Symbolism In The Scarlet Latter Essay Research

Symbolism In The Scarlet Latter Essay, Research Paper

Symbolism in “The Scarlet Letter”

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and important symbols. This device of symbolism is portrayed well in the novel, especially through the scarlet letter “A”. The “A” is the best example because of the changes in the meaning throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, the scarlet letter “A” is viewed as a symbol of sin. In the middle of the novel is a transition period where the scarlet letter “A” is viewed differently.

In the commencement of the novel, the letter is taken as a label of punishment and sin. Hester Prynne bears the label of the letter upon her chest. She stands as a label of an outcast of society. Hester is wearing this symbol to burden herself with punishment throughout her life. She stands on a plank where her punishment is given, “Thus she will be a living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone” (p. 59). Society places its blame upon Hester, and it is because of this one letter that her life is changed. The letter’s meaning in Puritan society banishes her from her normal life. The Puritans view this letter as a symbol of the devil. The letter also puts Hester through torture: “Of an impulse and passionate nature. She had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely wreaking itself in every variety of insult but there was a quality so much more terrible in the solemn mood of popular mind, that she longed rather to behold all those rigid countenances contorted with scornful merriment and herself the object” (54). This implies that Hester’s sin of bearing a child without the presence of a husband will always be remembered.

In the middle of the novel there is a transition period where the letter “A” is viewed differently than before. In this section of the novel Hester’s appearance is altered to the point where she is no longer seen as a person of sin. The letter changes from a symbol of sin to a more vague symbol. Society now sees Hester as a person who is strong yet bears a symbol which differs from herself. At this point Hester has learned to deal with the letter and has also grown stronger from it. Because of the letter she is now able to withstand the pressures of society. As she grows stronger her personality becomes more opposed to being seen as a sinner. The letter’s meaning has changed, “Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility”(147). This foreshadows some of the future events that occur later in the novel.

Another view of the letter is that it portrays and symbolizes guilt. It portrays the guilt of Dimmesdale, the father of Hester’s child. Hester has learned to deal with her punishment and grow stronger from it, but Dimmesdale, who went unpunished and is a respectable man in the Puritan society, must now live with the guilt of having a child “illegally.” This guilt causes him to become weaker as the novel continues: “Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth, there was, and here long had been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain” (p.136).

After seven years of torture caused by the scarlet letter, Hester finally tosses the letter aside for an hour. The return of this letter, however, is beneficial to Hester. The letter’s refusal to be swept away, Pearl’s refusal to join an unlettered Hester, and Dimmesdale insistence that Hester do what ever it takes to quiet Pearl, force Hester to reaccept the symbol of the sin she had wrongly divorced. These actions therefore allow Dimmesdale and Hester to share a mutual shame. When Hester tosses her sin aside in the forest scene she is not successful in leaving her sin forever. “The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream. With a hand’s breath further flight it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward . . .” (p. 185). The brook does not carry off Hester’s letter, and therefore the disgrace of her sin is still kept close by. When Hawthorne says that Hester’s new thoughts “have taught her much amiss” (p. 183), he also gives Hester one last chance to reaccept the sin that she has committed and the Puritan Code which she has so strongly rejected. By keeping the letter close at hand, Hester may still return to her rightful place in shame. Meanwhile, very much in tune with this letter, is Pearl. Pearl immediately recognizes that the letter has been cast aside and recognizes that in a way she has been cast aside too. Pearl has always been another symbol of the sin between Hester and Dimmesdale, and quite possibly just as much, if not more, than the scarlet letter itself. When Hester removes the letter from her bosom, in Pearl’s eyes, she also removes her child. “At length, assuming a singular air of authority, Pearl stretched out her hand . . . and pointing evidently towards her mother’s breast. And beneath, in the mirror of the brook, was the flower-girdled and sunny image of little Pearl, pointing her small finger too.” (p. 191). This quote symbolizes the aspect of Pearl commanding Hester to return the letter to her bosom. The elfish, disobedi