Symbolism In Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel tells the story of a young Puritan woman who is ostracized from the community because of her sin. An example of early American Literature, Hawthorne uses color to symbolize emotions and imagery. The Scarlet Letter opens with a young woman, Hester Prynne, being ushered from the community jail to the town’s scaffold wearing a scarlet “A” on her chest. Hester is placed on exhibition, before the entire town, and is forced to stand on a platform to be judged for her sin of adultery. When she is on the scaffold she is asked to reveal the name of her child’s father but she refuses. Hester spots her thought to be dead husband by the scaffold. Back in the community prison, Hester is visited by her husband and he vows to find out who the child’s father is and take revenge on the man. He then makes Hester promise to never reveal his identity and introduces himself to the townspeople as a physician named Roger Chillingworth. Hester and her daughter Pearl move to the outskirts of Boston and becomes a seamstress to provide for herself and Pearl. Her daughter grows int...

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