The Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

The ruddy LetterThe Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delves into symbolism. A fewof the symbols throughout are the Scarlet A embroidered on Hesters chest, theForrest (in the daytime), the Forrest (in the nighttime), the prison, the rose growingup by the prison wall and light and dark. Each of these has a certain significance. The A is the outbound symbol of Hester and Dimmsdales sin. It is thetangible, form of punishment. The thing that physically sets Hester apart. Thissymbolizes her sin and her punishment.The Forrest during the daytime is a symbol of beauty of freedom. While atnighttime it is the devils playground, symbolizing chaos and evil. The puritans feltthis way because they had no control over the Forrest and were thus threatened byit. The prison is yet another symbol of Hesters physical punishment andisolation from the world. She is cast out. No longer an accepted member of societyfor the crimes that she has committed. The prison is hard and cruel, it is also are flection of the ideals of the Puritan society. The rose shows the beauty that cangrow out of that harsh, ugliness. The rose is driblet. Light and darkness is used to show Dimmsdales guilt and his mentalanguish. He walks to the scaffold, questioning a confession at night in the darkness. Then blazes an meteor in the sky as if God himself were looking down and sayingto Dimmsdale, Almost, notwithstanding not quite.The author gives several lengthy, difficult descriptions in the beginning ofthe novel to set the harsh, Puritan tone of the novel. He says, The founder of anew colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originallyproject, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities toallot a portion of the virgin defacement as a cemetery, with this rule, it may safely beassumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house gone wherein the vicinity of cornhill, almost as timely as they marked out the firstburial-ground , on Isaac Johnsons lot... (pg. 75). He uses very long, hard to readpassages to create a Puritan-esque feeling in the reader. Pearl is her mothers only treasure, bought with all she had. She is thesymbol of her guilt, and the price of her sin. Pearl is described as a sprite and anelf-child. She is lively, and spirited. She is a constant reminder to Dimmsdale ofhis mistakes, and the position that he has yet to be punished for them by the