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One of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s main purposes in writing The Scarlet Letter was to show that all people sin no matter who they are or what status they have. Hawthorne also makes it clear that people can learn from the consequences of their sin, and that sin can help a person change for the better. The Puritan community expects sinners to be punished by standing upon the scaffold for the townspeople to ridicule them. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale knows that his soul could not take the public shame because of his status as an important moral figure in Puritan society. He undergoes an internal battle with himself that is shown within the three scaffold scenes. After first denying his sin, he learns to accept it and eventually releases himself from it by public confession.
In the first scaffold scene, while Hester is being publicly deprecated for the sin they both took part in, adultery, Dimmesdale stands by silently. In Puritan society, the townspeople believe public shaming can help a person turn from their sin. Therefore, they are not afraid to publicly share their opinion of Hester and her transgression. As the Puritans converse about her sin, someone remarks “that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation” (Hawthorne 45). The fact that Dimmesdale protects himself while explicating on Hester's sin, which is the exact same, makes Dimmesdale a hypocrite. He owes it to his congregation to tell them the whole truth. He preaches about repentance and how the truth will set you free, but he does not take his own advice. When various Puritan leaders cannot persuade Hester to expose her fellow sinner, Governor Bellingham calls Dimmesdale to the scaffold to question Hester about the identity of Pearl’s father. When Dimmesdale asks her to reveal the name, she remains silent. Dimmesdale points out that “if he were to step down from a high place, yet better were it so than to hide a guilty heart through life” (Hawthorne 60). He says himself that it is better to live with open sin rather than hidden sin, another example of his hypocrisy. At this point, Dimmesdale wants to confess, but he is too morally weak to do so. He subtly makes a personal plea to her to name him as the father. He says to “take heed how thou deniest to him who hath not the courage to grasp it for himself” (Hawthorne 60). In other words, Dimmesdale tries to subliminally tell her that he wants to confess but lacks the strength to do so. If she reveals him, she would actually be helping him, but since that would ruin his reputation, Hester thinks it would do more harm than good. After the town gathering is over and Hester is led back to her cell, Dimmesdale’s guilt starts to consume him. Since he disappointed God by breaking the laws of the church and staying silent, he begins to take his punishment into his own hands.
After various forms of self-torture in order to do penance for his sin, Dimmesdale realizes it is time to embrace his own sin. For this reason, Dimmesdale wanders to the scaffold in the middle of the night, seeking some form of purgation. Once he was standing on the scaffold, he put his hand on his chest, and “without any effort of his will, he shrieked aloud” (Hawthorne 138). Dimmesdale screamed out of pain from touching the mark upon his chest, and he was afraid people of the town would wake up and see him upon the platform. Luckily for him, the townspeople mistook his scream for the scream of a witch. A little while after, Dimmesdale saw Hester and Pearl walking along the sidewalk. He told them to come and stand with him on the scaffold. After they made there way up on the platform, the three of them joined hands, and Dimmesdale felt a “tumultuous rush of new life” (Hawthorne 142). This was the first time they were altogether alone. Dimmesdale’s only moment of peace was interrupted by Pearl asking him to stand with them on the scaffold the next day at noon. The thought of the public finding out raced through his mind, and he remembered how dreadful it would be. He responded by saying he would stand with them “on the great day of judgment” (Hawthorne 143). Dimmesdale telling Pearl this signifies that he still doesn’t have the courage to take responsibility for his sin. Along with choosing to stand on the scaffold at night because he knew no one would see him. He knows his time to truly confess will eventually come, but he first has to get back his spiritual strength in order to do so.
The final scaffold scene occurs on Election Day, a public holiday for the Puritans. There is a crowd filling the marketplace, and they are all there to listen to Dimmesdale’s Election Day sermon. After he finishes his sermon, the townspeople murmur to each other about how moving, inspiring, and truthful this sermon particularly was. As everyone leaves the meeting all, Dimmesdale hesitates, but walks upon the scaffold and asks Hester and Pearl to join him. As everybody’s attention was turned toward the scaffold, he began to speak. He asks God to give him strength while he does “what he withheld himself from doing seven years ago” (Hawthorne 247). Even though his body is as weak as ever, ironically, his soul is finally strong enough to confess. After losing touch with God for a while, his faith is reborn and stronger than before. He needed God’s help in order to admit his sin to the world. Before actually confessing, Dimmesdale asks Hester to come help support him on the scaffold. While leaning on Hester’s shoulder “he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast, it was revealed” (250). The mark on his chest had been shown to the whole town. After finally being acknowledged by her father, Pearl finally kisses Dimmesdale on the lips, and his grief escaped him. He turns to Hester and informs her of the seriousness of the law they broke. Dimmesdale tells Hester that “it was thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an everlasting and pure reunion” (Hawthorne 251). He explains how God has continually shown him mercy throughout all his afflictions, and how their relationship would never be right in the eyes of God. After he says all this, Hester’s dream of their happily ever after is crushed. Dimmesdale takes his last breath and dies in front of everyone upon the scaffold, but first he tells Hester how this is God’s mercy in action because God wouldn’t let him die as an unrepentant sinner.
Every part of this novel is important to the plot, but the three scaffold scenes have delicately chosen details that bring more depth and interest to the story. These scenes are a key part of the understanding of Dimmesdale’s improving personality. The scaffold started as a place of shame but ended up becoming a place of triumph, where Dimmesdale had escaped the grasp of sin.
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