The Five Most Important Scenes In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a young woman, Hester Prynne committed the sin known as adultery. The following are the five major scenes in the novel. The first scene is when Hester is on the scaffold and, then she is interrogated by her former husband Roger Prynne (Chillingworth). Next, is when Hester and Pearl go to the Governor 's house, because Hester hears they are debating on whether to take Pearl out of her custody. Third Hester and Pearl join Reverend Dimmesdale on the scaffold at night. Fourth Hester and Dimmesdale are in the forest. Last, Dimmesdale, Hester, Chillingworth confess their sins on election day. The first important scene in the novel is when Hester Prynne, “the young woman was tall, with a figure of …show more content…
In this scene Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale plan on leaving for England right after the Election Day ceremonies finish. “The shipmaster tells her that Chillingworth has taken passage on the same vessel; there will be no escape” (Cowley 6). This puts Hester on edge, because Chillingworth was one of the reasons they decided to leave the colonies. As Dimmesdale is giving his powerful speech, Hester quietly stands by the scaffold listening. Afterwards Dimmesdale walks away from the crowd, but when he sees Hester, he stops in his tracks and calls Hester and Pearl over to him. Chillingworth runs over demanding he stop at once and keep walking. Dimmesdale ignores what he says and has Hester and Pearl escort him to the scaffold. There he finally told the townspeople of the sin. He tells them how he should have admitted it a long time ago with Hester. In his dying state he asks God to forgive Chillingworth for the sins he has committed. As for Hester, Dimmesdale tells her that they will not be together in the afterlife because of the sin they have committed together. He asked Pearl for a kiss and unlike at the brooke, she does. It showed that Pearl was capable of forgiveness and sorrow as he passed …show more content…
If you did not have these scenes in the book you would have a hole in the plot. Without Hester standing on the scaffold we would not know her punishment or the sin she did. If Hester didn’t hear that the governor was going to take Pearl from her then she would have never gone into his home. If Dimmesdale was not guilty about the sin he and Hester shared he would not have gone to the scaffold at night. If Hester did not finally realize that Dimmesdale should know who Chillingworth really is, then Dimmesdale would still be miserable. Last if Dimmesdale did not die, admit his sin, and forgive others then the ending would have been very different. These are all the main scenes in making the plot what it is and shows its