Scarlet Letter Scaffold Scene Essay

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The three scaffold scenes in the Scarlet Letter are crucial to the structure of the narrative. They are the most dramatic scenes in the beginning, middle, and end of the novel. Each of these scenes brings together the major characters and forces of the story and of each scene. Each scene brings our attention ‘A’ on Hester.
The first scaffold scene occurs right at the beginning of the novel when Hester stands with an infant in her arms on the scaffold in midday. She has committed the unforgivable sin of adultery and must be a public spectacle. People jeer at her and mock her while the people stand below on the platform, the leaders of the community. -civil officers, priests, etc., stand above the platform. The leaders of the community escort Hester to reveal the name of her partner in sin. They even hold out the temptation that she may be able to take off her scarlet letter if she reveals his name. Women in the crowd say harsh comments about her, but Hester tries to ignore it. She can expect no sympathy from anyone in the community. She tries to hide the letter ‘A’ by shifting …show more content…
This is staged on a dark night after the young priest has kept his vigil. The scarlet letter is again emphasized her when Hester, along with Pearl, mounts the platform to stand there along with Dimmesdale, this time stressing Dimmesdale's obsession with his own guilt. Standing there on the scaffold he feels as if the whole world is staring at the letter ‘A’ on his heart. When the nervous Dimmesdale asks Hester and Pearl to join him on the scaffold, he feels the vitality of someone else life other than his own. But he shrinks from Pearl’s suggestion that he should stand with them there in broad daylight. A meteor lights up the sky at that moment and the young priest feels that it is blazed a huge scarlet letter A across the sky. It is a symbol of his own
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