The Symbolism of the Scaffold in the Scarlet Letter

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One may ask themselves when as an adult in society, if they have ever done something not as being what suits them best, but what the society around them feels is the right thing. In The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the brilliant author tested the social aspect of what is decent and how people are force to lie in order to not bring attention to the "skeletons in the closet." For Hawthorne to show how silly people are acting in The Scarlet Letter, he uses the daughter of Hester Prynne; Pearl to be a symbol of honesty and the able ness for people to change. Pearl forces the characters in the book to make decisions and question their actions by putting them in ill at ease situations The character of Pearl is not being used as a character in the book, as much as a symbol of what the people around her should be acting and the honesty that they should be showing for each other.

The character of Pearl is used as a symbol in this book instead of a character because the author is trying to show the innocence and honesty of the child in order to show how the characters in this book are making the wrong approach towards dealing with the turmoil they find themselves in. Throughout the book the actions that are taken by the characters in this book are wrong, indecent, and sinful, the actions of Pearl try to push the characters through the dissolute beliefs they have came to believe and find their real selves.

Hester is enough to deem the symbolic meaning of scaffold as punishment, but she is not the only one who feels the punishing effect of the scaffold. The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale also feels the punishment that the scaffold brings in its symbolic use in the first scaffold scene. Arthur is feeling at this time when Hester is being forced on to the scaffold for her actions, while Arthur is just as guilty as Hester and is not being forced to withstand the persecution. Arthur is not showing his displease but he later tells Hester "for my own heavy sin and miserable agony--I withheld myself from doing seven years ago." (Hawthorne 248) The misery and agony has been bottling up inside him and first begins with the pain he finds while at the scaffold.

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