Question

Help! I'll give you a medal.
Has anyone ever read?

The Scarlet Letter
By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Chapter II: The Marketplace

I need some help on some questions?

Answer 1

When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning.

What does this line imply about the narrator's opinion of the officials presence at the scene?

They are pompous but ineffective.

They have a beneficial effect.

They create unneeded turmoil.

They increase the punishment.