Forum of Hidden Truth Dictated and governed by a set of religious laws, Puritan society restricted those who lived within its limits to mundane, ordinary lives. The theocratic based community was forced to live under the harsh, and often strict, guidelines of the Puritan church. Any one sin could be punished severely, whether it is a minor infraction or an offense condemnable by death. A person could not speak out or show any emotion lest …showed first 75 words of 1018 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1018 total…for these actions, but serves as the only place where the people of the community accept, and later forgive the sins and wrongdoings of the offenders. The scaffold is the most prominent motif in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, for the significant events that occur upon it lay the groundwork upon which the novel is constructed. Ultimately, no truths would have been uncovered without the presence of the scaffold, leaving a literary masterpiece in shambles.