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A Summary of the Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
【作者】：南昌翻译 【添加时间】：2007-8-1 14:27:47
Abstract]: The Scarlet Letter makes the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne
known all around the world. Hawthorne uses the symbolism so skillful that
it enhances the artistic effects of his work greatly. This paper researches
the symbolism in this novel from the following aspects: the changing symbolic
meaning of the scarlet letter, the names of the major characters and many
objects that are described in the novel to make the symbolism clear to
the readers. [Keywords]: The Scarlet
Letter, symbolism
[摘要 ] ： 《红字》使美国作家霍桑誉满全球，作者在作品中采用的象征手法贯穿始终的、无处不在，加强了作品的艺术效果。本文从红字的多种象征意义、主要人物的人命寓意以及景物寓意等方面入手，研究《红字》中的象征手法。
[ 关键词 ] ：《红字》，象征
Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered to be the first greatest American
fiction writer in the moralistic tradition. His work The Scarlet Letter
that is notable for its allegory and symbolism is regarded as the first
symbolic novel in American literature. The novel revolves around one major
symbol: the scarlet letter. Besides, some other objects that are described
in the novel have their symbolic meanings. Moreover, the names of the four
major characters’: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth
and Pearl also have their symbolic meanings. The Scarlet Letter is a novel
of much symbolic.
1. Different meanings of the scarlet letter "A":
1.1 The Changes of the Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet Letter “A”.
In this novel, the scarlet letter "A" changes its meaning many different
times. This change is significant. It shows growth in the characters, and
the community in which they live. The letter "A" begins as a symbol of
sin. It then becomes a symbol of alone and alienation, and finally it becomes
a symbol of able, angel and admirable.
1.1.1 Adultery
The letter "A", worn on Hester's bosom, is a symbol of her adultery
against Roger Chillingworth. This is the puritan way of treating her as
a criminal, for the crime of adultery. The puritan treatment continues,
because as Hester walks through the streets, she will be looked down upon
as if she is some sort of demon from hell that commits a terrible crime.
This letter is meant to be worn in shame, and to make Hester feel unwanted.
"Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should
be the scene of her earthly punishment…(P74)" Hester is ashamed of her
sin, but she chooses not to show it. She commits this sin in the heat of
passion, and fully admits it because, though she is ashamed, she also receives
her greatest treasure, Pearl, out of it. She is a very strong woman to
be able to hold up so well against what she must face. Many will have fled
Boston, and seek a place where no one knows of her great sin. Hester chooses
to stay though, which shows a lot of strength and integrity. Any woman
with enough nerve to hold up against a town, which despises her very existence,
and to stay in a place where her daughter is referred to as a "devil child,"
either has some sort of psychological problem, or is a very tough woman.
1.1.2 Alone and Alienation
The scarlet letter "A" also stands for Hester's lonely life in New England.
After she is released, Hester lives in a cottage near the outskirts of
the city. " It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because
the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative
remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already
marked the habits of the emigrants.” (P75) Hester's social life is virtually
eliminated as a result of her shameful history. Hester comes to have a
part to perform in the world with her native energy of character and rare
capacity." However, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged
to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom
she came to contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished,
and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with
the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind.
She stood apart from moral interests… seemed to be the sole portion that
she retained in the universal heart."(P78) Hester has no friends in the
world, and little Pearl is the only companion of her lonely life, so the
scarlet letter “A” also is a symbol of the words “alone” and “alienate”.
1.1.3 Able, Admirable and Angel
Later, the scarlet letter “A” changes its meaning into being able,
angel and admirable. The townspeople who condemned her now believe the
scarlet letter to stand for her ability to her beautiful needlework and
for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick. “The letter was the
symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness is found in her so much power to
do and power to sympathize - that many people refuses to interpret the
scarlet letter ‘A’ by its original signification.”(P148) At this point,
a lot of the townspeople realize what a noble character Hester possesses.
“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge? It is our Hester – the
town’s own Hester – who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick,
so comforting to the afflicted!”(149) The townspeople soon begin to believe
that the badge served to ward off evil, and Hester grows to be quite admirable
amongst the people of the town. Hester overcomes the shame of her sin through
the purity and goodness of her soul. Unselfishly offering her time and
love to those who need her most proves that she is not worthy of the fate
which has been dealt to her.
The three changes in the scarlet letter are significant; they show the
progressive possession of her sin, her lonely life, and her ability. Hester
is a strong admirable woman who goes through more emotional torture that
most people go through in a lifetime.
.2.Biblical Archetype
The scarlet letter "A" also can be seen the symbol of Adam. It tells
us that Hester's sin is the original sin of human being, it is forgivable.
The writer shows his sympathy by describing the scarlet letter "A" on Hester's
clothing as an ornament and a decoration. Hester's making the scarlet letter
"A" into a thing of beauty offends many bystanders, who comment that, "
it were well if we stripped Madame Hester's rich gown off her dainty shoulders."(P51)
However, as a young woman observes, "not a stitch in that embroidered letter,
but she has felt it in her heart." (P51) The feeling of sympathy, only
expressed by one of the characters throughout this scene, is used by Hawthorne
to criticize the puritans for their strictness. The society is too strict
in its ways, and Hawthorne shows his contempt for the treatment of Hester
by constantly reinforcing how cruelly the people talk about her. Hawthorne
says at the end of Chapter One," Finding it (rosebush) so directly on the
threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious
portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and
present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some
sweat moral blossom, that may be found alone the track, or relieve the
darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow."(P46) This kind
of sympathy can be seen in the novel everywhere.
To Hester, the scarlet letter "A" also stands for her lover, Pearl's
father, Arthur Dimmesdale. Her fantastically embroidering the scarlet letter
"A", which means adultery, is somehow a way she shows her passion for Arthur.
