Symbolism Is The Use Of Symbols To Signify Important Meaning

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Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify important meaning to things. These symbols could be basically anything in which a meaning is more than just the literal context. Hawthorne has several uses of symbolisms in his stories. Symbolism was very popular literary device during the Romantic period, where the object embodied some sort of idea. “The symbolism of his works focused on isolation and guilt of the individual, the uncertainties of good and evil, and the continual hold of the past on the present. Hawthorne focused on his Calvinist lineage and America 's Calvinist ideological past, as well, in hopes of coming to terms and making sense of it. Hawthorne 's writing is full of symbolic characters, settings, and objects. Hawthorne 's…show more content…
Another form of symbolism in The Scarlett Letter is Hester’s daughter, Pearl. Hester names her daughter Pearl is a being a great price and her mother’s only treasure. This meant that Hester paid a great price to have Pearl. “In exchange for Pearl, she gave up everything else: her reputation, her community, and even her religion” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Lastly, the readers see a symbolism of the black man toward the end of the book. The black man is considered the expression of Satan. Hester thought the scarlet letter mark was the black man’s mark. The black man was considered to be evil and that is how it was symbolic in the story. “Hawthorne has a perfect atmosphere for the symbols in The Scarlet Letter because the Puritans saw the world through allegory. An allegory in literature is a story where characters, objects, and events have a hidden meaning and are used to present some universal lesson. For them, simple patterns, like the meteor streaking through the sky, became religious or moral interpretations for human events. Objects, such as the scaffold, were ritualistic symbols for such concepts as sin and penitence” (The Scarlet Letter). “Young Goodman Brown” is a story that took place during the Salem Witch Trials. In this story, you see people accusing each other of being a witch. Smith summarized this story into, “Young Goodman Brown as he says goodbye to his wife of three months. He tells her that he must go on this journey and
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