"Sinners on a Scaffold"
This piece made up of shapes cut out of construction paper juxtapositions the images of Hester and Pearl up on the scaffold to be publicly shamed during the day and Dimmesdale's self-punishment at night in chapter 12 "The Minister's Vigil." It is also a reference to Pearl's last remarks to Dimmesdale in chapter 19 "The Child at the Brookside," in which she asks "Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?"(200). In the left-hand side of the piece, Hester stands in front of a crowd of people, whose eyes and aura glow the same red as presumably the scarlet letter itself and Pearl's dress and aura, as she is the physical culmination of her and Dimmesdale's sin. This represents their hypocrisy in shaming Hester. In the right hand side of the piece, we can tell it is nighttime. Dimmesdale stands alone. It should also be noted that Pearl's bonnet is split between the two adults' color scheme. This shows that she is the shared responsibility of the two. This piece has a bit of a double-meaning. It not only literally illustrates scenes from the novel, but it could also represent today's (and yesterday's) social persecution of women's sexuality. Women are expected to please men in every way possible, and yet if they do, they are put down for "putting out" and punished for their promiscuity. This is shown through the crowd of people ready to shame Hester but not Dimmesdale. It is debatable whether the townspeople in the novel wanted to know who Pearl's father was so that they could punish him too, but considering the sexual freedom men have and still continue to appropriate using their male privilege, it is definitely possible that Dimmesdale would have received little to no punishment--or at least not to the extent of that given to Hester and their daughter.