Her refusing to tell the name of Pearl's father is a way to protect him.
Her choosing to remain in New England after she is released is because
it is the place where her lover stays. " There dwelt, there trod the feet
of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, before the bar
of final judgment, and make that their marriage-alter, for a joint futurity
of endless retribution."(P74) She wears the scarlet letter for seven years,
and misses her lover in this way. Only when she meets Arthur again in the
forest seven years later, deciding to flee to somewhere else, does she
throw the scarlet letter away. After Dimmesdale's death, Hester and Pearl
disappear for several years. Despite living with her daughter, Hester comes
back to live the rest of her life in her cottage again, and picks up the
scarlet letter for the third time. To Hester, there is a more real life
in New England than in that unknown region where Pearl has founded a home.
"Here had been her sin, here, her sorrow, and here was yet to be her penitence."
(P238)Moreover, here is where her lover lies. Hester eventually dies and
is buried in the King's Chapel Cemetery. " It was near that old and sunken
grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had
no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both."---
" ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER, GULES"(P240)
2. The Symbolic Meaning of the four Major Characters' Names:
2.1 Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne is one of the major characters in The Scarlet Letter.
The writer gives her much symbolic meaning by giving her this name. Hester
sounds like Hestier, Zeus' sister in Greek mythology, who is a very beautiful
goddess. This gives us a sense that Hester is a passionate beautiful woman.
In this novel, she is the symbol of the truth, the goodness and the beauty.
Nathaniel Hawthorne describes her in Chapter Two like this: "The young
woman was tall, a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale, she had
dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a
gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature
and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked
brow and deep black eyes…"(P50) For so many years, Hester refuses to speak
out the name of her partner in sin, but takes over all the punishment by
herself. Instead of running from the hostile colonists, Hester withstands
their insolence and pursues a normal life. She proves her worth with her
uncommon sewing skills and provides community service. Hester's own sin
gives her "sympathetic knowledge of the sin in other hearts." Even though
the people she tries to help "often reviled the hand that was stretched
forth to succor them," she continues her services because she actually
cares. At last, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as "
the cross on a nun's bosom", which is not small accomplishment.
Also, Hester is the homophone of the word haste. At first, she gets
married to Roger Prynne, an ugly man who gives his best years to feed the
hungry dream of knowledge. Not having got the news about her husband who
should have arrived by ship from England, she falls love with Arthur hastily
and gives birth to Pearl, for which she is condemned to wear on the breast
of her gown the scarlet letter "A", which stands for adultery. But Hester’s
adultery haste is nothing but a very natural thing to do. In the Holy Bible,
Adam and Eve, the very ancestors of human being, who live in the Garden
of Eden, eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden
tricked by the serpent. After that, they begin to know good and evil, and
also they begin to know sex. Adultery is nothing but the original sin of
human being. God’s punishment to them is just sending them forth from the
Garden of Eden. But in The Scarlet Letter, Hester is tortured physically
and mentally for her sin. Hester says to Dimmesdale in the forest later,
“What we did had a consecration of its own, we felt so!”(P179) In essence,
their sin is no worse than Adam and Eve ’ s. The punishment of puritan
society is somehow too hard on a woman who is led by human instinct.
2.2 Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale is a well-regarded young minister, whose initials
are AD, which also stands for adultery. The author obviously tells us Author
Dimmesdale is the partner in sin of Hester Prynne by giving him this name.
The word Dimmesdale also has many symbolic meanings. Dim means dark
and weak, and dale means valley, so the dimdale here is actually a symbol
of the "dim-interior" of the clergyman. He loves Hester deeply, and he
is the father of Pearl, but he can only show his passion for her in the
forest or in darkness. His 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 father's best interest for her to reveal
the father's name. Though he never actually says that he is not the other
partner, he implies it by talking of the father in third person. Such as,
"If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment
will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak
out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer"(P63). He concedes
his guilt for seven years, at the same time; he is tortured by his sin
for so many years. He punishes himself by believing that he can never be
redeemed. He feels that he will never been seen the same in the eyes of
God, and that no amount of penitence can ever return him to God's good
graces. He hates his hypocrisy to sin, but dares not tell the truth that
he is the fellow-sinner of Hester. When he finally decides to expose the
truth and tell his followers of how he deceives them, his fixation on his
sin has utterly corroded him to the point of death. The only good that
comes out of conceding his guilt is that he passes away without any secrets,
for he is already too far gone to be able to be saved.
At the end of the story, the writer put the morals which press upon
the readers from the poor minister's miserable experience into one sentence,"
Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst,
yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" (P236)
2.3 Roger Chillingworth
Roger Chillingworth, like all of Hawthorne’s main characters, is complex
and difficult to see through. The words “chilling” and “worth” compose
the surname Chillingworth. Chilling comes from the word “chilly”, which
means this man is a merciless avenger. He is calm in temperament, kindly,
but keep evil intentions. Being a man already in decay and misshapen from
his birth hour, he married Hester, a woman with youth and beauty, deluding
himself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity
in a young girl's fantasy. He married Hester not because he loved her but
because he wanted to light a household fire in his lonely and chilly heart.
