In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the three scaffold scenes provide the novel with basic structure and perfect balance. The scaffold scenes unite the plot and the four main characters together. Also, each scene atop the scaffold symbolizes a major turning point in the novel, where sin is either confessed and/or developed.
             The first scaffold scene is where the reader meets all of the significant characters; Hester Prynne, Pearl, Rev. Dimmesdale, and Mr. Chillingworth. In this important scene, the novel focuses on Hester's newly found scarlet letter that she got from committing adultery and not telling who her partner in sin was. It is in the first scene that Hester confesses her sin and for the first time displays her scarlet letter to the townspeople. From this point on the whole community shuns her and looks down upon her, as she is a sinner.
             Before Hester climbs the scaffold she feels weak and grim, due to her stay in the town prison, yet once upon it, she proves her strength by displaying her beautifully embroidered "A" to the townspeople for judging. Also up to this point in the novel Hester's child, Pearl, is just an innocent baby, free of sin. However after Hester's display she now lives on as a symbol of love, a product of her parents sin.
             Reverend Dimmesdale is also present at this scene. He is there to interrogate Hester as to who the father of her child is. Although we know he is the father of her child, Hester once again shows her strength as she will not reveal who the father is. Hester's scarlet letter pains Rev. Dimmesdale just as much as it does Hester, and he shows this by every time he is upon the scaffold, placing his hand over his heart.
             The second scaffold scene starts with Dimmesdale. He is standing alone atop the scaffold, with the weight of his sin hanging heavy upon his heart. He is torn, because he kn
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