Is the idea of public punishment the key to one’s self-purification?
I. Character: Pearl
A. "purchased with all she had-her mother's only treasure...in giving her existence a great law had been
broken." pg. 81 (suffers from her mother's mistakes)
1. These quotes help relate to the fact that Pearl indeed have to suffer for her mother's mistake. Even
though she was born from Hester's mistake she was treated like a sin from the devil.
B. The reverends calling her name: "what little bird of scrlet plumage may this be? Or art thou one of
those naughty elfs or fairies?" pg. 100
C. "imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she has no right among christened infants [in the puritan
community]" pg.86
II. Character: Hester
A. Jail Time: "the door of the jail bring flung open from within, there appeared, in the first place, like a
black shadow emerging into sunshine [after three months]." pg. 49
1. Hester was a very unhappy woman who did something that would affect her from the rest of her life.
These quotes help show her punishment in the puritan socitey.
B. The Scaffold: "her sentence bore, that she should stand a certain time upon the platform, but without
undergoing that gripe about the neck and confinement of the head." pg. 53
C. Scarlet Letter: "it had the effect of spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and
enclosing her in a sphere by herself" pg. 51
III. Setting: Scaffold
A. Hester was first punished on the scaffold: "the scene, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt
and shame in a fellow-creature, before society shall have drown corrupt enough to smile instead of
shudder." pg. 53
1. The scaffold is a setting that helps links punishment with public forgiveness. Hester was forced upon it
while Dimmesdale went at his own will in order to get redemption.
B. "While standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a
great horror of mind, as if the universe was gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his
heart." pg. 135
C. Last scene where Dimmesdale dies on scaffold when revels his sins: "there was no one place so secret, no high place nor lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me, - save on this very scaffold!" pg. 226
IV. Conflict: Dimmsdale’s internal conflict
A. "So Mr. Dimmesdale, conscious that the poson of one morbid spot was infecting his heart's entire
substance, attributed all his presentiments to no other cause." pg. 128
1. These quotes show how Dimmesdale's in really effected him in a way that he couldn't handle.
B. " Mr. Dimmesdale's secret closet, under lock and key, there was bloody scourge... he thus typlifed the
constant introspection wherewith he tortured, but could not purify, him-self." pg. 132
C. "He had been driven hither [scaffold] by the impulse of the Remorse which dogged him everywhere...
just when the other impluse had hurried him to the verge of disclosure." pg 134
In the question, does public punishment fix one's self-purification, I believe that this is not necessarily
true. Public punishment was made in order to humiliate, which made the towns people feel better but did
nothing to help redeem the convicted. In the book Hester was placed in jail and on the scaffold and had to
wear an "A" on her bossum for her punishment. After a while she knew that she recieved redmption but
not just because of all her punishments but because she was sorry. On the other hand Dimmesdale could
not forgive him self for what he had done so he thought that pulic punishment would reslove his sins
and to him it had an affect. Therefore, I believe that a certain person has to believe the redmption comes
from public punishment in order for that to be true.