“Miserable Eminence”: The Scaffold in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
Abstract
The paper argues that the Scaffold more than the scarlet letter ‘A’ is the chief organizing motif in The Scarlet Letter and the way in which Hawthorne has handled it establishes this novel to be a work of much greater thematic, structural and imaginative unity than has been till now appreciated. The Scaffold motif occurs in the novel some fifty times and sometimes becomes fused with the scarlet letter ‘A’ motif, and sometimes with other motifs that determine the thematic/symbolic patterning of the novel and give it its organic coherence. An in depth textual analysis is made to prove the hypothesis of the paper.
As one moves through the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Norton Critical Edition 1969) one is struck by the importance of the scaffold in the story and by the fact that despite the name of the novel being based on the letter ‘A’, it is the scaffold that finds precedence in the narrative proper. Moreover, Hester thinks of the scaffold, rather than of the scarlet letter, as marking the commencement of her misery:
Hester stood, statue like, at the …show more content…
The two main attributes of the scaffold may be said to be those of height and public ignominy. When Hester has ascended to the scaffold, she is "displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man's shoulders above the street" (ii 44). It is a "miserable eminence"(4 i), where the victim is held "aloft on the place of shame" (xxi, 110). It is a "pedestal of shame" (iii, 53; ix, 86), the pedestal of infamy" (iv, 56) The Sexton refers to it as the place ' where evil doers are set up to public shame" (xii, 115). It takes upon itself the guilt of the sufferer,
Abstract
The paper argues that the Scaffold more than the scarlet letter ‘A’ is the chief organizing motif in The Scarlet Letter and the way in which Hawthorne has handled it establishes this novel to be a work of much greater thematic, structural and imaginative unity than has been till now appreciated. The Scaffold motif occurs in the novel some fifty times and sometimes becomes fused with the scarlet letter ‘A’ motif, and sometimes with other motifs that determine the thematic/symbolic patterning of the novel and give it its organic coherence. An in depth textual analysis is made to prove the hypothesis of the paper.
As one moves through the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Norton Critical Edition 1969) one is struck by the importance of the scaffold in the story and by the fact that despite the name of the novel being based on the letter ‘A’, it is the scaffold that finds precedence in the narrative proper. Moreover, Hester thinks of the scaffold, rather than of the scarlet letter, as marking the commencement of her misery:
Hester stood, statue like, at the …show more content…
The two main attributes of the scaffold may be said to be those of height and public ignominy. When Hester has ascended to the scaffold, she is "displayed to the surrounding multitude, at about the height of a man's shoulders above the street" (ii 44). It is a "miserable eminence"(4 i), where the victim is held "aloft on the place of shame" (xxi, 110). It is a "pedestal of shame" (iii, 53; ix, 86), the pedestal of infamy" (iv, 56) The Sexton refers to it as the place ' where evil doers are set up to public shame" (xii, 115). It takes upon itself the guilt of the sufferer,