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Chillingworth's first reaction is
one of shock, but he quickly suppresses it (61). Since his first sight of his
wife in two years is of her being punished for being unfaithful to him, he is
naturally surprised. It does not last for long though, because it is his nature
to control his emotions (61). Pearl's very existence in this scene is the
largest immediate effect of her parents' crime (52). She obviously would never
had been there had her parents resisted their love for each other. The second
scene occurs several years later and shows the effects after time has had a
chance to play its part. It begins with Dimmesdale climbing the stairs of the
scaffold in the middle of the night because it is the closest that he can come
to confessing his sin (152). This scene is especially important because it shows
how pitiful he has become. Dimmesdale shows just how irrational he is when he
screams aloud because he fears that the universe is staring at a scarlet token
on his breast (153). It also shows how much guilt he is carrying by the way he
perceives the light from a meteor as the letter A. He believes it stands for
adulteress while other people think it stands for angel since the governor just
passed away (161).
This scene also shows how
Hester is managing her new situation. When Dimmesdale tells her to come up the
scaffold and asks her where she has b! een, she replies that she has been
measuring the robe that the governor is to be buried in (158). This statement
implies that Hester's reputation as a talented seamstress has spread.
Ironically, her first well known piece of work was the scarlet letter that she
wore on her chest. As a result, she owes her own success to her infamy. Besides
growing older, Pearl's most significant change is in her perceptibility (158).
In this scene, she constantly asks Dimmesdale if he will be joining Hester and
herself on the scaffold tomorrow at noon and accuses him of not being true
(162). Neither Hester nor Dimmesdale ever told Pearl who her father was, but she
figures it out by the way he always holds his hand over his heart (159).
Chillingworth's derangement is evident in this scene also. His contempt for
Dimmesdale is so acute that he risks his cover when he gives him a look so vivid
as to remain painted on the darkness after the bright meteor that just passed,
vanishes (161). The third scene is very critical because it is the last glimpse
into every characters' mind and the last time that everyone is alive. At this
point in time, Dimmesdale's fixation on his sin has utterly corroded him to the
point of death. After he gives his election day sermon, he goes to the scaffold
and asks Hester and Pearl to join him because he is so weak that he can hardly
support himself (265). He finally exposes the truth and tells his followers of
how he deceived them (267). The only good that comes out of conceding his guilt
is that he passed away without any secrets, for he was already too far gone to
be able to be saved (269). This scene is important to the characterization of
Hester because it is the first time that she is not in complete control of her
emotions (264).
Her dream of escaping to
England with Dimmesdale is lost when he decides to confess (264). The
unanticipated arrival of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale's feeble appearance
distresses her, and for the first time, she can not control the outcome (264).
The greatest transformation in Pearl's life occurs in this scene. While she used
to be perceived as elfish, she now shows the first signs of normal human
emotion. After Dimmesdale confesses his sin, she kisses his lips voluntarily
(268). The great scene of grief…had developed all her sympathies; and as her
tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up
amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman
in it (268). Ultimately, Chillingworth takes a severe turn for the worse when
Dimmesdale reveals his sin. Since Chillingworth based the rest of his life on
playing games on Dimmesdale's mind, he was left without any goals, and his life
became meaningless (268). On that account, it is clear that Hawthorne uses the
scaffold scenes, not only as a unifying device, but as a means to keep the
reader interested in the novel by providing plenty of action. The main
characters sharply contrast each other in the way they react to Hester and
Dimmesdale's sin. To begin, Hester becomes stronger, more enduring, and even
more sympathetic.
She becomes stronger because of
all the weight she has to carry. She is a single mother who suffers all of the
burdens of parenthood by herself. They live on the edge of town, and Pearl has
no one to give her food, shelter and emotional support besides Hester. Pearl is
especially difficult to raise because she is anything but normal. Hawthorne
gives a pretty accurate description of Pearl when he writes: The child could not
be made amenable to rules. In giving her existence, a great law had been broken;
and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and bril- liant,
but all in disorder; or with an order peculiar to themselves, amidst which the
point of variety and arrangement was difficult or impossible to be discovered
(91). Hester's endurance is proven when the people of the colony completely
change their opinion of her. While a lesser person would run from the hostile
colonists, Hester withstands their insolence and pursues a normal life. After
years of proving her worth with her uncommon sewing skills and providing
community service, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as the
cross on a nun's bosom, which is no small accomplishment (169). Hester also
becomes more sensitive to the feelings and needs of other people. She feels that
her own sin gives her sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts
(87). So even though the people she tried to help often reviled the hand that
was stretched forth to succor them, she continues her services because she
actually cares (85).
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