In June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness an official punishment. A young women, Hester Prynne, has been found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet A on her dress as a sign of shame. Instead of killing Hester the courts decided to put her on a scaffold for a significant amount of time. The scaffold, an important place of punishment in the American colonies, is a significant setting in the Scarlet Letter, because there Hester carried out her punishment, Chillingworth discovers the truth, and Dimmesdale regains his soul.
             After the trial and conviction of Hester, her punishment is to be carried out. "'Open a passage; and I promise you Mistress Prynne shall be set where man, woman, and child may have a fair sight of her brave apparel, from this time till an hour part meridian,'" said the jailer as he escorted Hester to the scaffold. Once Hester has reached the scaffold she realizes her life will never be the same, "Lastly in lieu of these shifting scenes, came back the rude marketplace of the Puritan settlement, with all the townspeople assembled and levelling their stern regards at Hester Prynne,-yes, at herself,-who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold-thread, upon her bosom!" Hester refuses to confess the babies father and is considered a fool for it. Dimmesdale, the babies father and the prized reverend of the town, is present and speaks to Hester and the crowded that has gathered. "'She will not speak,' murmured Mr. Dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony, with his hand on his heart, had awaited the result of his appeal. He now drew back, with long respiration. 'Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart. She will not speak!'" The most important element of this scene is that Hester keeps her lover's secret and will not expose him.
             The second scene consists of all of the main characte...