The Scarlet Letter

     The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delves into symbolism. A few
of the symbols throughout are: the Scarlet “A” embroidered on Hester’s chest, the
Forrest (in the daytime), the Forrest (in the nighttime), the prison, the rose growing
up by the prison wall and light and dark. Each of these has a certain significance.
     The “A” is the outward symbol of Hester and Dimmsdale’s sin. It is the
tangible, form of punishment. The thing that physically sets Hester apart. This
symbolizes her sin and her punishment.
     The Forrest during the daytime is a symbol of beauty of freedom. While at
nighttime it is the devil’s playground, symbolizing chaos and evil. The Puritans felt
this way because they had no control over the Forrest and were thus threatened by
it.
     The prison is yet another symbol of Hester’s physical punishment and
isolation from the world. She is cast out. No longer an accepted member of society
for the crimes that she has committed. The prison is hard and cruel, it is also a
reflection of the ideals of the Puritan society. The rose shows the beauty that can
grow out of that harsh, ugliness. The rose is Pearl.
     Light and darkness is used to show Dimmsdale’s guilt and his mental
anguish. He walks to the scaffold, mocking a confession at night in the darkness.
Then blazes an meteor in the sky as if God himself were looking down and saying
to Dimmsdale, “Almost, but not quite.”
     The author gives several lengthy, difficult descriptions in the beginning of
the novel to set the harsh, Puritan tone of the novel. He says, “The founder of a
new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally
project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to
allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, with this rule, it may safely be
assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house gone where
in the vicinity of cornhill, almost as seasonable as they marked out the first
burial-ground, on Isaac Johnson’s lot...” (pg. 75). He uses very long, hard to read
passages to create a Puritan-esque feeling in the reader.
     Pearl is her mother’s only treasure, bought with all she had. She is the
symbol of her guilt, and the price of her sin. Pearl is described as a “sprite” and an
“elf-child”. She is lively, and spirited. She is a constant reminder to Dimmsdale of
his mistakes, and the fact that he has yet to be punished for them by the
community. Pearl goes against all of the Puritan values. At one point she says, “I
have no heavenly father.” She is the opposite of everything in Puritan society,
which is seen in her elaborate dress.
     This novel is focused around Puritan values and behaviors. Several times
throughout the novel, Hawthorne digresses to discuss these, rather than the story at
hand. “’It were well,” muttered the most iron-visage of the old dames, ‘if we
stripped Madam Hester’s rich gown off her dainty shoulders; and as for the red
letter, which she hath stitched so curiously, I’ll bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic
flannel to make a fitter one!” (pg. 81). This passage shows the view of the society
toward Hester. The ladies are offended by her ornate needlework, causing Hester
to seem proud of her emblem of shame.
     Hawthorne writes, “It might be that a sluggish bond servant, or an undutiful
child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authority, had been corrected at
the whipping post” (pg. 77). The Puritan community felt that they each played a
role in every thing that happened with in the group. They were busybodies, which
could be a big reason for the Salem witch trails.
     “This personage prefigured and represented in his aspect the whole dismal
severity of the Puritainic code of law, which it was his business to administer in its
final and closest application to the offender.” (pg. 80). Once again, they feel as
though it is their duty to administer justice. They must do “God’s will on Earth.”
     At the end of the novel Hester returns to New England without Pearl. She
continues to wear her scarlet letter. “Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and
here was yet to be her penitence” (pg. 274). She returns loved, a councilor to the
women of the town. They came to seek her guidance and ask “why they were so
wretched, and what the remedy!” Perhaps because of her great sorrow the women
of the town knew they could turn to her. She became a symbol of the condition of
all women. Puritan women were to be obedient. It was believed without male
supervision they would only get into trouble. Perhaps this is why the women feel
so wretched (Hawthorne was writing around the time of the feminine movement,
and was a great sympathizer for their cause).