Her mental well-being and fortitude is impressive, and her growth in virtue as described by Hawthorne in Chapter 13 results in her being called a “Sister of Mercy.” Nevertheless, there is a temptation within Hester’s soul that attracts her to the illusion of salvation offered by the forest (and one can naturally sympathize with her attraction to the type of (seemingly) liberating moral calculus offered by the forest given the Puritanical oppression she has heroically endured).īut the forest is not the pathway to true salvation. Hester Prynne, by contrast, who was forced to undergo the public humiliation of standing on the scaffold (as described in the opening chapters) fairs much better. Dimmesdale flees the scaffold, or mounts it in a cowardly and imaginary fashion under the cover of darkness, when no one can see him, and thus suffers incredible interior pain throughout the course of the novel due to the concealment of his sin (and Hawthorne’s psychological description of Dimmesdale’s acute suffering is quite remarkable). In other words, the pathway to salvation in the novel is directly connected to the scaffold. Let me get straight to my main point (knowing that you are already familiar with the facts of the novel): no one is saved in The Scarlet Letter unless he climbs up upon the scaffold. Roger Chillingworth and Pearl – were saved (and by saved I am referring ultimately to the Christian meaning of that term, although it has other meanings as well). Especially by the use of these two symbols, I hope to demonstrate that all four of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter – Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Mr.
I will maintain that the scaffold, formally a penal instrument of punishment, shame and humiliation, is ultimately a symbol of salvation, and the forest a symbol of freedom from conventional moral restraints. His main criticism of the novel was that it contained “a great deal of symbolism…I think, too much.” The point, however, is that symbolism is very important to understanding The Scarlet Letter, and in this short note I will make much of two very important symbols used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, namely, the scaffold and the forest. Henry James, the famous novelist, wrote a note about The Scarlet Letter in which he called it “the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth” in the United States. Chillingworth discovers the trio atop the scaffold, and any suspicions he harbored of the identity of Pearl’s father is all but confirmed.“Is not this better than what we dreamed of in the forest?” (Chapter 23) Hester comes to realize the poor state in which Dimmesdale has borne his guilt, and resolves to lend him her strength, which has served to uphold her throughout the years of her public shame.Pearl questions the minister as to whether he would stand with them there noon the next day, but he refuses. Hester and Pearl discover him there and join him, acknowledging the bond between the three before none other than themselves. Here, the reader sees a nearly mad man, too weak to reveal himself for what he really was, but too pious to otherwise ignore it. Late one night, Dimmesdale could have been seen on the scaffold, looking for some peace from the guilt tormenting his mind.His penitence, however, lacked an audience. Thereafter, he would pledge to avenge himself of the man that had partnered in wronging him. He seems an old, disappointed man, finding that the one he had waited three years to join had, during that time, left him for another. He did not, at that time, have the strength or the will to do so himself, and was begging Hester to reveal him for what he was.Among the crowd, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s wronged husband, adds his voice to the multitude in demanding that Hester reveal her secret. Nearby, stood Arthur Dimmesdale, asking his secret lover to reveal the name of the father of that child. Hester Prynne, clutching both the living and the imposed () of her sin to her breast, is seen atop the scaffold, sternly looked on by all, but without her lover.She stood there in quiet defiance, refusing to reveal to the multitude before her who the father of her child was, and in this the reader sees a picture of a woman scorned and fearing for the life of herself and her child, but bearing the scrutiny of all with a calm defiance.
At each scene, the reader comes to understand something of the main characters and glimpses how that sin represented by the scarlet “A” has affected them. The scaffold played an important part in identifying the characters of the Scarlet Letter throughout the novel.
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