He is a bookworm who spends his best time in libraries, and shows no love
to his young wife. It is he that has destroyed Hester's flower like youth,
and indirectly leads to Hester's tragedy. After he discovers that his wife
bore another man's child, Roger gives up his independence. He used to be
a scholar, who dedicates his best years "to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,"
but his new allegiance becomes finding and slowly punishing the man who
seduces his wife. He soon becomes obsessed with his new mission in life,
and when he targets Reverend Dimmesdale as the possible parent, he disguises
himself as one trust friend of the minister, attaching himself to him as
a parishioner. For seven years, he digs into the minister's heart with
keen pleasure. He searches the minister’s thoughts; he causes the poor
minister to die daily a living death. He searches into the minister's dim
interior for a long time, and turns over many precious a tread, and as
wary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man lies only half
asleep,--- or, if it may be, broad awake,--- with purpose to steal the
very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eyes,"(P119) When
he finally found the scarlet letter "A" on the bosom of the minister, he
busted out a ghastly rapture, When he does these, he is turning from a
victim to a sinner. Chillingworth is also means that the avenger's life
is worthless. When he finds his wife betrays him, he dedicates all his
time to seeking revenge. He gives up his identity, living with the minister
and being by his side all day, every day. His largest sacrifice is by far,
his own life. After spending so much time dwelling on his revenge, Chillingworth
forgets that he still has a change to lead a life of his own. So after
Dimmesdale reveals his secret to the world, " All his strength and energy----
all his vital and intellectual force--- seemed at once to desert him; in
so much that he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanied
from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun."(P236)
Chillingworth dies less that a year later because he has nothing left to
live for. The poor forlorn creature is more wretched than his victim is
--- the avenger had devoted himself.
2.4 Pearl
Pearl is one of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book,
the daughter of Hester Prynne. Pearl, throughout the story, develops into
a dynamic symbol - one that is always changing. Pearl was a source of many
different kinds of symbolism. From being a living scarlet letter, to a
valuable thing with high price, then to the moral in this novel. She was
a kind of burden, yet love for Hester.
The most significant symbolic meaning of Pearl in the novel is her association
with the scarlet letter “A”. When Hester stood fully revealed before the
crowd, it is her first impulse to clasp Pearl closely to her bosom; "not
so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby
conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress."(P50)
"In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would
but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm…”(p50 )
Hester embroidered the scarlet letter with gold thread fantastically, and
she had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full playing
contriving Pearl's garb. “and, indeed, of the child's whole appearance,
that it irresistibly reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne
was doomed to wear upon her bosom.”(P93) Pearl really was the scarlet
letter, the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed
with life.
Pearl is a girl of rich and luxuriant beauty. “There was fire in her
and throughout her, she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate
moment.”(P93) The Bible says," the kingdom of heaven is like merchant in
search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and
sold all that he had and bought it."(Matthew 13-14) Hester named the infant
"pearl", as being of great price,--- purchased with all she had,--- her
only treasure! if Pearl had never been born, Hester would have never been
found guilty of adultery, and thus never would have had to wear that burden
upon her chest. Without that burden, Hester would have led a much better
life than the one she had throughout the novel. Although Hester has so
much trouble with Pearl, she still feels that Pearl is her treasure. Pearl
is really the only thing that Hester has in her life. Once and a while,
Pearl will bring joy to Hester's life, and that helps her to keep on living.
If Pearl isn't in Hester's life, Hester will almost surely have committed
suicide. This can be proved in Chapter 8, The Elf-child and the Minister.
After Hester gets the permission to still keep Pearl at her side, Mistress
Hibbins invites her to go to the forest to meet the Black Man together
with her. But Hester refuses and says, with a triumphant smile,” I must
tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her
from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed
my name in the Black Man’s book too, and that with mine own blood!”(P98)
It is Pearl that saves Hester from Satan’s snare.
Pearl also serves as moral in this novel, The moral she is meant to
teach is that Hester and Dimmesdale should fully commits their sin and
then take responsibility for their sin. The first thing Pearl see in her
infancy is the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom. As a baby, she even
reaches up and touches the letter, causing her mother intense agony at
the shame it generated in her. Later, she plays a game when she throws
flowers at her mother and jumps around in glee every time, she hits the
scarlet letter. She also makes her own letter “A” to wear. When she finds
Hester removes the scarlet letter from her chest in the forest, Pearl starts
screaming and convulsing and refuses to cross the stream until Hester reattaches
the letter. She is really a constant mental and physical reminder to Hester
of what she has done wrong. With Pearl at her side, Hester will never escape
the punishment of her wrong deed.
Moreover, Pearl is the person who eventually makes Dimmesdale admit his
crime. She constantly asks why the minister keeps putting his hand over
his heart, and figures out it is for the same reason that her mother wears
the scarlet letter. Her role as a living scarlet letter is to announce
to the whole world who the guilt parents are. After Dimmesdale manages
to keep the mother and daughter together in the governor’s hall, Pearl
responses amazingly. She takes his hand and places her cheek against it.
This simple gesture is full of meaning, because it implies that Pearl recognizes
Dimmesdale as being connected to her. Meanwhile, Pearl’s stand of urging
the minister to commit his sin is firm. When Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold
where Hester suffered her public humiliation several years before, he meets
Hester and Pearl, who have been at Governor Winthrop’s deathbed, taking
measurements for a robe, he invites them to join him on the stand. When
all three hold hands, Pearl asks Dimmesdale,” Wilt thou stand here with
mother and me, tomorrow noontide?”(P140) Dimmesdale answers,” Not so, my
child, I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day,
but not tomorrow.”(P141) Pearl laughs and attempts to pull away her hand
until the minister promises to take her hand and her mother’s hand at “the
great judgment day”. When they later meet in the forest, Hester says to
Pearl, “He loves thee, my little Pearl, and loves thy mother too. Wilt
thou love him?” Pearl says,”Doth he love us?” then asks, “wilt he go back
with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?” The answer is
“not now”. So when Dimmesdale impresses a kiss on her brow before they
leave the forest, “Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running to the
brook, stooped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss
was quite washed off…”(P194) At the end of the novel, when the minister
climbs up the scaffold with the help of Hester and Pearl, confessing his
sin to his followers, Pearl kisses his lips. She accepts her father finally.
