Scaffold Scenes In The Scarlett Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” the basic structure for the novel is also provided by the scaffold scenes because everything else revolves around what happens during these scenes. Each scaffold scene foreshadows the next and brings about a greater understanding of the story itself. In the Scarlett Letter, Hawthorne uses these scenes to bring together the major characters and bring attention to the scarlet letter "A" on Hester Prynne and the significance of both her and her relations with Dimmesdale as well as the influence of Pearl on the entire story. The first scaffold scene gives the reader insight as to what the story is going to depict and how sin and guilt play major factors in the characters' lives. To explain, as Hester

First, according to the community, Dimmesdale delivered the strongest speech ever, "never had man spoken in so wise, so high, and so holy a spirit." The main point of Dimmesdale's sermon was sin. This is ironic to the base of the story because the whole reason Dimmesdale is able to speak with so much knowledge of sin, is because he is a sinner. Dimmesdale knows how sin can effect someone and he knows how to speak of sin, in order to steer away his people from attempting to act sinfully. The true depiction of the third scaffold scene is Dimmesdale's confession, "ye, that have loved me. Ye, that have deems me holy. behold me here, the one sinner of the world!" This confession by Dimmesdale not only brings together the scaffold scenes, but it brings together the entire storyline of the book. Through the confession, Dimmesdale states why he is able to deliver such strong and emotion-filled sermons; that is because he lives out each and every day the sermons he delivers. The third scaffold scenes is the climax of the story and gives the final detail that has been foreshadowed through the other scaffold scenes as well as the entire book. And that detail is that the person that Hester has been pretexting from his guilt is not just a community member, but the most revered and beloved community member, in