Society and Characters in The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne chose the market place and the forest as settings used to symbolically develop his portrait of society and the characters in The Scarlet Letter. In this novel a story unfolds of three people who are torn apart by sin, revenge, and guilt. The market place reveals to the reader a place of restraint and severe Puritan laws. The setting of the forest yields the impressions of wild unrestraint and passion.

The market place paints a careful picture of restraint and law that seldom delves into the depths of raw human emotion. As we study the buildings, we receive an equally strict message. The churches plant a vision of austere religion and conformity into the minds of eager readers. The closeness of the buildings in proximity to one another demonstrates the level of care and interest each member of the population is meant to take in the others. One of the most prominent structures in the market place is the scaffold. 'It was in short, the platform of the pillory; and above it rose the framework of that instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus holding it up to public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron'; (56). It was made clear that this structure was a symbol of punishment to the people, but it also came to be a symbol of sin, guilt, death, and release.

How did this structure take on so many meanings throughout the book? The answer is that each time there was an event occurring at the scaffold, each of the main characters was present. The place that Hawthorne chose to unite the characters and hoard symbolic meaning was the scaffold. In the second chapter, entitled 'The Market-Place,'; the reader is first introduced to Hester Prynne as she serves her punishment on the scaffold with her child, Pearl, in her arms. A careful survey of this scene reveals her minister Dimmesdale above the scaffold and her husband, Chillingworth, in the crowd. From the very beginning, Hawthorne has brought these characters together in the ominous presence of the scaffold.

In chapter seven, entitled 'The Minister's Vigil,'; we find Dimmesdale standing atop the scaffold with his arms outstretched to his mundane lover and daughter. Chillingworth also emerges out of the darkness to call in the minister. In the final scaffold scene, we see the minister openly admit his sin, with Hester and Pearl by his side, and Chillingworth at the bottom of the