Justice at the Scaffold in The Scarlet Letter       Richard Harter Fogle acknowledges the aspect of the superhuman as "the sphere of absolute insight, justice, and mercy: few of Hawthorne's tales and romances can be adequately considered without taking it into account" ("Realms of Being and Dramatic Irony" 309). This superhuman aspect surfaces through Divine Justice in The Scarlet Letter. On the other hand, the merely human application of justice emerges through the Puritan laws, or Earthly Justice. The struggle for supremacy in the novel between Earthly and Divine Justice becomes a central theme, reflected in multiple aspects of the plot. However, the focal point in this struggle manifests itself at the scaffold in Boston, where Divine Justice materializes and ultimately triumphs over Earthly Justice.  The thematic struggle at the battleground of the scaffold unfolds and develops through Hawthorne's three scaffold scenes.
