Part one of term paper
“This scaffold constituted a portion of a penal machine . . . . The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron” (Hawthorne 62-63). A scaffold's effect on the novel can be seen through an examination of the first, second, and third scaffold scenes. These sections mark the beginning, middle, ...

Part two of term paper
... This scene is where Hester Prynne's sin first appears in the novel. The “Goodwives” of the congregation discuss Hester's crime of adultery: “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (Hawthorne 59). The scaffold allows Hester Prynne's sin to be publicized and marveled at by the New Englanders. It is here that the reader becomes aware of Hester being shunned as an outsider, when she is placed on the scaffold: “Knowing well her part, she ascended a flight of wooden step ...