Pearl’s role as the living scarlet letter is over, and Dimmesdale, who
finally takes responsibility for his sin, has learned the moral, which
she is meant to teach.
3. The Symbolic Meanings of the Objects that are Described in the Novel.
In The Scarlet Letter, most of the objects that are described have
many symbolic meanings.
The novel is filled with
light and darkness symbols because it represents the most common battle
of all time, good versus evil. When Hester and her daughter are walking
in the forest, Pearl exclaims:" Mother, the sunshine does not love you.
It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on you
bosom. Now see! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and
let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for
I wear nothing on my bosom yet.” (P168) Hester tries to stretch her hand
into the circle of light, but the sunshine vanishes. She then suggests
that they go into the forest and have rest. This short scene actually represents
Hester's daily struggle in life. The light represents what Hester wants
to be, which is pure. The movement of the light represents Hester's constant
denial of acceptance. Hester's lack of surprise and quick suggestion to
go into the forest, where is dark, shows that she never expected to be
admitted and is resigned to her station in life. Another way light and
darkness is used in symbolism is in the way Hester and Dimmesdale's plan
to escape is doomed. Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the shadows of the forest
with a gloomy sky and a threatening storm overhead when they discuss their
plans for the future. The gloomy weather and shadows exemplify the fact
that they can't get away from the repressive force of their sins. It is
later proven when Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold! Instead of leaving with
Hester and going to England. A final example occurs in the way Hester and
Dimmesdale can not acknowledge their love in front of others. When they
meet in the woods, they feel that," No golden light had ever been so precious
as the gloom of this dark forest.”(P199) This emotion foretells that they
will never last together openly because their sin has separated them too
much from normal life.
The opening chapter introduces several of the images and the themes
within the story to follow.” The founders 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, and another portion as the site of a
prison.”(P45) The prison represents several different symbols. Foremost
it is a symbol for the Puritanical severity of law. The description of
the prison indicates that it is old, rusted, yet strong with an “iron-clamped
oaken door.” This represents the rigorous enforcement of laws and the inability
to break free of them. The prison also serves as the symbol of the authority
of the regime, which will not tolerate deviance. Hawthorne directly challenges
this notion by throwing the name Ann Hutchinson into the opening pages.
Hutchinson was a religious woman who disagreed with the Puritanical teachings,
and as a result was imprisoned in Boston. Hawthorne claims that it is possible
the beautiful rosebush growing directly at the prison door sprang from
her footsteps. “But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the
threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its
delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile
beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as
the came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart if Nature could
pity and be kind to him.”(P46) This implies that the Puritanical authoritarianism
may be too rigid, to the point of obliterating things of beauty.
The rose bush is a symbol of passion. As will later become obvious,
Hester Prynne’s sin is one of passion, thus linking her crime to the image
of the rosebush. Hawthorne also indirectly compares Hester with Ann Hutchinson
via the rosebush, and again makes the same parallel in Chapter 13, Another
View of Hester. Hawthorne cleverly links the rosebush to the wilderness
surrounding Boston, commenting that the bush may be a remnant of the former
forest, which covered the area. This is important, because it is only in
the forest wilderness where the Puritans’ laws fail to have any force.
Thus the image of the rosebush serves to foreshadow that some of the passionate
wilderness, in the form of Hester Prynne, may have accidentally made its
way into Boston. The rosebush in full bloom indicates that Hester is at
the peak of her passion. This parallels the fact that Hester has just born
a child as a result of her passion. The child is thus comparable to the
blossoms on the rosebush. Hawthorn’s comment that the rose may serve as
a “moral blossom” in the story is therefore actually saying that Hester’s
child will serve to provide the moral of the story.
After Hester is released from prison, she finds a cottage in the woods,
near the outskirts of the city. Her choice of habitation is crucial to
the symbolism within the novel. The forest represents love, or the wilderness
where the strict morals of the Puritan community cannot apply. Thus, when
Hester makes her home on the outskirts of the city, directly on the edge
of the woods, she is putting herself in a place of limbo between the moral
and the immoral universes. This is important because it shows that Hester
does not live under the strict Puritanical moral code, but rather tries
to live in both worlds simultaneously. Hawthorne uses the forest to provide
a kind of shelter for members of society in need of a refuge from daily
Puritan life.
In the deep, dark portions of the forest, many of the pivotal characters
bring forth hidden thoughts and emotions. The forest track leads away from
the settlement out into the wilderness where all sign mandates of law and
religion, to a refuge where men, as well as women, can open up and be themselves.
It is here that Dimmesdale openly acknowledges Hester and his undying love
for her. It is also here that the two of them can openly engage in conversation
without being preoccupied with the constraints that Puritan society place
on them.
When Hester takes Pearl with her to the Governor’s Hall in order to
plea with Governor Bellingham to let her keep Pearl, whom the Governor
felt would be better raised in a more Christian household. Pearl looks
around in the mansion and sees the shiny metal of the Governor’s suit of
armor. She then calls her mother’s attention to the fact that the convex
shape of the armor grotesquely magnifies the scarlet letter, causing it
to appear gigantic. Hester feels that Pearl must be, “an imp who was seeking
to mold itself into Pearl’s shape”. (P97) It is the symbol of the Puritan
society’s ever - lasting punishment to Hester's sin.
Symbolism is a traditional artistic form; it also is a major feature
of Romanticism. As a famous writer of romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful
at the using of symbolism in his works. The various usage of symbolism
in The Scarlet Letter makes the novel a work of the world.
