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The Symbolism Of Sin In The Scarlet Letter

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Scarlet, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you read this word, passion, fire, anger? The color scarlet is a symbol with numerous distinctive meanings and interpretations such as sin or guilt. The master of symbolism, Nathaniel Hawthorne himself, uses sin as a recurring theme in his novel The Scarlet Letter which took place back in the 1600’s. The Scarlet Letter A, Pearl, and the meteor contribute as symbols to the overall theme of sin. To begin with, Hawthorne uses the scarlet letter A as a badge of sin throughout the entirety of the book. Hester Prynne, one of the main protagonists in this story committed adultery in a harsh and strict Puritan society. She was punished by being forced to forever wear a scarlet letter A on her …show more content…

On the night of Governor Winthrop’s death, Reverend Dimmesdale, the minister who committed adultery as well, was walking to the scaffold of punishment. There, he saw Hester and Pearl whom he beckoned to come closer to hold their hands. Once doing so, a great flash of light illuminated the town from above and a great meteor fell from the sky. Dimmesdale didn't see it as a meteor, but a large scarlet letter A. “The minister, looking upward to the zenith, beheld there the appearance of an immense letter, the letter A, -marked out in lines of dull red light.”(Hawthorne 141). Dimmesdale saw a large scarlet letter A instead of the meteor which reveals to us that the meteor represented his sin since it was the scarlet letter A. as the scene continues, everyone stares in aw at the large bright meteor. The minister clutches his heart and guiltily imagines the scarlet letter gleaming high up in the sky. Hawthorne states”...the meteor may have shown itself...but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it…”(Hawthorne 141). Dimmesdale thought of it as a reminder of his own sin, that’s why Hawthorne says “guilty imagination” and that's also why the meteor took form of the scarlet letter. Since he saw the letter as the meteor and the letter stands for sin, the meteor therefore also serves as a symbol of

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