Metaphor In The Scarlett Letter

Hawthorne uses metaphor throughout the novel to describe the symbolism throughout the novel. He writes,“Finding it as impossible to touch her as to catch a humming-bird in the air, he took from his hat the gold chain that was twisted about it, and threw it to the child.” (Hawthorne 219). This is a metaphor because it is comparing Pearl to a hummingbird. Hummingbirds are constantly flapping their small wings so rapidly. This describes her energy and how Pearl or a hummingbird don’t let their little wings slow them down. Another example is when Hawthorne writes, “From beneath their broad-brimmed hats of palm-leaf gleamed eyes which, even in good-nature and merriment, had a kind of animal ferocity.” (Hawthorne 208). It’s describing the sails men as animal like because they are basically seen as pirates to the Puritan

community. In a way it could also describe Pearl. It describes her energy and personality throughout the story. Hawthorne writes, “She had been offered to the world, these seven years past, as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide,-all written in this symbol,-all plainly manifest,-had there been a prophet or magician skilled to read the character of flame! And Pearl was the oneness of their being.” (Hawthorne 186). Pearl is the Scarlet Letter A, she’s like a hieroglyphic because she holds the secrets of who the father really is. She is also like hieroglyphics because only Hester and Dimmesdale could understand Pearl’s ways and her personality, so in a way Hester and Dimmesdale are like the prophet or magician because they are the only ones who can decipher Pearl. An example of how much of a burden upon Hester Pearl can be is shown when Hawthorne writes, “‘Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin?’” (Hawthorne 103). It is comparing Pearl to the scarlet letter. It is saying that Pearl is only capable of having others love her. She is not able to love another. It’s also symbolism because it is showing that Pearl is the real representation of the scarlet letter. She is the living embodiment of the Scarlet A. Many Authors show how the letter can be interpreted into many things. Nina Baym writes, “The A can stand for Dimmesdale’s first name, Arthur, so that we can think of Hester’s wearing not only the mark of her illicit act, but the name of her lover, for anybody with eyes to see it… It can stand for ‘apple,’ in reference to the misdeed committed in the Garden of Eden; and, thinking of the Bible account as well as of Puritan theology, we can make it stand for Adam, everyman (and everywoman too).” (Baym 88) and “The letter can easily be read to stand for ‘art’: itself a work of art, its artwork is responsible for subverting the intended Puritan meaning of the letter. It can stand for ‘artist.’ It can stand for ‘author,’ and ‘authority,’ so that Hester is being made to wear the mark of her ‘adversaries’ or ‘antagonists,’ while insisting that she be the ‘author’ of her own letter.” (Baym 88). Not only can it stand for adulterer but it can stand for whatever the reader feels it stands for. Hawthorne leaves it open for interpretation. That is why the letter A is such a big symbol in The Scarlet Letter. It’s even in the title. The second largest symbol of sin would have to be Pearl, as this author explains. “Not only is she endowed with an extraordinary capacity for downright orneriness and, seemingly, a supernally granted intelligence with regard to the several dilemmas of her parents, but she has also been a perennial problem for critics who seek to understand her function in the novel and who are dissatisfied with the obvious explanation that she is the symbol of sin.” (Eisinger 323). Many readers believe that not only is Pearl the outcome of a great sin but she is also the living embodiment of Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin.

Everyday that Hester or Dimmesdale look at Pearl they are reminded of that huge sin bearing down upon their shoulders, especially Dimmesdale’s. Another symbol is the stream. Author John F. Adams talks in his essay about the importance of the stream in The Scarlet Letter. He says, “This stream, then, which separates the two worlds of fallen man and natural man, does so by containing the elements which contributed to this fall. Hester’s scarlet letter almost adds itself to the secrets of the stream. To cross the stream and reclaim paradise it is necessary to learn from these experiences; in other words, to transform sin into a fortunate fall. When Pearl’s pointing at her mother’s bosom, where the letter should be, is described in terms of her reflection in this brook, it becomes apparent that in a general symbolic sense this stream is Pearl. She contains and personifies their transgression.” (Adams 245). This symbolizes that one of these days Hester and Pearl will go separate ways. It is also a bit of

foreshadowing. Pearl and Hester do go their separate ways eventually. Pearl goes to Europe away from the Puritan community and married very happily whereas Hester stayed. She left the town that she was in for a little while but eventually was drawn back to it because she felt bound to the community.