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姜岚， 1999 ，试论《红字》人物的象征与反衬，济宁师专学报第10期
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马丽珠， 1996 ，《红字》的浪漫主义特征，固原师专学报：社科版第2期
田俊武，1999，霍桑〈红字〉人名寓意研究，外国文学研究第1期
田祥斌， 1999 ，小说《红字》艺术手法刍议，湖北三峡学院学报第2期，
夏晓珍， 1996 ，《红字》中象征手法的运用，益阳师专学报第3期
known all around the world. Hawthorne uses the symbolism so skillful that
it enhances the artistic effects of his work greatly. This paper researches
the symbolism in this novel from the following aspects: the changing symbolic
meaning of the scarlet letter, the names of the major characters and many
objects that are described in the novel to make the symbolism clear to
the readers. [Keywords]: The Scarlet
Letter, symbolism
[摘要 ] ： 《红字》使美国作家霍桑誉满全球，作者在作品中采用的象征手法贯穿始终的、无处不在，加强了作品的艺术效果。本文从红字的多种象征意义、主要人物的人命寓意以及景物寓意等方面入手，研究《红字》中的象征手法。
[ 关键词 ] ：《红字》，象征
Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered to be the first greatest American
fiction writer in the moralistic tradition. His work The Scarlet Letter
that is notable for its allegory and symbolism is regarded as the first
symbolic novel in American literature. The novel revolves around one major
symbol: the scarlet letter. Besides, some other objects that are described
in the novel have their symbolic meanings. Moreover, the names of the four
major characters’: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth
and Pearl also have their symbolic meanings. The Scarlet Letter is a novel
of much symbolic.
1. Different meanings of the scarlet letter "A":
1.1 The Changes of the Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet Letter “A”.
In this novel, the scarlet letter "A" changes its meaning many different
times. This change is significant. It shows growth in the characters, and
the community in which they live. The letter "A" begins as a symbol of
sin. It then becomes a symbol of alone and alienation, and finally it becomes
a symbol of able, angel and admirable.
1.1.1 Adultery
The letter "A", worn on Hester's bosom, is a symbol of her adultery
against Roger Chillingworth. This is the puritan way of treating her as
a criminal, for the crime of adultery. The puritan treatment continues,
because as Hester walks through the streets, she will be looked down upon
as if she is some sort of demon from hell that commits a terrible crime.
This letter is meant to be worn in shame, and to make Hester feel unwanted.
"Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should
be the scene of her earthly punishment…(P74)" Hester is ashamed of her
sin, but she chooses not to show it. She commits this sin in the heat of
passion, and fully admits it because, though she is ashamed, she also receives
her greatest treasure, Pearl, out of it. She is a very strong woman to
be able to hold up so well against what she must face. Many will have fled
Boston, and seek a place where no one knows of her great sin. Hester chooses
to stay though, which shows a lot of strength and integrity. Any woman
with enough nerve to hold up against a town, which despises her very existence,
and to stay in a place where her daughter is referred to as a "devil child,"
either has some sort of psychological problem, or is a very tough woman.
1.1.2 Alone and Alienation
The scarlet letter "A" also stands for Hester's lonely life in New England.
After she is released, Hester lives in a cottage near the outskirts of
the city. " It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because
the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative
remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already
marked the habits of the emigrants.” (P75) Hester's social life is virtually
eliminated as a result of her shameful history. Hester comes to have a
part to perform in the world with her native energy of character and rare
capacity." However, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged
to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom
she came to contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished,
and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with
the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind.
She stood apart from moral interests… seemed to be the sole portion that
she retained in the universal heart."(P78) Hester has no friends in the
world, and little Pearl is the only companion of her lonely life, so the
scarlet letter “A” also is a symbol of the words “alone” and “alienate”.
1.1.3 Able, Admirable and Angel
Later, the scarlet letter “A” changes its meaning into being able,
angel and admirable. The townspeople who condemned her now believe the
scarlet letter to stand for her ability to her beautiful needlework and
for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick. “The letter was the
symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness is found in her so much power to
do and power to sympathize - that many people refuses to interpret the
scarlet letter ‘A’ by its original signification.”(P148) At this point,
a lot of the townspeople realize what a noble character Hester possesses.
“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge? It is our Hester – the
town’s own Hester – who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick,
so comforting to the afflicted!”(149) The townspeople soon begin to believe
that the badge served to ward off evil, and Hester grows to be quite admirable
amongst the people of the town. Hester overcomes the shame of her sin through
the purity and goodness of her soul. Unselfishly offering her time and
love to those who need her most proves that she is not worthy of the fate
which has been dealt to her.
The three changes in the scarlet letter are significant; they show the
progressive possession of her sin, her lonely life, and her ability. Hester
is a strong admirable woman who goes through more emotional torture that
most people go through in a lifetime.
.2.Biblical Archetype
The scarlet letter "A" also can be seen the symbol of Adam. It tells
us that Hester's sin is the original sin of human being, it is forgivable.
The writer shows his sympathy by describing the scarlet letter "A" on Hester's
clothing as an ornament and a decoration. Hester's making the scarlet letter
"A" into a thing of beauty offends many bystanders, who comment that, "
it were well if we stripped Madame Hester's rich gown off her dainty shoulders."(P51)
However, as a young woman observes, "not a stitch in that embroidered letter,
but she has felt it in her heart." (P51) The feeling of sympathy, only
expressed by one of the characters throughout this scene, is used by Hawthorne
to criticize the puritans for their strictness. The society is too strict
in its ways, and Hawthorne shows his contempt for the treatment of Hester
by constantly reinforcing how cruelly the people talk about her. Hawthorne
says at the end of Chapter One," Finding it (rosebush) so directly on the
threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious
portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and
present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some
sweat moral blossom, that may be found alone the track, or relieve the
darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow."(P46) This kind
of sympathy can be seen in the novel everywhere.
