Scarlett Letter
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
Here Pearl finally realizes the truth about Dimmesdale being her father, when she asks him if he will stand with her and her mother at noontide tomorrow, and he refuses saying they will only stand together on judgment day. after Hester's display she now lives on as a symbol of love, a product of her parents sin. It is here atop the scaffold where her hope to start a new life dies with the death of Dimmesdale. The second scaffold scene starts with Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale, wants to confess his sin and this angers Chillingworth, as it leaves him with no mission in life. 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. Now Hester feels bad, as she knows of Chillingworth's plan to ruin Dimmesdale's life and does not tell him of it. Dimmesdale quickly tears off his ministerial band, and from that instant he feels that he has won victory, but his sickness soon gets the better of him and he sinks to the scaffold floor. Hester holds the dying minister and only wishes to know if they will spend eternal life together. This makes Dimmesdale feel the pain to an even greater extent and he is hurt by it. In a strange twist of fate, Hester and Pearl are seen walking home from Governor Winthrop's Deathbed. With his hand gripping his heart and a death-like hue on his face, the Reverend climbs the scaffold for the last time with Hester and Pearl. He is there to interrogate Hester as to who the father of her child is. While on the scaffold, Chillingworth, Hester's husband, walks by and Dimmesdale expresses his hatred toward the man. It is atop the scaffold where all major turning points and confessions occur and bring the story together.
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Acceptance Essays
