Essay About Symbolism In The Scarlet Letter Example For Students

Essay About Symbolism In The Scarlet Letter Adultery, betrayal, promiscuity, deception, and conspiracy, all of which would make an excellent coming attraction on the Hollywood scene and probably a rather erotic book. Add Puritan ideals and writing styles, making it long, drawn out, sleep inducing, tedious, dim-witted, and the end result is The Scarlet Letter. Despite all these unfavorable factors it is considered a classic and was a statement of the era (Letter 1). The Scarlet Letter is pervaded with profound symbolism and revolves around the idea that hidden guilt causes more suffering than open guilt. This theme along with its symbolism is demonstrated through the lives of the three main characters Hester Pyrnne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth throughout the story. Their personalities are shown most clearly during the scaffold scenes. These scenes are the most substantial situations in the story because they illustrate the immediate, delayed, and prolonged effects that the sin of adultery has on the main characters (Analysis1). In the first scene, everyone in the town is gathered in the market place because Hester is being questioned about the identity of the father of her child Pearl (analysis 1). Hester experiences open guilt through being publicly punished for adultery. She is being forced to stand on it for three hours straight to be ridiculed and ostracized by the community. Dimmesdale however refuses to admit that he committed adultery and thereby eventually suffers hidden guilt. His instantaneous response to the sin is to lie. He stands before Hester and the rest of the town and proceeds to give a moving speech about how it would be in her and the fathers best interest for her to reveal the fathers name (letter 3). Though he never actually says that he is not the other parent, he implies it by talking of the father in third person. Such as, if thou feelest it to be for thy souls peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the na me of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-suffer. Chillingworths first reaction is one of shock, but he quickly suppresses it. Since his first sight of his wife in two years is of her being punished for being unfaithful to him, he is naturally surprised. It does not last long though, because it is his nature to control his emotions. Chillingworth, subordinating his intellect to his desire for revenge, ultimately destroys himself (stack 34 1). Everything about him gradually changes into evil. Even his facial expressions become noticeably different. The main characters sharply contrast each other in the way they react to Hester and Dimmesdales sin. To begin, Hester becomes stronger, more enduring, and even more sympathetic. She becomes stronger because of all the weight she has to carry. She is a single mother who suffers all of the burdens of parenthood by herself. They live on the edge of town, and Pearl has no one to give her food, shelter and emotional support besides Hester. Pearl is especially difficult to raise because she is anything but normal. Hawthorne gives a pretty accurate description of Pearl when he writes: The child could not be made amenable to rules. In giving her existence, a great law had been broken; and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in di sorder; or with an order peculiar to themselves, amidst which the point of variety and arrangement was difficult or impossible to be discovered (analysis 5). Pearl serves as a representation of Hesters relationship with Dimmesdale. Initially Pearl symbolizes the shame of Hesters public punishment for adultery. Then as Pearl grew older, she symbolizes the decimation of Hesters life and mental state by harassing her mother over the scarlet A which embroidered on her dress. Although Hester had so much trouble with Pearl, she still felt Pearl was her only treasure. Without Pearl, Hesters life would have been meaningless. Once a while Pearl would bring joy to Hesters life. In a way she symbolizes a rose to her mother, but at other times she could be wilting. It was at these wilting times that brought Hester the most grief. In another aspect, Pearl symbolizes Gods way of punishing Hester for adultery and was really the scarlet letter (analysis 5). If Pearl had never been born, Hester would have never been found guilty of adultery, and thus never would have had to war that burden upon her chest. Without that burden, she would have led a much bet ter life. Pearl, from being a rose, to representing the scarlet letter A, she was a kind of burden, yet love for Hestor. Not only was Pearl her mothers only treasure, she was her mothers only source of survival. Hester becomes a highly respected person in a Puritan society by overcoming one of the harshest punishments, the scarlet letter (puritan 1). This object on her bosom; however, does the exact opposite of that which it was meant for. Eventually, Hester inverts all the odds against here due to her courage, pride and effort. Hester went beyond the letter of the law and did everything asked for here in order to prove that she is able. (letter 4). Hester became quite a popular seamstress, admired all over the town of Boston for her work. After years of proving her worth with her uncommon sewing skills and providing community service, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as the cross on a nuns bosom. (analysis 5). The only piece of clothing forbidden to create was the wedding vail. Hester also becomes more sensitive to the feelings and needs of other people. She feels that her own sin gives her sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. (analysis 5). So even though the people she tried to help often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them. Although she does the job willingly and rarely ever looks back to the horrid past behind. The scarlet letter was constantly worn by Hester with pride and dignity (stack 34 2). Hester knew that what was done in the past was wrong and that the scarlet A was the right thing to do, therefore it is worn with a sense of pride. While Hester tries to make t he best out of her situation, Dimmesdale becomes weaker by letting guilt and grief eat away at his conscience, reducing him to a shriveling, pathetic creature. Business Ethics EssayIn closing, one of the most important reasons that The Scarlet Letter is so well known isthe way Hawthorne leaves the novel open to be interpreted several different ways by hisabundant use of symbolism (symbolism 7~8). This background, together with a believable plot, convincing characterization, and important literary devices enables Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter to the develop the theme of the heart as a prison (analysis 13). Hawthorne describes the purpose of the novel when he says, Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worse, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred! (Hawthorne272). The theme is beneficial because it can be put into terms in todays world. The Scarlet Letter is one of the few books that will be timeless, because it deals with alienation, sin, punishment, andguilt, emotions that will continue to be felt by every generation to come (analysis English Essays