To Hester, the scarlet letter "A" also stands for her lover, Pearl's
father, Arthur Dimmesdale. Her fantastically embroidering the scarlet letter
"A", which means adultery, is somehow a way she shows her passion for Arthur.
Her refusing to tell the name of Pearl's father is a way to protect him.
Her choosing to remain in New England after she is released is because
it is the place where her lover stays. " There dwelt, there trod the feet
of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, before the bar
of final judgment, and make that their marriage-alter, for a joint futurity
of endless retribution."(P74) She wears the scarlet letter for seven years,
and misses her lover in this way. Only when she meets Arthur again in the
forest seven years later, deciding to flee to somewhere else, does she
throw the scarlet letter away. After Dimmesdale's death, Hester and Pearl
disappear for several years. Despite living with her daughter, Hester comes
back to live the rest of her life in her cottage again, and picks up the
scarlet letter for the third time. To Hester, there is a more real life
in New England than in that unknown region where Pearl has founded a home.
"Here had been her sin, here, her sorrow, and here was yet to be her penitence."
(P238)Moreover, here is where her lover lies. Hester eventually dies and
is buried in the King's Chapel Cemetery. " It was near that old and sunken
grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had
no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both."---
" ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER, GULES"(P240)
2. The Symbolic Meaning of the four Major Characters' Names:
2.1 Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne is one of the major characters in The Scarlet Letter.
The writer gives her much symbolic meaning by giving her this name. Hester
sounds like Hestier, Zeus' sister in Greek mythology, who is a very beautiful
goddess. This gives us a sense that Hester is a passionate beautiful woman.
In this novel, she is the symbol of the truth, the goodness and the beauty.
Nathaniel Hawthorne describes her in Chapter Two like this: "The young
woman was tall, a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale, she had
dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a
gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature
and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked
brow and deep black eyes…"(P50) For so many years, Hester refuses to speak
out the name of her partner in sin, but takes over all the punishment by
herself. Instead of running from the hostile colonists, Hester withstands
their insolence and pursues a normal life. She proves her worth with her
uncommon sewing skills and provides community service. Hester's own sin
gives her "sympathetic knowledge of the sin in other hearts." Even though
the people she tries to help "often reviled the hand that was stretched
forth to succor them," she continues her services because she actually
cares. At last, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as "
the cross on a nun's bosom", which is not small accomplishment.
Also, Hester is the homophone of the word haste. At first, she gets
married to Roger Prynne, an ugly man who gives his best years to feed the
hungry dream of knowledge. Not having got the news about her husband who
should have arrived by ship from England, she falls love with Arthur hastily
and gives birth to Pearl, for which she is condemned to wear on the breast
of her gown the scarlet letter "A", which stands for adultery. But Hester’s
adultery haste is nothing but a very natural thing to do. In the Holy Bible,
Adam and Eve, the very ancestors of human being, who live in the Garden
of Eden, eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden
tricked by the serpent. After that, they begin to know good and evil, and
also they begin to know sex. Adultery is nothing but the original sin of
human being. God’s punishment to them is just sending them forth from the
Garden of Eden. But in The Scarlet Letter, Hester is tortured physically
and mentally for her sin. Hester says to Dimmesdale in the forest later,
“What we did had a consecration of its own, we felt so!”(P179) In essence,
their sin is no worse than Adam and Eve ’ s. The punishment of puritan
society is somehow too hard on a woman who is led by human instinct.
2.2 Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale is a well-regarded young minister, whose initials
are AD, which also stands for adultery. The author obviously tells us Author
Dimmesdale is the partner in sin of Hester Prynne by giving him this name.
The word Dimmesdale also has many symbolic meanings. Dim means dark
and weak, and dale means valley, so the dimdale here is actually a symbol
of the "dim-interior" of the clergyman. He loves Hester deeply, and he
is the father of Pearl, but he can only show his passion for her in the
forest or in darkness. His 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 father's best interest for her to reveal
the father's name. Though he never actually says that he is not the other
partner, he implies it by talking of the father in third person. Such as,
"If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment
will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak
out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer"(P63). He concedes
his guilt for seven years, at the same time; he is tortured by his sin
for so many years. He punishes himself by believing that he can never be
redeemed. He feels that he will never been seen the same in the eyes of
God, and that no amount of penitence can ever return him to God's good
graces. He hates his hypocrisy to sin, but dares not tell the truth that
he is the fellow-sinner of Hester. When he finally decides to expose the
truth and tell his followers of how he deceives them, his fixation on his
sin has utterly corroded him to the point of death. The only good that
comes out of conceding his guilt is that he passes away without any secrets,
for he is already too far gone to be able to be saved.
At the end of the story, the writer put the morals which press upon
the readers from the poor minister's miserable experience into one sentence,"
Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst,
yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" (P236)
2.3 Roger Chillingworth
Roger Chillingworth, like all of Hawthorne’s main characters, is complex
and difficult to see through. The words “chilling” and “worth” compose
the surname Chillingworth. Chilling comes from the word “chilly”, which
means this man is a merciless avenger. He is calm in temperament, kindly,
but keep evil intentions. Being a man already in decay and misshapen from
his birth hour, he married Hester, a woman with youth and beauty, deluding
himself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity
in a young girl's fantasy. He married Hester not because he loved her but
because he wanted to light a household fire in his lonely and chilly heart.
