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Often in a literary work, the author strives to use literary devices in order to convey certain points to a reader on a different level. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses several literary devices to give his novel The Scarlet Letter depth. One of these ....

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... that the city was built around serves as a symbol as well. It represents guilt and the human tendency to sin, and it also symbolizes penance. Hester is forced to spend time in jail for committing the sin of adultery, and it is the starting point of Hester’s trek of shame to the scaffold in the market place. The scaffold itself is another symbol Hawthorne uses. Like the prison, it also symbolizes sin and guilt. “The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron” (60). It provides the setting of several important scenes in the novel. It is where Hester is forced to stand for th ...