The Scarlet Letter Scaffold Scene Analysis

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the themes of exposure and justice are prevalent throughout. The author uses the image of a scaffold in the center of town as a symbol of two contradicting ideas: public shame and freedom. The Puritan community in which the story takes place lives by strong Biblical and legalistic standards with the ultimate goal of establishing a utopian society. In the words of Hawthorne, the strict Puritan law code was set up for the purpose of dragging iniquity out into the sunshine (38). The scaffold acted as a method for doing so. By the final chapter, however, the scaffold which the Puritans thought so little of prior to the events of the novel comes to represent something entirely new and different in their
During the initial scaffold scene, wherein Hester is the focus of attention, Dimmesdale addresses her almost as if he is speaking to her alone. Feeling pressure from rest of the town officials behind him, Dimmesdale instructs Hester to reveal the identity of her lover only “‘If thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation’” (46-47). The way in which he phrases this command essentially reveals that he does not want her to identify him as the fellow sinner. A moment later, however, he conversely tells her that he wants her to disclose his identity. This clear contradiction in the minister’s words informs the reader that Dimmesdale longs to confess his sin but knows the ramifications would be perhaps more than he could bear. These conflicting thoughts pain Dimmesdale up until the very end of the novel. As if once was not enough to reveal the contents of the minister’s heart, he appears on the scaffold twice more in the course of the novel. In the dead of night, Dimmesdale feels compelled to stand on the scaffold, again revealing the emotional battle raging within himself. His actions in this scene mirror his words spoken to Hester in the previous scene. Reverend Dimmesdale knows he must confess in order to obtain the ultimate relief of emotional freedom. At the same time, however, he needs the darkness to conceal his sin from not only the rest of society but also from himself. Dimmesdale inherently possesses a “desperately held longing to rise to the highest level of human life, to move toward perfection, and to strive toward his God” (Stubbs 419). Thus he tries for seven years to deny the fact that he could descend to such a disgraceful moral state as would allow him to commit a sin so distasteful as adultery. Not long after, Dimmesdale