He is a bookworm who spends his best time in libraries, and shows no love
to his young wife. It is he that has destroyed Hester's flower like youth,
and indirectly leads to Hester's tragedy. After he discovers that his wife
bore another man's child, Roger gives up his independence. He used to be
a scholar, who dedicates his best years "to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,"
but his new allegiance becomes finding and slowly punishing the man who
seduces his wife. He soon becomes obsessed with his new mission in life,
and when he targets Reverend Dimmesdale as the possible parent, he disguises
himself as one trust friend of the minister, attaching himself to him as
a parishioner. For seven years, he digs into the minister's heart with
keen pleasure. He searches the minister’s thoughts; he causes the poor
minister to die daily a living death. He searches into the minister's dim
interior for a long time, and turns over many precious a tread, and as
wary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man lies only half
asleep,--- or, if it may be, broad awake,--- with purpose to steal the
very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eyes,"(P119) When
he finally found the scarlet letter "A" on the bosom of the minister, he
busted out a ghastly rapture, When he does these, he is turning from a
victim to a sinner. Chillingworth is also means that the avenger's life
is worthless. When he finds his wife betrays him, he dedicates all his
time to seeking revenge. He gives up his identity, living with the minister
and being by his side all day, every day. His largest sacrifice is by far,
his own life. After spending so much time dwelling on his revenge, Chillingworth
forgets that he still has a change to lead a life of his own. So after
Dimmesdale reveals his secret to the world, " All his strength and energy----
all his vital and intellectual force--- seemed at once to desert him; in
so much that he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost vanied
from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun."(P236)
Chillingworth dies less that a year later because he has nothing left to
live for. The poor forlorn creature is more wretched than his victim is
--- the avenger had devoted himself.
2.4 Pearl
Pearl is one of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book,
the daughter of Hester Prynne. Pearl, throughout the story, develops into
a dynamic symbol - one that is always changing. Pearl was a source of many
different kinds of symbolism. From being a living scarlet letter, to a
valuable thing with high price, then to the moral in this novel. She was
a kind of burden, yet love for Hester.
The most significant symbolic meaning of Pearl in the novel is her association
with the scarlet letter “A”. When Hester stood fully revealed before the
crowd, it is her first impulse to clasp Pearl closely to her bosom; "not
so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby
conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress."(P50)
"In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would
but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm…”(p50 )
Hester embroidered the scarlet letter with gold thread fantastically, and
she had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full playing
contriving Pearl's garb. “and, indeed, of the child's whole appearance,
that it irresistibly reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne
was doomed to wear upon her bosom.”(P93) Pearl really was the scarlet
letter, the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed
with life.
Pearl is a girl of rich and luxuriant beauty. “There was fire in her
and throughout her, she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate
moment.”(P93) The Bible says," the kingdom of heaven is like merchant in
search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and
sold all that he had and bought it."(Matthew 13-14) Hester named the infant
"pearl", as being of great price,--- purchased with all she had,--- her
only treasure! if Pearl had never been born, Hester would have never been
found guilty of adultery, and thus never would have had to wear that burden
upon her chest. Without that burden, Hester would have led a much better
life than the one she had throughout the novel. Although Hester has so
much trouble with Pearl, she still feels that Pearl is her treasure. Pearl
is really the only thing that Hester has in her life. Once and a while,
Pearl will bring joy to Hester's life, and that helps her to keep on living.
If Pearl isn't in Hester's life, Hester will almost surely have committed
suicide. This can be proved in Chapter 8, The Elf-child and the Minister.
After Hester gets the permission to still keep Pearl at her side, Mistress
Hibbins invites her to go to the forest to meet the Black Man together
with her. But Hester refuses and says, with a triumphant smile,” I must
tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her
from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed
my name in the Black Man’s book too, and that with mine own blood!”(P98)
It is Pearl that saves Hester from Satan’s snare.
Pearl also serves as moral in this novel, The moral she is meant to
teach is that Hester and Dimmesdale should fully commits their sin and
then take responsibility for their sin. The first thing Pearl see in her
infancy is the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom. As a baby, she even
reaches up and touches the letter, causing her mother intense agony at
the shame it generated in her. Later, she plays a game when she throws
flowers at her mother and jumps around in glee every time, she hits the
scarlet letter. She also makes her own letter “A” to wear. When she finds
Hester removes the scarlet letter from her chest in the forest, Pearl starts
screaming and convulsing and refuses to cross the stream until Hester reattaches
the letter. She is really a constant mental and physical reminder to Hester
of what she has done wrong. With Pearl at her side, Hester will never escape
the punishment of her wrong deed.
Moreover, Pearl is the person who eventually makes Dimmesdale admit his
crime. She constantly asks why the minister keeps putting his hand over
his heart, and figures out it is for the same reason that her mother wears
the scarlet letter. Her role as a living scarlet letter is to announce
to the whole world who the guilt parents are. After Dimmesdale manages
to keep the mother and daughter together in the governor’s hall, Pearl
responses amazingly. She takes his hand and places her cheek against it.
This simple gesture is full of meaning, because it implies that Pearl recognizes
Dimmesdale as being connected to her. Meanwhile, Pearl’s stand of urging
the minister to commit his sin is firm. When Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold
where Hester suffered her public humiliation several years before, he meets
Hester and Pearl, who have been at Governor Winthrop’s deathbed, taking
measurements for a robe, he invites them to join him on the stand. When
all three hold hands, Pearl asks Dimmesdale,” Wilt thou stand here with
mother and me, tomorrow noontide?”(P140) Dimmesdale answers,” Not so, my
child, I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day,
but not tomorrow.”(P141) Pearl laughs and attempts to pull away her hand
until the minister promises to take her hand and her mother’s hand at “the
great judgment day”. When they later meet in the forest, Hester says to
Pearl, “He loves thee, my little Pearl, and loves thy mother too. Wilt
thou love him?” Pearl says,”Doth he love us?” then asks, “wilt he go back
with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?” The answer is
“not now”. So when Dimmesdale impresses a kiss on her brow before they
leave the forest, “Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running to the
brook, stooped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss
was quite washed off…”(P194) At the end of the novel, when the minister
climbs up the scaffold with the help of Hester and Pearl, confessing his
sin to his followers, Pearl kisses his lips. She accepts her father finally.
