Redemption from Sin: Symbolism Creating Theme within The Scarlet Letter

When a person confesses, he releases the pent up angst that broods inside of him due to feelings of guilt or shame in order to free himself of his wrongdoings. However, if a person does not remove his internal conflict from his conscience, his physical and mental state suffers. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale keeps his affair with Hester Prynne secret from his Puritanical community in Boston, while Hester is openly punished for the crime. The two protagonists struggle on the journey for forgiveness for their sins. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne actively uses symbolism to compare and contrast the psychological state of Hester and that of Dimmesdale to elucidate the theme that relief and redemption are only possible by showing public penance for one’s sins. Hawthorne specifically uses the symbols of the scaffold, the scarlet letter, and light and dark imagery to make this point.

Hawthorne uses the scaffold as a symbol to represent the different stages of Reverend Dimmesdale’s and Hester’s struggle with sin throughout the novel that ends in their redemption. Hester has to stand up on the scaffold for three hours a day wearing the scarlet letter as punishment for her indiscretion. Dimmesdale tells Hester that if “he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so that to hid a guilty heart throughout life,”(73) because by serving her punishment, “heaven hath granted [Hester] an open ignominy”(73). Hester’s loss of respect allows her to repent for her sins, while “the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently begun to fail”(119). Dimmesdale’s psychological health also begins to fail when he begins holding all night vigils and hurting ...

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...t Letter, Hawthorne contrasts the external effects that committing adultery, and the internal effects it has on Reverend Dimmesdale. Through his use of symbolism, Hawthorne explicates the theme that in order to receive relief and redemption from one’s sins, one must show public penance. In a Puritan context, this theme is especially important because sins were punished more heavily publicly than they are today, however public or private atonement for sins is still especially important to one’s soul. An untold sin will eat away at a person’s conscience, and he will suffer mentally and physically if he fails to make amends. A person that openly confesses will be more likely to receive forgiveness and forgive himself than one who fails acknowledge his err. One is better off being punished openly like Hester than one who lets his unacknowledged mistake devour his soul.