The Scaffold Scenes

A scaffold is a place where sinners go to relieve their guilt. Many also had to endure public humiliation. It took a lot of courage for someone to admit their sins and stand in front of a judgmental public. Often times, they were looked down upon and not well liked by many in their Puritan society. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the scaffold scenes are immensely important to the book. We are introduced to all of the main characters and we see how they change from the first scaffold scene to the last, and how each of the scaffold scenes are significant.
During the first scaffold scene, it introduces the main character, Hester Prynne, her symbols of her sin, and is just beginning to show us just how strong of a character she really is. The symbols of her sin are her scarlet letter “A” and her daughter, Pearl. Hester has committed the crime of adultery and her punishment is that she has to wear an embroidered, scarlet “A” on her clothi...