Pearl’s role as the living scarlet letter is over, and Dimmesdale, who
finally takes responsibility for his sin, has learned the moral, which
she is meant to teach.
3. The Symbolic Meanings of the Objects that are Described in the Novel.
In The Scarlet Letter, most of the objects that are described have
many symbolic meanings.
The novel is filled with
light and darkness symbols because it represents the most common battle
of all time, good versus evil. When Hester and her daughter are walking
in the forest, Pearl exclaims:" Mother, the sunshine does not love you.
It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on you
bosom. Now see! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and
let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for
I wear nothing on my bosom yet.” (P168) Hester tries to stretch her hand
into the circle of light, but the sunshine vanishes. She then suggests
that they go into the forest and have rest. This short scene actually represents
Hester's daily struggle in life. The light represents what Hester wants
to be, which is pure. The movement of the light represents Hester's constant
denial of acceptance. Hester's lack of surprise and quick suggestion to
go into the forest, where is dark, shows that she never expected to be
admitted and is resigned to her station in life. Another way light and
darkness is used in symbolism is in the way Hester and Dimmesdale's plan
to escape is doomed. Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the shadows of the forest
with a gloomy sky and a threatening storm overhead when they discuss their
plans for the future. The gloomy weather and shadows exemplify the fact
that they can't get away from the repressive force of their sins. It is
later proven when Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold! Instead of leaving with
Hester and going to England. A final example occurs in the way Hester and
Dimmesdale can not acknowledge their love in front of others. When they
meet in the woods, they feel that," No golden light had ever been so precious
as the gloom of this dark forest.”(P199) This emotion foretells that they
will never last together openly because their sin has separated them too
much from normal life.
The opening chapter introduces several of the images and the themes
within the story to follow.” The founders 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, and another portion as the site of a
prison.”(P45) The prison represents several different symbols. Foremost
it is a symbol for the Puritanical severity of law. The description of
the prison indicates that it is old, rusted, yet strong with an “iron-clamped
oaken door.” This represents the rigorous enforcement of laws and the inability
to break free of them. The prison also serves as the symbol of the authority
of the regime, which will not tolerate deviance. Hawthorne directly challenges
this notion by throwing the name Ann Hutchinson into the opening pages.
Hutchinson was a religious woman who disagreed with the Puritanical teachings,
and as a result was imprisoned in Boston. Hawthorne claims that it is possible
the beautiful rosebush growing directly at the prison door sprang from
her footsteps. “But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the
threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its
delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile
beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as
the came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart if Nature could
pity and be kind to him.”(P46) This implies that the Puritanical authoritarianism
may be too rigid, to the point of obliterating things of beauty.
The rose bush is a symbol of passion. As will later become obvious,
Hester Prynne’s sin is one of passion, thus linking her crime to the image
of the rosebush. Hawthorne also indirectly compares Hester with Ann Hutchinson
via the rosebush, and again makes the same parallel in Chapter 13, Another
View of Hester. Hawthorne cleverly links the rosebush to the wilderness
surrounding Boston, commenting that the bush may be a remnant of the former
forest, which covered the area. This is important, because it is only in
the forest wilderness where the Puritans’ laws fail to have any force.
Thus the image of the rosebush serves to foreshadow that some of the passionate
wilderness, in the form of Hester Prynne, may have accidentally made its
way into Boston. The rosebush in full bloom indicates that Hester is at
the peak of her passion. This parallels the fact that Hester has just born
a child as a result of her passion. The child is thus comparable to the
blossoms on the rosebush. Hawthorn’s comment that the rose may serve as
a “moral blossom” in the story is therefore actually saying that Hester’s
child will serve to provide the moral of the story.
After Hester is released from prison, she finds a cottage in the woods,
near the outskirts of the city. Her choice of habitation is crucial to
the symbolism within the novel. The forest represents love, or the wilderness
where the strict morals of the Puritan community cannot apply. Thus, when
Hester makes her home on the outskirts of the city, directly on the edge
of the woods, she is putting herself in a place of limbo between the moral
and the immoral universes. This is important because it shows that Hester
does not live under the strict Puritanical moral code, but rather tries
to live in both worlds simultaneously. Hawthorne uses the forest to provide
a kind of shelter for members of society in need of a refuge from daily
Puritan life.
In the deep, dark portions of the forest, many of the pivotal characters
bring forth hidden thoughts and emotions. The forest track leads away from
the settlement out into the wilderness where all sign mandates of law and
religion, to a refuge where men, as well as women, can open up and be themselves.
It is here that Dimmesdale openly acknowledges Hester and his undying love
for her. It is also here that the two of them can openly engage in conversation
without being preoccupied with the constraints that Puritan society place
on them.
When Hester takes Pearl with her to the Governor’s Hall in order to
plea with Governor Bellingham to let her keep Pearl, whom the Governor
felt would be better raised in a more Christian household. Pearl looks
around in the mansion and sees the shiny metal of the Governor’s suit of
armor. She then calls her mother’s attention to the fact that the convex
shape of the armor grotesquely magnifies the scarlet letter, causing it
to appear gigantic. Hester feels that Pearl must be, “an imp who was seeking
to mold itself into Pearl’s shape”. (P97) It is the symbol of the Puritan
society’s ever - lasting punishment to Hester's sin.
Symbolism is a traditional artistic form; it also is a major feature
of Romanticism. As a famous writer of romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful
at the using of symbolism in his works. The various usage of symbolism
in The Scarlet Letter makes the novel a work of the world.
Bibliography
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