Friday, October 25, 2019
The Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers
The Scarlet Letter      The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delves into symbolism. A few of the symbols throughout are: the Scarlet â€Å"A†embroidered on Hester’s chest, the Forrest (in the daytime), the Forrest (in the nighttime), the prison, the rose growing up by the prison wall and light and dark. Each of these has a certain significance.      The â€Å"A†is the outward symbol of Hester and Dimmsdale’s sin. It is the tangible, form of punishment. The thing that physically sets Hester apart. This symbolizes her sin and her punishment.      The Forrest during the daytime is a symbol of beauty of freedom. While at nighttime it is the devil’s playground, symbolizing chaos and evil. The Puritans felt this way because they had no control over the Forrest and were thus threatened by it.      The prison is yet another symbol of Hester’s physical punishment and isolation from the world. She is cast out. No longer an accepted member of society for the crimes that she has committed. The prison is hard and cruel, it is also a reflection of the ideals of the Puritan society. The rose shows the beauty that can grow out of that harsh, ugliness. The rose is Pearl.      Light and darkness is used to show Dimmsdale’s guilt and his mental anguish. He walks to the scaffold, mocking a confession at night in the darkness. Then blazes an meteor in the sky as if God himself were looking down and saying to Dimmsdale, â€Å"Almost, but not quite.†     The author gives several lengthy, difficult descriptions in the beginning of the novel to set the harsh, Puritan tone of the novel. He says, â€Å"The founder of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, with this rule, it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house gone where in the vicinity of cornhill, almost as seasonable as they marked out the first burial-ground, on Isaac Johnson’s lot...†(pg. 75). He uses very long, hard to read passages to create a Puritan-esque feeling in the reader.      Pearl is her mother’s only treasure, bought with all she had. She is the symbol of her guilt, and the price of her sin. Pearl is described as a â€Å"sprite†and an â€Å"elf-child†. She is lively, and spirited. She is a constant reminder to Dimmsdale of his mistakes, and the fact that he has yet to be punished for them by the
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