![]() ![]() ![]() They each contain a great deal of significance to the characters involved and. Prynne is forced to wear the eponymous token over her clothes for the. Its symbolism and portrayal of Puritan life in New England make it stand out as. The novel’s most central theme is that of shame and judgmentit is the focal point of the story’s first scene, when Hester Prynne is publicly ridiculed on the scaffold in the town square, and it permeates nearly every part of the book from there on. While standing on the scaffold, Hester also tries to “hide” herself from the crowd, since she can’t take the harsh reality: “Reminiscence…came swarming back to her…Possibly, it was an instinctive device of her spirit, to relieve itself, by the exhibition of these phantasmagoric forms, from the cruel weight and hardness of reality.” (Hawthorne 40) On the other hand, the second scaffold scene features an important character, Arthur Reverend Dimmesdale. The three scaffold scenes represent the three main points of the scarlet letter. Nathaniel Hawthornes 1850 historical fiction novel The Scarlet Letter is a classic in the American literary canon. Hester Prynne is publicly shamed and humiliated. When Hester is seen on the scaffold in the opening chapters, she hides the scarlet letter “A” because the letter is viewed as a symbol of shame and guilt: “When the young women – the mother of this child – stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom: not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress.” (Hawthorne 36-37) And because the infant, Pearl, was the product of the adulterous affair between Hester and Dimmesdale, Hester doesn’t provide the full motherly affection. In the romance The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses the scaffold as a tool to allow the reader to see Hester and Dimmesdales progress as they struggle with. The scaffold in The Scarlet Letter is a powerful symbol that reflects the characters guilt and wrongdoing. ![]() In addition to being a symbol of sin, the scaffold represents shame and guilt. ![]()
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