The Signigicance of the Scaffold Scenes in the Scarlet Letter Essay

The Signigicance of the Scaffold Scenes in the Scarlet LetterThe three hold up scenes bring great significance to the plot of the Scarlet Letter. The novel is based on repenting the criminalitys of adultery. The scaffold represents a place of shame and pity but to a fault of final triumphs. Each scene illustrates the importance of the scaffold behind them with many potent similarities and differences.In the first scaffold scene Hester Prynne is depicted standing altogether while clutching her baby. She has been sentenced to the scaffold for three hours to face public condemnation. In the Puritan monastic order, where this novel is set, public shame is a source of entertainment. On this occasion the town are present to watch the judgment of Hester. As the townspeople are ridiculing her, the fibber is praising Hester for her untamed but lady like beauty (60-61). The narrator goes so far as to compare her to Divine Maternity or Mother Mary, the ideal woman, the woman that is looke d highly upon by the whole Puritan society (63). However, the conditions are set up to show the change in Hester due to isolation and discredit of the Puritan society. Throughout this scene the Puritans are condemning Hester for her sin as the narrator is condemning the Puritans for their severity.Many years later, in desperation for a remedy to cure his tortured soul, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale takes to the scaffold where Hester had once suffered her shame. He is envious of the public nature of her ...