The Scarlet Letter : Symbolism : Good Vs. Evil

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 the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes many references to the devil and evil’s influence on major characters and on the people in the town. The major characters change the way they act towards one another, and are physically and mentally affected negatively. The evil influence not only affects how the people in the town act towards each other but if affects how different people view the scarlet letter that Hester wears. Hawthorne also tries to convince the reader that Pearl’s existence is evil, but good things can come from evil as well as bad. By describing these instances Hawthorne drives the point that the devil and evil overtime are prominent themes and shape the plot.

Figurative language plays a vital role in The Scarlet Letter, and this is evident as early as the first chapter. The passage pertaining to a rosebush in particular contains many instances of figurative language, as the rose-bush had been “kept alive in history” and may have existed because Ann Hutchinson entered the prison door. Hawthorne directly tells the reader that he wants the

The rose bush is directly stated by Hawthorne that it might represent a sweet moral blossom. It can also be shown as “To

In the first scene that is set by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the Scarlet Letter, there is a piece of land that is shared by a cemetery and a jail. Growing by the side of the prison is a wild rosebush. “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.” The rosebush foreshadows the coming of trial, but also the goodness that can bloom from it. (Chptr 1)

Brigham Young once said, “ True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what is right.” In “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne his protagonist, Hester Prynne, achieves independence when she rebelled against society and committed adultery, the act of having sex with an individual who is not their spouse. During this time Puritans believed all of life’s answers are in the bible. However, Hester committed a sin which resulted in society shaming her by placing a scarlet letter “A” upon her chest. In the novel “ The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the letter “A” is a symbol for adultery, ability, angel, and Pearl’s living persona of the scarlet letter.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written amidst the 1800’s. Hawthorne was a famous American author during that time frame. He is a relative to a judge from the Salem Witch Trials, which was his Great-Great Grandfather John Hathorne. Hathorne was the only judge who did not express atonement for his crimes, which led people to dislike all the Hathorne’s. This sparked Nathaniel Hawthorne's interest in the Puritan times, which resulted in the Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne delineates Puritan standards religiously and culturally in an outstanding way. He was also an Anti-Transcendentalist which means that he believed that all humans were evil. In his novel, the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbols of the scarlet letter, Reverend Dimmesdale, and burrs to add onto the overall theme of guilt.

In this Puritan society a group of men and women gather around a door that is "heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes" (Hawthorne 51). Hawthorn describes the building as the “black flower of civilized society" (52). This building just so happens to be a prison, which is a vessel that holds people who have committed crime. In the novel, a crime would also be consider sin. Without sin prisons would not be created, a prison needs sin, like a flower needs water. Before a person enters the prison one notices a wild rose bush, which is red, and also the opposite of a “black flower”(Hawthorne 52). Hawthorne gives the reader a flower “we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and present it to the reader” (Hawthorne 52), as a symbol of the moral in the novel,“to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (Hawthorne 52). The main moral in the novel is people must

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in Boston during the 1640s where the main religion was Puritanism. Hawthorne published his book during the Romantic period emphasizing individualism and a person’s relationship with God. This book also contains Gothic elements because it shows the psychological effects of being alienated from society and the darker sides of humanity. Throughout the book there are characters that demonstrate hubris. The character that most prominently shows excessive pride is Arthur Dimmesdale.

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne was set during the 1600s in a New England town during what is now known as the Puritan past of America. In the novel, the Puritan religion was not only observed but criticized as well. During this time, the Puritans were an extremely religious group of Protestants that were known for their intolerance of other religions and their strict guidelines for a righteous lifestyle that often lead to violence or cruel forms of punishment. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a perfect portrayal of a Puritan historian because he himself was born as a Puritan and witnessed first-hand the extreme pressures associated with the Puritan religion to include arguments about the Puritan society and the treatment endured within the religion. Although The Scarlet Letter was set in the 1600s, the novel was written in the 1840s and dealt with issues during the Antebellum Era specifically when it came to the Women’s Movement and the Second Great Awakening.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter took place in the Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, in the 17th century or in other words, the 1600’s. At this time the majority of the country was Puritans. This book takes place in a small town of Boston. In this book there are two major characters, Hester Prynne, and Reverend Dimmesdale.

Beauty is often found in the most unexpected darkest places just like the rosebush outside of the prison door in a puritan colonial village. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, mentions that the rosebush symbolizes pride or a catastrophe that occurs, however, the thorns on the rosebush portray the struggles Hester Prynne had to face and overcome as society confronts their evilness when she presents herself with her child that is seen as a witch as a result of the sin her mother committed.

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,

Symbolism has many different meanings, and the Scarlet ‘A’ in “The Scarlet Letter” has many different meanings as well. Hester Prynne is the main character who is forced to wear the scarlet letter as remembrance for the crime and the sin that she has committed. This letter completely ruined her reputation in her community. How could a small piece of fabric do so much harm? This letter was a representation of something much greater than the letter ‘A’. This letter was originally made to stand for adulteress, as physical reminder of her sins. The vibrant scarlet red is meant to shame Hester, to make her feel sorry for her mistakes. Most importantly it was a symbol for change and an emblem of identity. In short, the scarlet letter meant much more than a letter of shame, it was simply a piece of fabric with meaning that could easily change.

The Scarlet Letter is a modern classic of American literature written about controversy and published with controversy. The main topic of the book, adultery, is written in a dark and sad way, as Hawthorne describes injustice, fate or predetermination and conscience ( Van Doren, 1998) . No other American novel of the time has such a controversial theme as Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter. The setting of Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is the seventeenth century Puritan New England. But Hawthorne's writing for this book is heavily influenced by his own nineteenth century culture. Hawthorne strongly believed in Providence. Hawthorne was descended from the Puritan