In The Scarlet Letter, what significance is there to Hester viewing the crowd from atop the scaffold?

of
, titled "The Marketplace" explains, among other things, the
purpose and goal of the scaffold. According to the narrator, the use of the scaffold was to
promote good citizenship. It instilled the same horror as "the guillotine" did with
the "terrorists in France". The goal of it was to prevent the culprit from
"hiding their shame" and to make the accused stand in front of the crowd, admitting to
the fact that a transgression has been committed.

The very
ideal of ignominy was... made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no
outrage... more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the
essence of this punishment to do.

's particular
punishment was to stand at the scaffold for a period of time and render herself susceptible to
any comment, sneer, or criticism coming from the crowd that looks at her. She is holding her
child at this time, making the magnitude of her indiscretion even more evident. However, Hester
is at all times defiant. She is defiant when her guard removes her from her cell, and she is
also defiant when the crowd begins to sneer at her. The importance of this exchange of glances
is that Hester is quite aware that her village is a mere settlement of people who follow each
other sheepishly and without questioning a thing.

Of an impulsive
and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of
public contumely, wreaking itself in every variety of insult

Hester is aware of the ignorance and hypocrisy that permeates the settlement. She knows
thatis weak and that he fell into temptation even though he is the most respected elder in the
village. She knows that , 's own sister is a witch who is allowed to practice her beliefs
without being punished; that the entire leadership of the town is as prone to corruption as she
was. Therefore, Hester looking down at them is a symbol of how, in the end, they are just as
sinful as she is. However, the fact that she stands at "a shoulder's height" above
them is allegorical to Hester STILL being at a higher spiritual and intellectual level than all
of them. This is because, even though Hester committed a sin, she is aware of her actions and
does not sell herself to religion like the rest of the villagers; she is what we could consider
a modern thinker in that respect. Hence, to have an entire town of ignorants looking up at a
person, and to have that person look down on them is a symbol of Hester's natural higher rank
than theirs.