The Scarlet Letter is a novel written in the 1840s by the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered one of the most symbolic pieces of work in American Literature. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman living in mid-seventeenth century Boston, who gives birth to a girl after committing adultery and struggles to create a new life of penitence and pride. As a result of the sin she commits, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her bosom perpetually. The scarlet letter is a complex symbol, since it incorporates various meanings. In fact, much of Hawthorne’s symbolism is very difficult to notice, but several symbols are also clear. The prison, on the contrary, is a clear symbol, since it obviously represents the crime and punishment that was integrated in the Puritan Boston of the mid-seventeenth century. Pearl, Hester’s elfish-child, can also be considered a clear symbol seeing that she symbolizes everything Hester gave up when she committed adultery.
In the very first pages of The Scarlet Letter, the prison is presented as a symbol of both isolation and alienation. To Hester, it foreshadows the life she will have to face even after she gets out of its confines. While Hester lives in the prison of isolation, her anonymous lover, Dimmesdale, lives in the prison of his unconfessed guilt, and her husband, Chillingworth, is imprisoned by his own vengeance and anger. The prison also clearly represents crime and punishment, which was frequently incorporated in the early Puritan life, “A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowed hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered...
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...is work. It provides a novel of different levels of interpretation, keeping its whole secret to the happy few, the ones who have the courage and capability to descend to its deepest layers, leaving mere concepts, as time and space, behind. Nathaniel Hawthorne was so successful in the art of symbolism that his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, became known as American Literature’s most famous symbolic novel of all time.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Brian Harding, and Cindy Weinstein. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
Sauder, Diane. "PinkMonkey.com MonkeyNotes for Macbeth by William Shakespeare."PinkMonkey.com. 1997.
1 August 2004
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Scarlet Letter Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
During this puritan time in the 1600s. Nathaniel Hawthorne who is an anti-transcendentalist speaks about sin. But not just any sin, secret sin in this novel “The Scarlet Letter.” Hawthorne expresses many themes and symbols in many strange and mysterious ways. Hawthorne is a very dark and devious man. The scarlet letter A that is embroidered on Hester’s bosom symbolizes adultery. Adultery is the sin that she has committed. Hester had a whole husband and made a baby with a man that wasn’t the husband. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Hester’s Cabin, Leeches, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of Good Vs. Evil.
Bruckner, Sally. "The Scarlet Letter: Critical Evaluation." Masterplots. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasadena: Salem, 1996. 5847-5851.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “ The Scarlet Letter’’ is a classical story about sin, punishment and revenge. It all began with a young woman named Hester Prynne who has committed adultery, and gave birth to a child in a Puritan society. Through the eyes of the puritans Hester has gone against their religious ways. Hester must now wear the symbol of the letter “A” on her clothing for the rest of her life as act of shame. Hester Prynne faces a long journey ahead and her strength enables her to continue on.
Normally when most people think of vampires, they envision a deathly, pale creature with fangs. But Thomas Foster seems to think differently, who argues that it is not necessary for a vampire to embody a stereotypical vampire. Surprisingly enough, even humans can be these types of monsters. From Foster 's perspective, being a vampire not only includes an individual 's aesthetics, but also their actions, personality, intent, and overall representation of personal identity. The classic novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, presents an excellent example of this occurrence, where the character Roger Chillingworth meets the criteria of a vampiric figure, based on Thomas Foster 's ideas of vampirism, found in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor.
Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
...stions about the scarlet letter have a huge role I the reader's interpretation of its meaning.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well known novel, The Scarlet Letter, extensive diction and intense imagery are used to portray the overall tone of the characters. In particular, Hester Prynne, the wearer of the Scarlet Letter, receives plentiful positive characterization throughout the novel. Hester’s character most notably develops through the town’s peoples ever-changing views on the scarlet letter, the copious mentions of her bravery, and her ability to take care of herself, Pearl, and others, even when she reaches the point where most would give up and wallow in their suffering.
“A bloody scourge…rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance.” (Hawthorne, 141) In the Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Minister Dimmesdale starved himself, whipped himself, and tortured himself to get rid of the guilt caused by his sin with Hester Prynne. Hawthorne describes the minister’s guilt as the evil that anchored him down and shows how Dimmesdale tortures himself but can never get rid of it. His guilt came from many things. First was his guilt for committing the crime with Hester Prynne. Second is his guilt for not being with her at the time that she was put upon the scaffold. Last was his guilt from not revealing himself to his own daughter and from having to stay out of her life due to fear of being shamed by the community. Hawthorne’s views on guilt and Dimmesdale are mostly that his guilt controlled his life completely until the very end when the power of the sin and guilt took over to the point where he couldn’t control himself.
Hawthorne's use of symbols clearly enhances The Scarlet Letter. From the setting to the characters themselves, the novel is filled with symbols that work together to provide a deeper, allegorical meaning. The symbolism contained in Hawthorne's works provokes much thought in the reader, through which the reader can enjoy the story much more. For this reason, The Scarlet Letter can accurately be described as a "symbolic masterpiece."
Gerber, John C. "Form and Content in The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter: A Norton Critical Edition. Eds. Seymour Gross, Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1988.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter”. American Literature: Volume One. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 809-813. Print
The historical context, psychological exploration of the characters, and realistic dialogue make this fictional novel more realistic. The symbolic representation of the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the settings along with the morals taught by the stories of the characters make the novel more insightful, symbolic, and allegorical. These aspects of The Scarlet Letter make the novel a brilliant combination of the literary devices of Realism, symbolism, and allegory, and fill the novel with profundity, suspense, romance, and tragedy.