Scarlet Letter Scaffold Scene

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Characters in a story can come back to the same area at different times and have such a dramatic change in perspective.The Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathanial Hawthorne, was a story about a women, Hester Prynne, who had to wear a scarlet A to mark her adultery and shame. Arthur Dimmesdale, her lover, was involved with her adultery but didn’t want to be identified. Roger Chillingworth was seeking revenge because of Hester’s crime. These three characters all took part on the three pivotal scaffold scenes. Hawthorne unifies his novel with three pivotal scaffold scenes to show how each of these major characters grow and develop.

In the first scaffold scene, during midday, Hester is standing on the scaffold, Dimmesdale is nearby sharing the platform, and Chillingworth is in the crowd. Hester is holding her baby in her arms quietly. “She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace” (51). Hester acted ladylike, and polite towards the punishment she was receiving. She was very resistant and immune to her surroundings, as everyone gathered around to watch her humiliation. She did not act out, she just stood there and waited for her time to be up and to leave the scaffold. Hester stood alone confronting her sin. Dimmesdale shared the …show more content…

The Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, conducted a story with characters that are very dynamic and go through many changes. Each character had a battle to conquer and had to grow and develop to try to control it. The characters of this book revisited the scaffold three times, each coming back with a new perspective. This is because each character have developed and grown up. To return to the same area at different times, will mean a new perspective every

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