The Scaffold
Public penitence is no longer widely used as punishment in today's western society. However, back in Puritan society, it was in some ways considered worse than death. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the criminals of the law be it governmental or religious, were taken in sight of all onto the scaffold to publicly display their wrongdoing. Just as the scaffold is the center of the town, it is also the center of the story. The scenes that take place at the scaffold are the most important events in the story; they establish the environment for the story and are pivotal to the plot.
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