Plot In The Scarlet Letter

Analyzing Plot in The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne outlines the plot of the story through his specific placement of three very significant scenes which take place on the scaffold: Hester's public punishment for committing adultery, the minister's vigil and reunion with Hester and Pearl, and lastly, the revelation of the scarlet letter. The second scaffold scene in Chapter 12 is substantial in that it is the first time that the Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl have all come together and acknowledged their ties to one another. However, the climax of the story does not take place until Chapter 23. Here, Reverend Dimmesdale publicly reveals that he, too, bares the scarlet letter 'A' (whether literally or symbolically, we do not know) that has caused Hester and Pearl so much pain, torment, and exclusion by the rest of society for the past seven years. In Chapter 23, Hawthorne uses the diction connoting a sense of constant motion and restlessness, sound, and release from past constraints in order to foreshadow the climactic occurrence of Reverend Dimmesdale's revelation at the scaffold. After the Reverend's Election Day sermon, the townspeople begin to move around frantically and act very restless, as if something very significant were to be approaching. Also, the combined voices of the townspeople and music in the market-place gradually became one thunderous "roar" (169), as if they were building up to a main event or occurrence. Lastly, Hawthorne uses words such as "escape" (170) to indicate that Dimmesdale is finally being relieved of some sort of constraint that he had previously been bound by. Hawthorne makes Dimmesdale's revelation the point of greatest tension in the plot in order to signal that he is being relieved of his internal conflicts- extreme guilt and remorse- which have lead both his physical and spiritual state to worsen.

Diction, with regards to constant motion and restlessness amongst the townspeople of Boston (following the minister's Election Day sermon), is used by Hawthorne to invoke a feeling of excitement in the air, which builds up to the coming climax. For example, he writes that "...the crowd began to gush forth from the doors..." (167). His choice of the words "crowd" (167) and "gush" (167) emphasize the size and power of the townspeople as they left the church. "Gush" (167), specifically, indicates that the people are moving, all of a sudden, in a rather frantic way. Also, Hawthorne points out that Dimmesdale's "hearers could not rest" (167). The emphasis which Hawthorne places on the villagers' anxiety and restlessness is peculiar to the readers because they had never before been mentioned, in terms of their characteristics and behaviors, as a significant group of people in the plot. Therefore, Hawthorne highlights the prominence and nature of their behaviors help to lead the reader to Dimmesdale's climax at the scaffold.

Hawthorne uses sound in Chapter 23, preceding Reverend Dimmesdale's climactic revelation at the scaffold. He introduces the importance of sound in this chapter by telling of how, in the market-place, the townspeople are "greeted by a shout... [Which] was felt to be an irrepressible outburst of the enthusiasm kindled in the auditors" (169). With this shout, the anxiety that has already been manifesting within each villager transforms into one loud, thunderous collection of noise which overtakes the market. Hawthorne point out that, doubtlessly, the initial shout would "acquire additional force and volume" (169) through its almost contagious passage amongst the people in the town; "Each felt the impulse in himself, and... caught it from his neighbor" (169). The noise grows louder with the release of each person in the market-place, thus building up to the climax. Also in this scene, Hawthorne identifies music as a source of the growing noise in the village by saying "Now was heard the clangor of music..." (168). His choice of the word "clangor" (168) signifies a constant beating or pounding in the music; readers are lead to feel irritated, more so than allured, by these sounds. The effect of Hawthorne's use of increasingly intense and loud voices and music is comparable