The Hypocritical Judgement of Puritans in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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“If thou feelst it will relieve thy suffering, speak out the name of thy fellow sinner. Be not silent because thou wouldst protect him.” (Hawthorne 21). This was said by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the main characters of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. He says this to his secret lover, Hester, as she stands on the scaffold in front of the entire Puritan community that the story takes place in. She is standing there with her three-month old child, Pearl, as a part of her punishment for her sin of committing adultery. The purpose of the scaffold in this novel is to represent the shame and torture that Hester and Dimmesdale each handle alone and to show how hypocritical and judgmental the Puritans were.
In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold symbolizes the torment Hester endures because of her sin. She decides to keep her love with Dimmesdale a secret to protect him. She stands on the scaffold alone every day for three hours, while everyone around her judges and criticizes her. Dimmesdale is not there to support her, and cannot reveal himself as her lover be...

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