Melissa Phung
Mrs. Johnson-Smith
English 3 AP, Period 4
9 December 2014
The Scaffolds of Action Throughout The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many important scenes that are being introduced to the reader that highlights the effectiveness of the development of the plot. In addition to that, the author develops these segments to help emphasize the importance of the events that are happening in the novel. He specifically chooses to include the three scaffold, or platform, scenes to show the readers how each symbolizes the significant changes of the characters. Hawthorne purposely includes the scaffold parts in the beginning, middle, and end to show how the scaffold affects the plot structure. He also puts the sections in this
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As a result of not telling the authorities who the father of her child is, Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl, are put onto the scaffold at the market place in Boston, Massachusetts for public interrogation. In addition to that, she is also forced to wear the scarlet letter, which represents her sin of adultery. From this, the readers can infer that one of the themes of this novel is that a person should be punished for their wrongdoings and sins. Her emotions and feelings at the moment in time are ignominy, shame, and embarrassment; the scaffold symbolizes humiliation. Thus, by presenting the first scaffold scene to the readers, they are able put together many literary elements in the plot …show more content…
By having the three scaffold segments, the readers are able to see the effectiveness of the events of the plot development. Altogether, the scenes are able to provide the readers with the major literary elements of a plot: character, plot, setting, and theme. In addition to that, each piece is a different meaning for the characters. For the first scene, it shows Hester’s view towards the scaffold: embarrassment and shame. As for the second one, it is a place of forgiveness for Dimmesdale. And lastly, the third symbolizes redemption for both the reverend and Hester. This shows that the scaffold not only represented different meanings, it also let the readers identify the importance of each section to the the characters. Throughout the novel, the scaffold representation changed from a place of humiliation to a place of freedom, to finally, a place of redemption and
There are many important scenes in The Scarlet Letter but, there are five scenes that stand out above the others and are the most important scenes of the book. These five most important scenes are first, when Hester gets released from jail and forced to stand on the scaffold. The second, is when Hester’s husband takes on the name of Roger Chillingworth. Another is when the governor tries to take pearl away from Hester. The next, is when Hester meets Dimmesdale in the woods. Last is when Dimmesdale reveals what he had done to everyone while he was on the scaffold.
A few years later the event is again repeated. It is very similar to the
The first scaffold scene takes place in the very beginning of the story. Hester Prynne, a woman who has committed adultery and will not name the father of her child, is forced to stand upon the scaffold in shame for three hours in front of a crowd of people. Dimmesdale, who is later revealed as the father, openly denies his sin and even goes as far as telling Hester to "speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer," in order to make sure that nobody suspects him. While the author doesn't make his guilt very obvious, he does give a few hints that suggest Dimmesdale does have some sort of hidden secret. In this scene, the Reverend shows his original strength of character, which he slowly loses over the course of the story.
She lost all her fiery passion on the scaffold, by which society mocked and watched and she was punished for the sins she committed. The scaffold became the essence of sin and hatred for Hester, Hawthorne created the meaning of this by stating things like the scaffold was “the very ideal of ignominy [and] was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron”. Hester makes her transformation on this scaffold and although she is silent ad still filled with anger, she will never be the same due pain she felt on that scaffold. Through society's punishments and harsh bias, Hester is stripped of all passion and this is continually argued with her change as she wears the scarlet letter. In the beginning, Hester tries to cover it up, but the burn of those eyes who look upon her still stand. ONce in the free spirit environment of the forest and she takes the scarlet A off she becomes happy and passionate once again that even her own daughter doesn’t recognize
In the first scaffold scene Hester Prynne is depicted standing alone while clutching her baby. She has been sentenced to the scaffold for three hours to face public condemnation. In the Puritan society, where this novel is set, public shame is a source of entertainment. On this occasion the townspeople are present to watch the judgment of Hester. As the townspeople are ridiculing her, the narrator 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 looked 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.
The Scaffold is not only a high view point the in market place but a site where one can see beyond the restraints of town and even time. For one person, " . . . the scaffold of the pillory was the point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track which she had been treading since her happy infancy (p65)". The experience of the scaffold has a profound effect on Hester. Living on the border between the town and the forest, she learns new freedom while seeing the conformist repression of the town. Hester sees what the townspeople ignore. She soon believes that because of her punishment on the scaffold and her perpetual reminder of it, the scarlet letter, she sees the sins of the entire townspeople and the hypocrisy of keeping them secret. Thus, her time on the scaffold has made her see the truth of the town and its lies.
