Three Scaffold Scenes In The Scarlet Letter

There are five major scenes in the Scarlet Letter. At the beginning of the book, Hester walks out of the prison and stands on the scaffold to receive her punishment. Later in the book, Hester goes to the governor’s house to argue against them taking Pearl away. Then, Dimmesdale and Hester find each other at the scaffold once again. They also meet in the forest. The last major scene happens on Election Day on the scaffold once again where Dimmesdale dies. The first of the three scaffold scenes happens in the beginning of the novel where Hester stands in front of a crowd receiving her punishment for committing adultery. This sets the image of contrast between Hester and the people of the community. The women of the community believe she got a merciful punishment by wearing the letter. They think she should be put to …show more content…
Here, Hester tells Dimmesdale that Roger Chillingworth is her husband. This made Dimmesdale very mad at Hester. “Woman, woman, thou art accountable for this! I cannot forgive thee” (Hawthorne 215). After Hester begs forgiveness, Dimmesdale gives in realizing that Chillingworth has committed sins worse than both of them. Worrying that Chillingworth would now try to reveal them to the public, they decided that they would leave for England on a ship and start a family. This makes Dimmesdale happy and motivates Hester to remove her scarlet letter. After removing the letter she regains some of her previous beauty that she lost. The forest brightens up and everything seems more cheerful. However, Pearl refuses to join by her parents’ side until her mother puts back on the scarlet letter. After doing so, Pearl kisses her mother and also kisses the scarlet letter. After again asking Dimmesdale if he will stand hand in hand with them as they walk back to town, again she is denied. Dimmesdale attempts to kiss Pearl and afterwards she quickly runs to the brook to wash it