The Analysis of Light and Dark Imagery
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, uses many qualities of symbolism which help develop the novel's main ideas. Darkness is the emblematic 'color'; of the Pyncheon's. Contrasted with its opposite, light, it forms one of the major symbols of the novel: the opposition of dark and light. Hawthorne uses dark imagery throughout his novel to express a sense of decay, but he also uses light imagery to inject hope.
Nathaniel Hawthorne in The House of the Seven Gables describes Phoebe as 'an illuminating speck of light transforming the darkness of the house like the light of dawn'; (92). This description of Phoebe, using light imagery, expresses that she is an innocent woman with an inner spirit to help break the Pyncheon's curse. Clark Giffith records in Hawthorne's Imagery: The 'Proper Light and Shadow'; in the Major Romances that 'Phoebe is rather too obviously a little ray of sunshine...'; (37). When Phoebe enters the house 'from the sunny daylight,'; and is almost blinded by the 'density of shadows'; lurking in the passages of the old house, the contrast between Phoebe's lighted presence against the dark gloomy house can be seen.
The old Pyncheon-elm, which stands over the house, is a symbol of resurrection from the darkness and decay. In Chapter nineteen, 'Alice's Posies,'; the Pyncheon elm is suddenly filled with the morning sun in fact, one branch of the elm has been 'transmutated to bright gold.'; The elm is particula...
In the passage from All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr conveys the bleak reality of growing up during the economic collapse in Essen, Germany during the 1930’s. The passage focuses on Werner and Jutta, two siblings living in a children’s home during this era. Doerr’s heavy use of imagery, especially his description of the miners, foreshadows an eventual loss of innocence for both children. Additionally, Doerr uses foil to emphasize the contrast between the perspectives of the children and miners and to highlight the deteriorating conditions in Essen.
In many cases, freewill is either present or non existent in children. During world war two, many children in Germany were deprived of their free will, and when the war was over, many German citizens were left scrambling to find freewill again. In All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, one of the main characters, Werner, struggles with finding his voice and his freewill within a Hitler youth training school. During his experience there, he stands by and watches as one of his only friends is bullied and in the end left as a shell of his existence. Werner struggles with what he should of done and if it really is beneficial to blend in with the rest of the boys at the school; while Werner may recognize his wrongdoings and the wrongdoings of others, he feels
One example of light happens when Hester walks out of the prison into the sunlight with baby Pearl. “She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day” (80; ch. 2). Another example of light appearing is when Hester takes off her scarlet letter, while in the forest with Dimmesdale. “All at once, as with a sudden smile of Heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest” (322; ch. 18). Taking off her scarlet letter provides Hester with a temporary relief, just as the sun shining through the forest is temporary. Furthermore, a third example of the motif of light occurs while Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl stand on the scaffold at night and see a great meteor. “So powerful was its radiance, that it thoroughly illuminated the dense medium of cloud betwixt the sky and earth.” (240; ch. 12). In addition to the motif of light contributing the development of themes, the motif of dark is present as well. One example of dark occurs when the narrator describes how Chillingworth has changed since coming to the town. “Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight, the oftener they looked upon him. According to the vulgar idea, the fire in his laboratory had been brought from
Feeling lost when one doesn’t even know them self or when one doesn’t know what to stand for or believe in anymore is exactly how Elie Wiesel felt in his book “Night”. During the time of the Holocaust, Elie was one of the victims taken into a concentration camp and forced to work to brutal extents. As a kid, Elie was determined to learn and study his religion, but that changed, along with his priorities. Devastating events changed Elie’s idea on religion, battling conflicts between himself and those around him, even the test that God seemed to implicate on Elie. To his own disbelief, Elie had given up on God and had lost his faith due to his immense struggle throughout the year he spent in the camp, carrying the burden that he does not care about the one he had always looked up too and been there for him, which is God.
