MP3 Choice Portfolio

Daniel Arcega

Mrs. Emerick

IB English HL II

Reconstruction in The Scarlet Letter

        Within The Handmaid’s Tale, reconstruction is a device Offred uses in order to maintain a sense of power in her uncontrollable life. She takes events she has experienced and envisions different versions of them and imagines different outcomes. This results in many versions of the same story of which neither Offred nor the reader know the truth of reality. Similarly, the tale of The Scarlet Letter is painted as a reconstruction. Its narrator takes the stories of Hester he finds in papers and produces a streamlined narrative. As such, parts of the story can be scrutinized as to whether or not they actually occurred as the narrator claims. The potential differences in the events of the novel can lead to them having different significance.
One scene that can be interpreted in a couple ways is the scaffold scene in chapter twelve. Specifically the moment where Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl are holding hands on the scaffold watching the meteor fall from the sky. The details and circumstances of this scene can be subjected to reconstruction due to the mystifying imagery and events. 
        From the beginning of the scene, the reliability of the story is brought into question. Upon the platform, Dimmesdale sees Reverend Wilson pass by him before asking him to join him on the scaffold. However, it is then revealed that both Wilson’s appearance and Dimmesdale’s dialogue were imagined by the latter person: “Good Heavens! Had Mr. Dimmesdale actually spoken? For one instant, he believed that these words had passed his lips. But they were uttered only within his imagination”(Hawthorne 101). Dimmesdale’s uncertainty in this passage suggests that other events may not actually be what they seem. For example, since Reverend Wilson was not real, then what proof is there that the scream that brought him there was real either? The only other person seemingly brought out by the yell was far away, yet no one else nearer to him heard the scream? Dimmesdale’s afflicted perspective allows many other events in this scene to be open to interpretation.
        Another example of a detail that could have been reconstructed is the appearance of the meteor. According to the story, Dimmesdale interprets the natural phenomenon as “the appearance of an immense letter,- the letter A- marked out in lines of dull red light”(Hawthorne 106). The appearance of the meteor itself, coming at such a thematically poignant moment, is already questionable. Since the story is framed as a retelling of real events, the chances the meteor was actually there are extremely low. Perhaps it was Dimmesdale’s weakened mental state combined with the presence of his fellow sinners that caused him to see a vision representing his crime. Alternatively, if the meteor was there, then there is a good chance that the shape of the letter A was envisioned entirely by Dimmesdale. These are all possible versions of that scene; however, they all have the same meaning for Dimmesdale’s character. Upon the scaffold, the full scale of Dimmesdale’s sin is revealed both to him and the reader. The version of the scene shown best illustrates this point, which is why it was used.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. James R Osgood and Co., 1878. 

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