Hawthorn Paper

Hawthorne’s Use of Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne masterfully weaves many themes and character development to format the plot of this novel. The themes of The Scarlet Letter are carried out through symbolism and the four main characters: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Pearl. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne hoped to show that although Hester and Dimmesdale sinned, they achieved the wisdom of self knowledge and inner growth through their suffering.

Before the novel actually begins, there is a section of the book entitled "The Custom House". While this is not an essential part of the novel, it provides insight into Nathaniel Hawthorne and the story itself. Here the reader learns that Hawthorne’s ancestors were strict Puritans. One of his ancestors, Judge Hawthorne, was an actual judge during the Salem Witch Trials. Although Hawthorne did not actually live during the Puritan era, he still felt guilty of his ancestors’ actions. He was angered by the hypocrisy of the Puritan government and the Puritan church which condemned sins, yet committed them. This becomes apparent to the reader throughout the course of the novel.

Hawthorne himself believed that "The Custom House" essay was primarily liable for the book’s popularity. "The Custom House," meeting the public’s stipulations for sunshine and substantiality, was, among other things, his way of making up for the unadorned dimness and ambiguity of his mythical and symbolic vision in the novel itself (Crowley 20). Hawthorne seems to have desired to accomplish something more than a frame or penned in tale with the use of "The Custom House" in The Scarlet Letter (Tharpe 63). Every character re-enacts the "Custom House" scene in which Hawthorne himself contemplated the letter, so that the entire "romance" becomes a kind of exposition of the nature of symbolic perception (Kaul 67).

A large fraction of the opening chapter is appointed to the rosebush and to some weeds that grow next to the prison. Hawthorne assumes that a wild rose beside the prison door may help to symbolize some fresh virtuous blossom, that may be found along the path, or relieve the drowning ending of an account of human fragility and anguish (Waggoner 119).

In the opening chapters the scarlet "A" upon Hester Prynne’s bosom is the object of the entire community. The minds of the general public are confirmed in the mold of Puritan thought, and the real Hester for them is the adulteress.