Symbols and Symbolism in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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Recommended: The relationship between Hawthorne and the scarlet letter

Thesis Statement and Outline

Thesis Statement: Nathaniel Hawthorne used symbolism to bring meaning into his book

"The Scarlet Letter."

I. Symbolism

A. Definition

B. Style

II. Symbolism in characters

A. Hester

B. Dimmesdale

C. Chillingworth

D. Pearl

III. Symbolism in objects

A. The scarlet letter

B. The scaffold

C. The forest

D. The brook

IV. Symbolic relations between characters and objects

A. Characters and the scarlet letter

B. Characters and the scaffold

C. Pearl and the forest

Nathaniel Hawthorne used symbolism to bring meaning into his book "The Scarlet Letter." Generally speaking, a symbol is something that is used to stand for something else. In literature, it is most often a concrete object which is used to represent something more abstract and broader in scope and meaning. Symbols can range from the most obvious substitution of one thing for another to creations as massive, complex, and perplexing as Melville's white whale in Moby Dick ( Dibble, p. 77 ). In The Scarlet Letter the symbols and the ingredients of the story come together "in a seamless unity in which each manifestation of the letter illuminates an aspect of the characters' or the community's evolving experience ( Brodhead, p. 159 ) .

In Hawthorne's use of symbols in The Scarlet Letter, we observe the author making one of his most distinctive and significant contributions to the growth of American fiction. Indeed this novel is usually regarded as the first symbolic novel to be published in the United States ( Dibble, p. 77 ) . Hawthorne attempts to spread a revelation into imagined characters and scenes, to transfer the realization of the symbols into a warmth that will animate the entire...

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...troit, Gale Research Inc., 1993, p. 194

Martin, Terence, Twayne's United States Authors Series Nathaniel Hawthorne, New York, Twayne Publishers, 1965, pp. 114, 115, 119, 127

Matthiessen, F.O., "The Scarlet Letter," Critics on Hawthorne, Readings in Literary Criticism: 16, Coral Gables, University of Miami Press, 1972, pp. 82, 85

Matthiessen, F.O., Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Scarlet Letter, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Halls Inc., 1968, p. 57

Waggoner, Hyatt H., "Nathanial Hawthorne," Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1969, pp. 47, 69, 73, 85

Waggoner, Hyatt H., "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne, Cambridge, The Belknap Press, 1963, pp. 126, 127, 139, 143

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on The Scarlet Letter.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.

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