That scaffold holds more importance than just somewhere to condemn prisoners. It is the one place where Dimmesdale felt liberated to say anything he wishes. In Puritan culture, the scaffold is used to humiliate and chastise prisoners, be it witches at the stake, thieves in the stocks, or a murderer hanging from the gallows. In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold was viewed more as a place of judgment. “Meagre ... was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders, at the scaffold.” (p. 63) Indeed, it was used for castigation, but it was also a place of trial: Hester’s trial was held at the scaffold. Standing upon the platform opens oneself to God and to the world. “They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.” (p. 186) Being on the scaffold puts oneself in a feeling of spiritual nakedness- where you feel exposed to God, but cleansed. It was the one place where Dimmesdale could find complete reconciliation.
The Scarlet Letter is brimming with symbols which represent various aspects of Puritan society. In every chapter symbols are displayed through characters and the letter itself. The most dramatic of chapters using these techniques to provide the reader with vivid imagery of the events that took place. Hawthorne's ability to introduce these symbols and change them through the context of his novel is but one of the reasons that The Scarlet Letter is considered a classic masterpiece and a superior example of the romance novel.
The next area is a symbol in the heavens. This occurs during the second famous scaffold scene. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl are on the scaffold when, “a light gleamed far and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors” (150). “The minister looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter-the letter ‘A’- marked out in lines of dull red light” (152).
Regarding to The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne once said “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (Hawthorne 55). Essentially, this is a story of heartache and grief. The story centers around Hester Prynne and the crime she has committed. She committed adultery and had a child with her adulterer. The other main characters, Chillingworth, Pearl, and Reverend Dimmesdale, along with Hester go through many laborious efforts to be happy and content with their lives and it becomes an overall sadness for everyone involved in this sorrowful story. There are five
He explains that the scaffold that Hester is sentenced to stand upon as punishment is meant to be a comparison to the famous weapon in the French Revolution, the guillotine. Reynolds points out that it was custom in Puritan New England to refer to such places as to where Hester stood as the gallows, not scaffolds. “[…] the central setting of the novel, the scaffold, is, I believe, an historical inaccuracy intentionally used by Hawthorne to develop the theme of revolution” (619). Here he is saying that Hawthorne purposely misused the term in order to spur up themes of revolution. Although he fails to mention Hawthorne’s motive in doing so, it does credibly show the reader that there are possible and deliberate connections made between the French Revolution and The Scarlet
When the romantic novel begins, Dimmesdale, a local minister, stands with one hand over his heart in shame. As he watches Hester Prynne, former lover, suffer on the scaffold, he suffers himself. The scaffold is a raised platform, placed in the center of the town, for a public humiliation. Hester, a known perpetrator for adultery, has the punishment of jail time, scaffold humiliation, and the wearing of the “A.” Although these seem like terrible punishments for what seems like a not so terrible crime, these are far better than the original punishment for this crime of adultery, death. Despite her situation, Hester stands proud with her daughter in her arms. Some might argue that “this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien…[is] an object to remind [others] of the Divine Maternity” (Hawthorne 60). Hawthorne reveals numerous emotions throughout the three scaffold scenes to invite the reader to look at the text from different perspectives (Swisher). As the novel progresses, each scaffold scene
The first scaffold scene takes place at the very beginning of the story. In this particular scene, Hester has moments before walked from the prison door carrying her baby and donning the scarlet letter, which stands for adultery. She must make this procession in front of the entire town. After the march, Hester is forced to stand alone on the scaffold until an hour past noon.
The historical setting is highly significant in the novel since it is intertwined with the public’s belief and values, which shape overall themes of the novel and the main characters’ traits. The main setting of the novel takes place in New England during the middle of the seventeenth century, and the setting is the essential factor that develops the core conflicts among Hester, Dimmesdale, and the Puritan society; in fact, the historical setting itself and the society within it is what Hawthorne intends to reveal to the reader. New England in the seventeenth century was predominately organized around religious authorities, and indeed, a large portion of the population had migrated to the colony of New England with religious purposes. Therefore, the strict and religiously centered historical setting is well demonstrated through Hester’s townspeople when Hester commits adultery. The church authority and the townspeople require Hester to wear the large “A” embroidered scarlet letter, which symbolizes adultery. This act is aligned with the historica...
During the colonial period in what is now the East Coast, Puritans lived strict lives. Like other cultures, the Puritans had scaffolds in the center of their small town for special events, mainly for public punishment. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, there is an importance to the scaffold, both in terms of who is on it and when the scene occurs. In total, there are three main scaffold scenes, two by day and one by night. The painting held portray the differences in the three scenes and how the symbolism of the scarlet letter has developed throughout the plot.