Symbolism In 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.

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's work, The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very symbolic role. Throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. One example of this is with the character of Pearl. Pearl is very different than all the other characters due to her special relationship with Nature. Hawthorne personifies Nature as sympathetic towards sins against the puritan way of life. Hester's sin causes Nature to accept Pearl.

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

Since Hester and Dimmesdale committed adultery, they are trapped in their life of isolation and misery. Just as Hester did during her imprisonment, she and Dimmesdale are like the prisoners staring out at the rosebush, dreaming of salvation and freedom. Later in the book, Pearl states that she was plucked from the rosebush and was born. Because of this, Pearl is the key to salvation for Hester and Dimmesdale, just as the rosebush is the key to salvation for the hopeful prisoners.

Hawthorne shows Hester’s prudence and shows her purity; Hawthorne shows society’s distrust and shows society’s misunderstanding and in this way Hawthorne constructs his argument against society’s extreme condemnation of sin.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an Anti-Transcendentalist. An Anti-Transcendentalist is someone who believes all natural things contain evil. Hawthorne’s great uncle is John Hathorne a judge who presided during the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel Hawthorne disliked his uncle because of his actions during the witch trials. Yet, Hawthorne is also obsessed with his great uncle and the Puritanism of the 1600s, because of his great uncle. Hawthorne is so obsessed with Puritanism that he writes many books on the subject, such as The Scarlet Letter. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the Wild Rosebush, Pearl, and the Forest and Sunlight to develop the overall theme of Imperfection.

Symbolism is the use of symbols in a book to represent ideas or qualities. Symbolism is used many times throughout The Scarlet Letter, whether it be through a person, an object, or a place. Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth are some of the more important people that are used as symbols by Nathaniel Hawthorne throughout the book. The Scarlet Letter is set in the Puritan time where Hester is the woman who committed adultery, Arthur is the man who committed adultery with Hester, although the public does not know this, and Roger is the man who Hester was married to before he got taken by the Native Americans. Chillingworth comes back after a few years to learn that Hester has committed this sin. The

Nathaniel Hawthorne used a large amount of symbolism in his award winning book “The Scarlet Letter”. The symbolism Hawthorne uses in “The Scarlet Letter” can be a bit confusing at times and the symbols can be hard to identify in certain chapters. The symbols within the book are what make it such a classic novel.

Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter portrays symbolism in multiple forms through both characters and objects such as the scarlet letter symbolizing Hester’s shame and a wild rose bush growing in an unexpected place to be a symbol of God’s grace. There are quite a few examples of symbolism represented throughout the whole novel. Although Hawthorne made many of these symbols obvious, a few were also obscure. Some of the obvious symbols would be the Prison, the Scaffold, the Wild Rose Bush, and the Letter A. Some of the obscure symbols would be the grass plot, night, day, and the forest.

Hawthorne is perhaps suggesting that despite her mistakes Hester is still a fair and decent woman who means well. Hester’s attractive appearance suggests that she is a warm

Hawthorne uses archetypal objects to represent darkness and flaws within society to convey how the puritans strive for an unrealistic perfection and therefore should be less critical of its people. The novel begins with the narrator describing a prison door and a rose bush right next to it, he illustrates both of these objects when saying “Evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison”(Hawthorne 2). The black flower that Hawthorne describes, symbolizes the corruption in the society. Flowers portray purity and beauty, but in this case the dark and black description represents the dark and corrupt society. The black flower being borne early represents that the society is new yet it already has corruption within it. Because of the already warped society the puritans are striving for a perfection that impossible and should then be less critical. Along with the black flower

There is such a high contrast between the society and wilderness that the people seem to be afraid of it. It is an unknown place to them filled with Indians, creatures, and worst of all; it’s lawless. The dynamic of the town is that it is ruled upon by a set of strict laws and religion, while the forest isn't based on anything but free will and emotion. In the text Hester is even compared to the forest when Hawthorne says; "She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest" The narrator in this quote explains to us that hester is in her own metaphorical forest. He

Through the Romantic use of nature, Nathaniel Hawthorne multiplies the significance of the theme in The Scarlet Letter. The symbolic use of nature influences the reader's interpretation of the scene and it's meaning, contributing to the overall mood. In the beginning of the novelty narrator describes the hopeless seen of the prison in which Hester Prynne occupies, “the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front”(Hawthorne 41). Hawthorne's initial description of the scene gives the reader a sense of hopelessness and bleakness. With his addition of, “But on one side of the portal... was a wild rose-bush... which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him"(Hawthorne 41). The newfound light

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, though the story takes place in the 1600s. This novel is set in a New England Puritan town. Puritans live by strict rules against pleasure and live to please God, and anyone who cannot meet these expectations will be shunned for life. In The Scarlet Letter, the main protagonists Hester Prynne and minister Arthur Dimmesdale fail to live up to Puritan law by committing adultery feelings of the imperfect human nature that everyone has hidden deep inside. The very theme of The Scarlet Letter is that imperfection, and Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the wild rosebush, Pearl and the forest and sunlight to contribute to that theme.