The Dancehall

Throughout the novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, author Stephen Crane uses the setting of different Dance Halls to represent the change of the main character. Crane used this scene to show change like how Hawthorne used the scaffold in The Scarlet Letter to show change. Both settings play a huge role and is the main source of how the authors express the themes of the novel. Every big scene in both novels somehow relates to these two setting because it’s the author’s way of expressing change throughout the novels. These two setting in the two novels are very similar in how Magie and Hester change in during the novel.

In The Scarlet Letter, it started off with Hester and her child Pearl standing up on the scaffold being humiliated by the whole town. This was because Hester committed the crime of adultery. In the crown is Mr. Dimmesdale, watching as his love was being humiliated for a crime he was equally guilty for. As Hester bears the letter A across her chest with the whole town amazed at how beautiful it looks she looks into the crowd only to find her husband, Chillingworth. A sense of evil rushed through Chillingsworth blood as he stood there in shock witnessing the love of his life being shunned for adultery. Hester shows courage standing there alone like how Maggie finally did something out of her comfort zone and went to a dancehall with her boyfriend Pete. Pete takes Maggie to a really nice dancehall where she is impressed but still is independent and doesn’t fully rely on Pete.

Later in the novel, Hester revisits the scaffold scene with the same people, but it is not for her to stand up there. Instead this time it is Dimmesdale who wants to tell the town he is guilty of adultery to rid himself of guilt and remorse. This guilt that is built inside Dimmesdale drives him crazy and he can’t live with it anymore. The most powerful moment in this scene is how Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl all held hands and it was a sense of greatness in the novel. In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Maggie continues to spend more and more time with Pete and Maggie starts relying more and more on Pete. Magie relying on pete for everything is sad because she fails to notice that ever since they went to the first dancehall the dancehalls that they go to after that become a lot less nice and a lot cheaper. The connection Maggie and Hester share as they revisit these important settings is that they are doing it for love this time. Hester loves Dimmesdale so she wants to make sure he releases his guilt even though he refuses to go up there during the daytime and Maggie fails to realize the quality of the dance halls she is attending.

During the end of the novels we see the author end with the main character revisiting the two most important settings. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne revisits the scaffold with all of the most important characters there. In this scene Dimmesdale finally admits to the crime of adultery and dies off at peace knowing that he confessed his guilt. In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets the ending was sad because Maggie finally gave in to the terrible dance halls and changed for the worse. Instead of being sweet innocent Maggie the last time the reader knows about her she is being carried off by a man only to be found up dead.

These two settings play a role in the beginning, middle, and end of the novels. They show changes in themes and show the changes of each character. The symbolic representation of the Scaffold is significant to telling the story of Hester and how she was courageous to stand up there multiple times not caring what people thought about her. When Maggie first visited the dancehall she was shy and didn’t want anyone to acknowledge her. This changed rapidly because by the end she became a prostitute, going home with different guys every night. These two setting are significant for the readers in order for them to follow along with the plot of the story.