The Scarlet Letter

In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the theme of sin viewed through the prism of many colors is the essence of the novel. The protagonist, Hester, her child, Pearl, and the Reverend Dimmesdale all live in a Puritanical society in Boston, and are subject to the Puritans' strict religious beliefs and rigid attitudes. Exposed to sin and the temptation of its concealment in varying degrees, these characters evolve through the novel in different ways. Hawthorne brilliantly displays these differences by juxtaposing extreme and vivid colors--concealment is shown in dark, drab, and gloomy shades, while openness has a bright and colorful sheen. In this way, Hawthorne establishes a dichotomy between lack of color and color in order to show concealment as the greatest sin.

The Puritan world is the setting. In their isolated world, the Puritans share the belief that acts such as adultery are the greatest sins. The revolutionary writer, Hawthorne, penetrates this world to expose Puritan hypocrisy and, through Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl, shows that concealment is the greater sin. Through them, Hawthorne teaches the lesson that concealed guilt will gradually drain its bearer of all strength and power, whereas honesty will have an empowering effect.

The main characters, Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale display varying degrees of concealment. Dimmesdale is at one extreme; he is the embodiment of concealment. Pearl is at the other extreme, playfully innocent and transparent. Hester is partially exposed--although she reveals her sin for everyone to see through the scarlet letter and she allows the dark and serious mannerisms of Puritanical society to conceal her natural bright and joyous personality.

The first vivid contrast between colors is in the early prison scene. Hawthorne creates a bleak setting with "A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeplecrowned hats" and a dark prison with a "beetle-browed and gloomy front" which was further shadowed by "weather stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect" to the prison. From the darkness of this setting, a vividly contrasting images emerges of "a wild rose bush" that thrives with "delicate gems" and "fragile beauty". Hawthorne sets this colorful bush near "burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation" which he describes as the "black flowers". In this way, Hawthorne establishes the dichotomy between color and lack of color at the outset of the book, and relates it to the personalities of the main characters.

The astonishing survival of a sole colorful rose bush amidst the dark weeds symbolizes the potential for Hester and Pearl to survive the cruel puritanical punishments of the dark Puritans. Just as the rose bush radiates colorfully from its surroundings, Hester gleams in contrast to the large shadow of the Puritans that falls over the scaffold area. The Puritans are dressed in dark suits, "some wearing hoods" and others "bareheaded", and the hag-like women are gray and grungy with a "coarse fibre" and unembroidered attire. Hester shines through these shadowy images with her beautiful "figure of perfect elegance", her "glossy" hair which "threw off the sunshine with a gleam" and, most of all, with her "fantastically embroidered" scarlet letter which "illuminated" herself on the scaffold. Hawthorne is "enclosing her (Hester) in a sphere by herself" in order to contrast her exposed soul to those of the colorless and introverted Puritans, and to draw parallels between Hester and the rose bush.

Hester's complete admission and exposure of her sins make her the strongest character in The Scarlet Letter. She is alone in a new and tough society which scorns her; she faces the challenge of bringing up a rebellious child with little money, and manages to keep the identity of Pearl's father (her husband) a secret even when society tries to pry it out of her. She never breaks down in the novel as Dimmesdale does, despite her greater problems, because she is uplifted and revitalized by her transparency about her deeds and sins.

The parallels between Pearl and the rose bush are even more direct. Hester dresses Pearl in the same elaborate way that she wears her "A", in vibrant outfits of gold or red. When Hester takes Pearl to Governor Bellingham's mansion she is fitted in a "crimson-velvet" tunic. Her clothes are almost always ornate with "fantasies and flourishes of gold-thread". It is not only her clothes that are vividly colorful but she, herself, is described in colors and imagery that glorified the rose bush. In her soul there is "a fire in her and throughout her", and she has a "bright" complexion and her mother's "glossy brown" hair. Her cheeks are "of a fainter bloom" and she is described as "a jet of flame". She is constantly draped in bright red colors reminiscent of the rose bush at the beginning of the book. Hawthorne directly establishes this likeness between Pearl and the rose bush when Pearl denies that "Thy Heavenly Father sent thee (Pearl)" and instead exclaims "she had been

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