The scaffold in The Scarlet Letter has many meanings.

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The scaffold means shame, the truth, and redemption for each character in the story. It was at the scaffold where the story began at and where the story ended at with two of the most important scenes in the story. Also on the scaffold was one of the most important scenes in the middle of the story. The scaffold is a very important place and has the most meaning in The Scarlet Letter. The story starts out with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold. This where the scaffold means shame because this is the place where Hester receives the scarlet letter. The letter is a very wonderful looking but it is has a terrible meaning. "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony.(37)" The scaffold is a shameful place at this time in the story. Also at this time in the story is where we first see Author Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl and he is scared at the Hester will reveal his identity as the other who committed this adultery sin. Hester doesn’t reveal who the father is. "I will not speak!" answered Hester, turning pale as death, but responding to this voice, which she too surely recognized. "And my child must seek a heavenly father; she shall never know an earthly one!(47)" Also who is at this scene in the story is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth has just come to town and he sees Hester standing up on the scaffold and asks a stranger what is going on. The stranger tells him that Hester has committed an adultery sin. From this
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