Symbolism Essay : ' The Scarlet Letter '

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author presents three symbols that all reinforce the main idea of the novel. The main idea that reoccurred throughout the novel is that people don’t have to let their mistakes or circumstances determine who they are or what they become; it’s all in how one interprets life. Many symbols may seem as just an ordinary character or coincidental object to some readers, but the symbols have a deeper, underlying meaning. Although there are many symbols in this book, there are three that really help support the main idea: Hester Prynne’s scarlet letter, the meteor, and Hester’s daughter Pearl.

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.

There are many forms of symbolism found in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne, the author uses his many forms of symbolism to project a lesson or moral created throughout the story. Even each of the main characters has a different moral representation. Guilt, repentance, purity, and strength each are shown through the eyes of a different character. Pear, Hester Prynne, Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale are main characters that are used to show that you should “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”(Hawthorne286)

Through the dark description of the forest and prison, Hawthorne shows the hypocrisy in the society due to the fact that the Puritans are sinful. The very first descriptions of the town are a prison and a graveyard, the two most essential things the society needs. The society has “a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison”(Hawthorne 2). Prisons represent crime and the punishment in society, which grows from sin. Hawthorne compares the prison to a “black flower” which implies the growth of something evil in society. The Puritans know they are all but pure when the first structure they agree to put in the society is a prison. They should not be as judgmental to those who sin because the

Symbolism is a common approach used in writing, but it is not to be taken for its exact connotation. In literature, the symbol can be a person, item, circumstance, or action that has a more profound significance in the writing. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are four main symbols that the reader would notice. The symbols include, the colors red and black, the meteor, Pearl, and the scarlet letter itself. Hawthorne uses symbolism in the novel to communicate his message.

From the beginning of the scarlet letter author Nathaniel Hawthorne starts off using symbolism. He represents the prison as a place of darkness and sin and describes the surrounding of the prison as old and worn. Then follows to tell the reader that there is a rosebush in the prison which is an odd place for it to be and it symbolizes the grace of God. Another major symbol in this story is Hester’s daughter Pearl, she illustrates the consequences of sin and the chance of redemption. The reason for Hester naming Pearl was that she was her only treasure and she lost all of the things she owned (her social status) to have her. Not to forget the biggest symbol The Scarlett letter which represents her sins, mistakes, skill, adultery, and much more. At first Hester wears the “fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread” on her breast as a punishment but as the story continues the “A” changes from Adultery to Able as she is seen different from all the good deeds she has done.

In the novel, Scarlett Letter, the Puritans live in a community bent on conforming to the common beliefs and values set by their society. Those whose ideas and values diverge from the norm are criticized and despised for their individualism. Hawthorne portrays this ignorance and conformity through the Puritans' belief that the forest is evil and unruly. However, because the forest is secluded far from the influences of society, Hawthorne suggests that in the forest people are able to express the individuality they are deprived of in their Puritan settlement. Thus, the forest, an embodiment of freedom and individuality, is used as a symbol to contrast the harsh Puritan society with the free nature of the forest in order to convey the

Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.

Finally, Pearl is a big symbol for balance. In an article titled “The Role of Pearl,” Anne Marie McNamara states, “From the beginning the narrator has made clear the nature of Pearl’s mission to her mother: she had been sent as a blessing and as a retribution to remind Hester of her fall from grace and to teach her the way to heaven.” (McNamara 86, 87).

The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne, is constantly using symbolism to keep the reader engaged and curious. A symbol can stand for one thing but mean another. These include symbolism’s of light and dark, variations of the letter “A”, weeds and flowers, as well as the scaffold. Because Nathanial Hawthorne wrote portraying a lot of symbolism, he created a new style of writing.

Have you been outside on a rainy day and it messes with your emotions? This is similar to the Scarlet’s Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the mood and feelings of this character through the good and bad times. It also represents each character’s motives. Lightness and darkness is a symbol in The Scarlet Letter that reveals bad and good character’s.

She reminds Hester that life is beautiful and that in this life there’s always something good out of any evil. Pearl was the result of a major sin, and that makes Pearl a lifetime punishment that gets along really well with the letter A. "But she named the infant 'Pearl,' as being of great price- purchased with all she had- her mother's only pleasure." Chapter VI, 'Pearl'

The prison door represents punishment to those who have sinned, justice, the austerity of Puritan society and human nature (humans are sinful by nature). In contrast the rose-bush is “…wild…covered, … with its delicate gems…offer[ing] their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoners as [t]he[y] went in…” (Hawthorne, 33). Thus the rose-bush is symbolic of God’s/human’s mercy, paradise, human nature (positive outlook), hope and even individuality since it the only beautiful and optimistically described thing in this chapter. Note, Hawthorne was a transcendentalist and that individualism was a fundamental idea in this philosophical movement.

The reoccurring deteriorating scaffold Pearl Prynne, and the rosebush and ugly weeds are reoccurring symbols in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.”

My interpretation of Hawthorne’s message is that the prison door represents society which is dull, while the rose bud represents something heart warming or colorful. Hawthorne described the prison doors architecture “heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spike,” meaning that the door is dull with wooden spikes built on to it. This represents the “grey” side of the society because of the criminals being on the other side of the door. But on the side of the door is a rose bud. Hawthorne describes when a criminal enters the prison by the iron door, they could see the beauty and smell the fragrance of the roses. This is clear because Hawthorne writes that when a criminal gets hanged, “the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to