester and Pearl, on their way home, pass Dimmesdale on the scaffold. Dimmesdale calls out to them and they join him, standing hand in hand in the darkness. Dimmesdale has begun the road to confession by acknowledging Hester and Pearl and by acting out confession. Now he feels guiltier than ever.
Both committed adultery but have suffered in different ways. Hester’s punishment composed of public shaming on the scaffold for all to behold, but afterwards she did not suffer from guilt because she confessed her sin, unlike Dimmesdale, who did not confess, but rather let his sin become the “black secret of his soul” (170), as he hid his vile secret and became described as the “worst of sinners” (170). He leads everyone to believe of his holiness as a minister and conceals the, “Remorseful hypocrite that he was [is]” (171). Hester, a sinner too, however, does not lie about how she lives and therefore, does not suffer a great torment in her soul. While she stays healthy, people begin to see Hester’s Scarlet Letter turn into a different meaning, of able or angel, and they view her in a new light, of how she really lives. Dimmesdale however, becomes sickly and weak after “suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul” (167). He hides behind a false mask as he is described as possessing, “Brilliant particles of a halo in the air about his head” (300), and perceived as the most honorable man in New England. People do not see him as truly himself, but rather who he hides
The first theme expressed in The Scarlet Letter is that even well meaning deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction. Dimmesdale is a prime example of this; he meant well by concealing his secret relationship with Hester, however, keeping it bound up was deteriorating his health. Over the course of the book this fact is made to stand out by Dimmesdale’s changing appearance. Over the course of the novel Dimmesdale becomes more pale, and emaciated. Hester prevents herself from suffer the same fate. She is open about her sin but stays loyal to her lover by not telling who is the father of Pearl. Hester matures in the book; becomes a stronger character.
What exactly is this secondary community? Hawthorne creates this sort of secondary community that is always there and is able to express emotions that are the very opposite of what the Puritans show by using nature. “Nature personification, for Hawthorne, is an effective vehicle with which to bridge the gap between the community of humankind and the community of nature” (Daniel 3). Hester and Pearl are outcasts from the Puritan society due to Hester’s sin. She broke their rules of morality, and for this reason nature must be used as their peer. “Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from society” (Hawthorne 78) and so, it is nature who lends a hand and helps.
The first scaffold scene takes place at the very beginning of the story. In this particular scene, Hester has moments before walked from the prison door carrying her baby and donning the scarlet letter, which stands for adultery. She must make this procession in front of the entire town. After the march, Hester is forced to stand alone on the scaffold until an hour past noon.
While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of suffering, self torture and disappointment. She does this by letting him keep the sin he committed in secret while he watches her being publicly punished. Chillingworth observes Dimmesdale's desire to confess, as well as his lack of willpower to do so. Dimmesdale rationalizes not confessing; all the while Chillingworth is torturing with constant reminders of his hypocrisy. Hester never voluntarily confesses to committing adultery, and never feels any remorse for it. Her public punishment comes not as a result of her having any contrition, but rather her apparent pregnancy. She stays in the town to be close to Dimmesdale, as a reader would find on page 84, "There dwelt...the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union..." She also stays in town to convince others, as well as herself, that she is actually regretful for her sin even though she knows in her heart she is not. She does this to appease her guilt. As Hawthorne puts it on page 84, "Here...had been the scene of her guilt...
4. The Scarlet Letter was written and published in 1850. The novel was a product of the Transcendentalist and Romantic period.
‘The Scarlet Letter’ illustrates the lives of Hester Prynne, her daughter Pearl, local preacher Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester’s husband (whom uses the alias of Roger Chillingworth in order to disguise his true identity), and how they are affected after Hester committed an adulterous act with Dimmesdale, hence conceiving Pearl. This mother and child are then ostracized by society, and Hester is sentenced to jail, forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest as a symbol of her sin. The novel continues to narrate the four characters’ story for the following few years, until Hester passes away and is buried near Chillingworth (whom had died earlier on), both sharing a letter “A” on their gravestones.
Hawthorne has perfectly structured The Scarlet Letter around three scaffold scenes. At the first one, located in the very beginning of the novel, Hester openly confesses her sin of adultery in the light of day while Dimmesdale and Chillingworth look on from the crowd that has gathered.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the story is set in New England during the colonial times, mainly the middle of the seventeenth century. As the plot of the novel progresses, the importance of setting is further aggrandized when the main character, Hester Prynne, is isolated in a strict Puritan society. To further elucidate Hester’s situation, Hawthorne utilizes two types of settings, physical and historical setting. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the settings to expose the rigidness of the Puritan society of the time period and how its obstinate and judgmental nature impacted people within the society.
Present day churches can be filled with hypocrites. Some members and religious leaders go to church to look nice and appealing to someone else. They present themselves as holy and perfect and incapable of doing wrong, but they know they are far from that. As hard as they may try to look and act like the perfect being, the truth of their imperfect ways will be revealed for all to know. This is the case with the character or Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale appears incorruptible, revered and strong, but in reality he was corrupt, dishonest, and weak.