The Scaffold Scenes in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Essay

The Scaffold Scenes in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet LetterIn Nathaniel Hawthorne?s The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans constantly look rase upon sinners like Hester Prynne, both literally and symbolically. The use of the three hold scenes throughout the course of the novel proved to be an effective method in proving this opening and showing how Puritan society differs from that of today?s.In the first scaffold scene, Hester is being led from the prison where she has spent the last few months, towards the scaffold clutching her new-sprung(a) baby to her bosom, covering the scarlet letter-the two symbols representing truth and her lost innocence. She stands on the scaffold, with the magistrates and ministers standing above her on the pulpit, symbolizing that they will always be hand-to-hand to God than she will ever be, however, the reader is unaware that Hester?s minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, who also stands above her on the pulpit, which is a bit of dramatic irony, considering the fact that he is the novice of the infant, and her accomplice in her sin. Also during this scene, the man the reader comes to know as Roger Chillingworth hides in the shadows, looking up at Hester, the evil already swelling within him, blackening his soul.The even sots leading up to the next scaffold scene, some years later, are some of the most significant scenes in the entire novel. The treatment of Dimmesdale by Chillingworth, who Dimmesdale had taken in as his physician, plays a key role, due to the fact that Chillingworth?s intentions are less than pure. Chillingworth is bent on revenge, and is willing to do anything necessary, even destroy another man?s aliveness in order to soothe the savage beast within. However, deep inside Chillingworth?s... ...t and withdrawn, as if all the life and faith he had in the world had been drained out of him. It is in this scene that Dimmesdale finally recognizes Hester and Pearl publicly, he takes them up upon the scaffold with h im, and announces to the world what he has done, and through this he feels that he has suffered enough and that his conscience is clear, and with this he dies and goes to Heaven, a soul that has been forgiven, leaving Hester and Pearl alone once again with their grief, and their sin.These three scaffold scenes display the rise of conflict, the climax, and the conclusion. All three tie together to show a common theme, truth. The scaffold and those who stood upon it stood for truth, while those above them judged and those below gawked. It serves as an serious symbol throughout the novel setting apart the sinners and those who would judge them.