Light and Darkness in The Scarlet Letter

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Light and Darkness in The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is one of the most

analyzed and most discussed literary works in American literature and for

good reason. Hawthorne's ambiguity and his intense use of symbols have

made this work incredibly complex and incredibly bothersome. In The

Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many symbols to give insight into

characters and promote his views on society. The scaffold scenes in The

Scarlet Letter tell the reader exactly what is to come, and the presence of

light in those scenes gives the reader insight into the characters.

The scaffold scenes establish a pattern of what is to come in the

novel through a common tie prevalent in the three different scaffold scenes.

The tie is that of creation and release. In the first scaffold scene,

Hester releases not only her guilt about her crime, but, she also releases

Pearl to the society and creates in Pearl the need for strength and

determination that she will need to overcome the legacy of her creation. In

this scene she also creates the need in Dimmesdale to absolve himself of

his guilt. The second scaffold scene is the opportunity for Dimmesdale to

attempt to release his guilt from the first scaffold. However, Pearl

creates a need in Dimmesdale to repent in front of the town. During the

third scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is able to release his guilt about his

crime and his lack of strength. He is also able to complete his obligation

to accept the hands of Pearl and Hester on the platform from the second

scaffold scene. Through his confession, he creates a sense of reality for

the entire town. It can be clearly seen that what is created in the first

scaffold is released in the second scaffold; while, the things created in

the second scaffold are finally released in the third and final scaffold.

There is another complexity to the scaffold scenes in the presence,

or lack there of, of lighting. The first scaffold scene is in the sunlight.

The sunlight in this novel is a symbol of disguise. In the sunlight of

the first scaffold, Hester is shown as strong and determined. She gives

the appearance that the letter does not bother her.

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