Scarlet Letter-Symbols

One might say that symbols are the most important things in a story, and that they unlock the secrets of a novel. Hawthorne, in The Scarlet Letter, uses many symbols to represent different things. Some symbols represent the same thing. The letter "A" has many meanings, each character has their own meanings, and even the different parts of nature are symbols. Also, apart from providing structure for the novel, each scaffold scene conveys something different. One could say, arguably, that nearly everything in The Scarlet Letter is a symbol of something else.

In the novel, there are four different versions of the letter "A". The first is presented at the beginning of the book, where Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" upon her breast. The second occurrence is during the second scaffold scene, when the pastor Arthur Dimmesdale is on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, and a meteor causes a letter "A" to appear in the sky. The third version of the letter "A" appears when Pearl makes the letter "A" out of seaweed and puts it on her own breast. The fourth and final letter "A" is shown at the end of the book, on Dimmesdale's breast when he confesses. The letter "A", in all its forms, represents many things in the novel. At the beginning, the letter is supposed to represent Hester's guilt or shame for committing adultery, though Hester wears it proudly. Later on in the book, however, it represents something completely different. That same letter "A" on her breast represents her able or angelic nature, instead of her sin in the past. The second letter "A", seen in the sky, represents not only Dimmesdale's cowardice and shame, but the fact that the townspeople make up meanings for

occurrences to mean what the townspeople want them to mean. According to Nina Baym,

Rowe 2

"Dimmesdale knows that if his deed is discovered, he will be thrown out of what is, to him, Heaven..." (215). The third letter "A" represents Pearl's intelligence, for she sees then that Dimmesdale's hand upon his heart and Hester's letter on her heart are for the same reason. Also, it shows how Hester is still guilty, for she lies about what her own letter means. The last letter "A", on Dimmesdale's heart, is a symbol for the pastor's sin, and his repentance for that sin. When he reveals it, he is forgiven by God and ascends into heaven.

Hester is a symbol of nature, and its resistance to civilization, which is symbolized by the townspeople. She thinks with her heart, not her mind. Like the wild rosebush outside the prison, she decides to go her own way, and not be affected by what others thought of her. Also, she is a symbol for the Catholic faith. When she is on the scaffold, during the first scaffold scene, Hawthorne describes her as Divine Maternity (53), another name for the Virgin Mary, who the Catholics revere. Also, like the Catholics believe, she repents by working all her life to do good deeds, instead of the Puritan belief that repentance is spontaneous and forever. Another example of such is the fact that she embroidered her letter "A" to be decorative and fancy, which is a more Catholic idea. The Catholics decorate their churches, where Puritans feel that such decoration takes away from God.

Dimmesdale symbolizes a few things as well. He is a symbol of temptation, as shown by the original sin of Hester and Dimmesdale, and also later in the story when he asks Hester to run off with him. He tempts her, and she gives in to the temptation in both instances. He is a symbol of Puritanism, not only because he is the pastor, but also the way he repents. When he confesses and dies, he goes straight to heaven, because he repented once and for all. That is a representation of the Puritan belief, that one only needs to repent once, and all is forgiven. Also, one might say that Dimmesdale is the Black Man, from when Hester says that the letter is a mark from her

Rowe 3

encounter with the Black Man (170). While in the forest, Dimmesdale tries to take Hester away, and according to the townspeople, the Black Man meets people in the forest to take them to a meeting of witches. Therefore, one might say that Dimmesdale is both good and evil concomitantly.

Pearl seems to be a symbol of many different things. Like Hester, she is a symbol of nature. When asked who her father was, she announces "that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door." (103) In Chapter 16, Pearl is connected with the brook in the forest; they both come from a "spring of mystery" and both have gone through "scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom" (171). Pearl is also a positive symbol of Hester's sin. Without Hester's adultery, Pearl would not exist. She is one of the few good things, in fact possibly the only good thing, that came from the affair between Hester and Dimmesdale. Pearl also is like a beacon of faith for Hester. When Hester gave in to Dimmesdale's suggestion about running away, Pearl makes Hester come back to her path of salvation. As Robert Whelan said in "Hester Prynne's Little Pearl: Sacred and Profane Love", "...Pearl is intended by God 'to connect her parent forever with the race and descent of mortals, and to be finally a blessed soul in heaven." (491)

Nature itself is a symbol in The Scarlet Letter. The townspeople view nature as something evil (the forest is supposedly where meetings with the Black Man occur), but to Hester and Pearl it is seen as a place for the imagination to run free. As Leo Levy says, "...the wilderness is unredeemed, lawless, and pagan." (378). The forest in a sense is a symbol not only of mysterious happenings, but also a symbol for the mystery in Hester's own soul. "[The forest] hemmed [the path] in so narrowly, and stood so black and dense on either side, and disclosed such imperfect glimpses of the sky above, that, to Hester's mind, it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in

Rowe 4

which she had so long been wandering." (Hawthorne 168). The brook in the forest,

as stated earlier, is connected with Pearl, and symbolizes time, or youth and rebirth. Also, it symbolizes Hester's melancholy soul. Nature in the story is a symbol of fertility, as it is in many other places. The forest gave birth to the brook, as Hester gave birth to Pearl, and both instances are shrouded in sadness and