Lightness And Darkness In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter submerses the reader in the Puritan’s culture. The story involves the Puritans portrayal of the sins of a young woman. Although a difficult read, the book stirs the reader to obtain a high moral compass. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works “The Scarlet letter” and “The Minister's Black Veil” is some of his most famous works known to date. When it comes to two of his works, “The Scarlet letter and “The Minister's Black Veil” are in plain sight different in many ways when it comes to the plot and settings behind the stories. Yet at the same time, they are similar in literary techniques that are used throughout the story. In both stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne use symbolism that was shown multiple times throughout both of the works as they describe the flawed protagonists and secondary characters. Those symbolisms are often recognized as the black veil and the scarlet letter itself.

All societies and people have secrets. Everyone has another side to them that they do not show in the eyes of the public. Hawthorne uses the symbol of darkness to show throughout his literary works that all people sin. Archetypally, darkness represents chaos, mystery, death, evil, fear. Darkness in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, shows the author's point of view on the Puritan society. Hawthorne’s use of archetypal symbolism of darkness to describe Puritans suggests Hawthorne’s view on Puritan society was anything but pure and that all societies should be less critical of their members.

The mind is a human’s greatest advantage as well as one’s greatest disadvantage. The mind can remind people of when they are at their worst. It eats away at a person as their mistakes are replayed over and over in their head. Some ease their mind by airing their pain to those who will listen. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author uses sunlight to communicate the idea that it is best to acknowledge one’s wrongdoings in order to live a life without torment and heartache.

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul” (John Muir). In stories places hold deep emotional meanings for the characters. These places serve to show the reader what makes the character who he or she is and what is important to him or her. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many symbols, from objects to the characters in the story. These symbols are integral to helping give the reader a deeper look into the story. The Scarlet Letter, a story of love and sin, uses its symbols to give the reader a better understanding of the characters and events that take place. These symbols all hold important meanings; however, some of these meanings change depending on which

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, focuses on a woman by the name of Hester Prynne who committed adultery with a minister in a puritan society. When she bears the child, she is shamed for her actions through the use of a scarlet letter A which she is forced to wear on her chest. She is compelled to confront her sin by the public, but her lover, Dimmesdale, is not revealed. However, both characters deal with the guilt of their sins in different ways. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the idea of light and darkness to represent the futility of the puritan’s focus on public image, with light standing for the puritan focus on image, and the darkness representing the freedom and ability to be oneself.

Hawthorne uses light and imagery to demonstrate the sin of Hester’s crime and his disapproval. Throughout the text, the narrator has a very biased opinion which is in line with Hester’s opinions, and views Hester herself in a very positive light. However, Hawthorne truly views the letter as a vile object, as shown through Pearl. One day, while Pearl is still a child, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale watch as she places burrs on to the scarlet letter. Pearl first dances on a grave and when she is reprimanded by her mother, she finds burrs and “[arranges] them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom” (Hawthorne 75).

Nothing good ever happens in the dark, that is where the face of sin hides. Throughout The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, elements of light and dark are seen connected with sin, secrets, purity, and confession. Hawthorne precisely choices language throughout this novel that use light and darkness as elements to represent, the darkness in evil, and the goodness in light. Hawthorne writes using these elements focusing on great attention on Dimmesdale until the end of the novel. Dimmesdale hides his greatest sins in the shadows, he is plaguing his mind, body, and sole as he battles with the final confession of his crime.

Although everyone might think that Hester’s crimes have created a toll on Pearl ,Pearl still manages to stay strong for her and her mother. Pearl being the victim and being so young is able to take all the comments thrown towards her and just become stronger. She gives Hester hope to what is to come,to know that it all won’t be terrible.That as long as pearl is able to stay strong for her mother, than she

The Scarlet Letter is littered with symbols. Symbols can be used to enhance the text. They allow meaning to be compressed down into fewer words. That compression gives the text eloquence. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses them to supply more meaning to the text in an eloquent manner.

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many forms of symbolism in his book The Scarlet Letter. Symbolism is, according to Merriam-Webster, “the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visual or sensuous representations.” This means that the author was using objects to represent an action or idea. The symbols used in his book is either all physical or visible objects. Many of the symbols in the book are about characters.Nathaniel’s ideas came from his bonds with the Puritans. According to CliffsNotes, “the Puritans had great difficulty in loving the sinner and hating the sin”. With the Puritans strong hatred for sin,

“We've all got both light and dark inside of us, what matters is the part we choose to act on, that's who we really are.” –Sirius Black. Black’s quote can be applied to most of the situations presented to the characters in Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlett Letter. Many secrets remain held within that truly reveal who the characters are. Nevertheless, there are scenarios in the story that show more than one side to the character. In the book, and just like in many other scenarios, there are two sides to each character, a light side and a darker side. Light and dark imagery, alluding to the larger conflict between good and evil, is present throughout

Throughout history, colors have been used to symbolize different meanings based on associations with culture, history, politics, and religion. In The Scarlet Letter, the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism through colors such as red, black and white in the form of sunlight, to represent emotions and ideologies of Hester and the people around her.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.

As the writer of both of these stories, Hawthorne writes through a Romantic lense. In The Scarlet Letter, In comparison, Hawthorne uses the dark to symbolize sin and moral corruption