1/10/2023 0 Comments Scaffold scarlet letter![]() Dimmesdale inherently possesses a “desperately held longing to rise to the highest level of human life, to move toward perfection, and to strive toward his God” (Stubbs 419). At the same time, however, he needs the darkness to conceal his sin from not only the rest of society but also from himself. ![]() Reverend Dimmesdale knows he must confess in order to obtain the ultimate relief of emotional freedom. His actions in this scene mirror his words spoken to Hester in the previous scene. In the dead of night, Dimmesdale feels compelled to stand on the scaffold, again revealing the emotional battle raging within himself. As if once was not enough to reveal the contents of the minister’s heart, he appears on the scaffold twice more in the course of the novel. These conflicting thoughts pain Dimmesdale up until the very end of the novel. This clear contradiction in the minister’s words informs the reader that Dimmesdale longs to confess his sin but knows the ramifications would be perhaps more than he could bear. A moment later, however, he conversely tells her that he wants her to disclose his identity. The way in which he phrases this command essentially reveals that he does not want her to identify him as the fellow sinner. During the initial scaffold scene, wherein Hester is the focus of attention, Dimmesdale addresses her almost as if he is speaking to her alone.įeeling pressure from rest of the town officials behind him, Dimmesdale instructs Hester to reveal the identity of her lover only “If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation” (46-47). ![]() ![]() For Reverend Dimmesdale, the scaffold represents both condemnation and freedom, causing him great internal confliction up until the very end of the novel. Because of the shame it brings her and the seed of revenge it plants in the heart of her husband, Hester fears the scaffold throughout the novel as the very source of her life’s anguish. This only adds to the piteousness of Hester’s unfortunate situation. As a result, her husband, working under the alias of Roger Chillingworth, now knows of the sin and seeks to take revenge on the man with whom she defiled their marriage, the man Hester loves dearly. In addition, Hester’s appearance on the scaffold draws the attention of her husband, whom she wronged in committing the act of adultery. Whenever someone lays eyes on her, all he or she sees is the scarlet letter, and the only thing that comes to mind is the day when she stood on the scaffold. She becomes a symbol of sin within the community. From that day forward, the image of Hester standing on the scaffold is ingrained in the minds of the townspeople. The scaffold introduces the people to Hester’s immorality. In doing so, “she will be a living sermon against sin” (44). Hester is forced to stand on the platform with the eyes of the entire community staring at the letter on her chest. To make absolutely certain that no one fails to learn from the sinner’s mistake, a scaffold is set up in the middle of town. The town officials make an example out of Hester, placing shame on her to discourage the rest of the community from committing sin of a similar caliber. The Puritan community in which the story takes place seeks to create a Utopia they would not allow any substantial stain in the purity of the colony to go unnoticed. Consequently, the community punishes her by forcing her to wear a scarlet letter on her chest for the rest of her life. At the beginning of the novel, Hester is known to be an adulteress because of her child. In the case of Hester Prynne, the scaffold is the source of her initial exposure it brings her sin outward and gives it a face. The scaffold acts as a major source of conflict, as it is the reason for significant turmoil, whether internal or external, in the development of each of the three main characters. The novel revolves heavily around this symbol, as all three of the main characters are tied to it in some form or other. By the final chapter, however, the scaffold which the Puritans thought so little of prior to the events of the novel comes to represent something entirely new and different in their minds. The scaffold acted as a method for doing so. In the words of Hawthorne, the strict Puritan law code was set up for the purpose of dragging iniquity out into the sunshine (38). The Puritan community in which the story takes place lives by strong Biblical and legalistic standards with the ultimate goal of establishing a utopian society. The author uses the image of a scaffold in the center of town as a symbol of two contradicting ideas: public shame and freedom. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the themes of exposure and justice are prevalent throughout.
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