Scaffold In The Scarlet Letter

The scaffolds in The Scarlet Letter symbolize the shame and sin the person who is standing upon it holds. The scaffolds also show Hester’s path to a normal life. During the first scaffold scene, she holds Pearl over the scarlet letter and is ashamed of it. In the second scaffold scene, she starts to accept the letter, and by the last scaffold scene she has totally accepted the letter. The scaffold scenes change each time as she gets closer to salvation, but one thing that always stays the same is that Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, and Pearl are always present. And so is the letter “A” In the first scaffold scene Hester is sentenced to stand upon it for 3 hours. During this time, she was gibed by many people watching her punishment. This was the first time within this book she had been truly scared and has felt the punishment for what she had done. This scaffold experience was definitely the worst of the three within this book. The scaffolds show her journey to salvation and it all started at this first scaffold where she was shamed, insulted, and publicly belittled. During this scene, the four main characters and the “A” were all present.

He thought about how he should have been on the scaffold too since he had also committed the sin with Hester. When Pearl and Hester arrived from Governor Winthrop’s deathbed they mounted the scaffold with Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl joined hands and they were all linked with their sins. Pearl asked Dimmesdale if he would stand with them the next day, but he is a coward and says he will stand there with them on the judgment day. This was the first time Dimmesdale actually accepted what he had done. During this scene Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Pearl, and Hester were all present. Along with the letter