Setting plays an extremely significant role in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main character in this novel, Hester Prynne, is denounced and isolated by her town, along with her daughter, Pearl, because she and the town’s clergyman commit the sin of adultery. Which in turn encourages her to sew an extravagant “A” for adultery onto her clothes. Every setting portrayed in the novel either symbolizes an important idea or has a plot-changing situation happen in it; the most important settings from the novel are the woods/forest, the scaffold, and Dimmesdale’s closet.
The scaffold is the place where both Hester and Dimmesdale admit their sin to not only the people in the city, but to themselves. This is where one of the first scenes in the story takes place; Hester is hallucinating over her words and dramatically confesses her sin of adultery, but not yet who she committed the sin with. Later, when Dimmesdale is on the scaffold and invites Hester up with him, they both unite together as a family, along with their daughter Pearl. The scaffold is significant to the character’s because each of the scenes that are taken place here all have the three of the main characters coming together and also showing more attention to the
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Although, the woods are associated with freedom and the beauty of nature, it also owns darkness. The Black Man is correlated with the devil, he “lives” in the forest and people sign their names in his book in representation of giving their soul to him. The woods are where Pearl asks her mother about The Black Man, she had overheard Mistress Hibbins talking about him. This happens right before Hester finally told Dimmesdale that Chillingworth is her husband, which causing him fear and distrust. The woods are also where Dimmesdale agreed to run away with Hester, and he felt dangerously free by doing