Often in novels writers use symbolism as a device to make their themes and ideas come across clearly to the reader. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many forms of symbolism. People and objects are symbolic of events and thoughts of hawthorn throughout the course of the book. The Scarlet letter itself is a symbol he uses to contradict the puritanical society of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Pearl both as a symbol in the novel, and to work on the consciences of Hester and Dimmesdale.
Throughout the novel, 'The Scarlet Letter,'; Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the themes with various dramatic colors. Of the array are the colors green and gold, where green symbolizes different aspects of nature such as tranquility, security, and gloominess, whereas gold represents all that pertains to luxuriance, serenity and goodness. In certain chapters, it seems as if one color is codependent with the other.
According to Hawthorne, Alice had an uncanny resemblance to the flowers of the Pyncheon garden represented by her beauty and presence. Just as flowers hold a purity and freedom in their appearance, Alice was described as a "lady that was born and set apart from the world's vulgar mass by a certain gentle and cold stateliness" (178). Her strong appearance, as Hawthorne states, was "combined of beauty, high, unsullied purity, and the preservative force of womanhood" (180). Hawthorne shows that Alice represents the beauty of a flower as well as its scent when he says "the fragrance of her rich and delightful character still lingered . . . as a dried rosebud scents the drawer where it has withered and perished" (79). Even after her death, the "scent" of Alice's character still haunts the House of the Seven Gables with its beauty and tenderness like that of the flo...
There is a palpable existence of cultural and ideological disconnect woven throughout Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Such disengagements are generated by a distortion of our own perceived conventions of sex and gender through the perspective of the main character, Genly Ai. Le Guin employs Ai and his own assumptions of sociocultural and gender norms as a reference point for what occupies the established and biological conducts of Gethenian life, yet he finds their mindset difficult to navigate. These disassociations are supported in the conjectures of the following theorists: Judith Butler, Joseph Culler, Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, and Steven Seidman.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the author of Idylls of the King, uses motifs in his works to give a deeper understanding of his epic poem. One of his motifs in Idylls of the King is a light and dark binary. Light is seen as bright and beautiful with a new beginning. It also symbolizes the past staying in the past and having a fresh start. Night is when it is dark, and that is when all of the creatures and monsters come out, so to say. Darkness is full of pain, but Tennyson does not always portray it as so. The motif of light and dark takes on several different meanings. Tennyson uses dark with its true meaning, manages to put light into the darkness and use light with its true meaning, and he gives light the darkness that corrupts it.
Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
The House of the Seven Gables is often characterized as a horror story, because of the presence of the family curse. The mysterious family deaths, the misfortune and decline of the Pyncheon name are attributed to the dying man’s words. Even so, the disastrous streak is broken, by a few who were willing to face adversity with faith, love and joy. A few occurrences, such as Alice Pyncheon’s plague, cannot be explained as the result of her own avarice. However, while the author makes several hypothetical references to the supernatural, we are inclined to believe that the “curse” of the Pyncheons is not paranormal but a result of the wickedness of human nature that characterizes each and every man on earth.
Harry Mulisch, through his novel The Assault, conveys the Nazi Occupation in the Netherlands in 1945 giving full emphasis on the impact to people’s lives. Anton Steinwijk, the protagonist of the novel, experiences traumatic experience when the military assaulted and killed his whole family. His wish to leave what has happened to him in the past is influenced largely by his devastation and undesirable perception of the war from what he has experienced. Additionally, people around Anton also encourage him to expect a peaceful future, away from the war. Light and darkness symbolizes Anton's perception of the war and volcano ashes representing trails of his past, which influences how Anton reacts at times of trouble and when approached with information of the past.
Symbolism “acts as webbing between theme and story. Themes alone can sound preachy, and stories alone can sound shallow. Symbolism weaves the two together” (Hall). Symbolism uses the story to convey the theme. Darkness is used in the novel to show the secrecy and lies that the story has. The whole story involves secrecy among two women and a man. Without symbolism the story would just have a very dark house and two very mysterious and disturbed women. Instead there is a feel of secrecy right from the beginning. Symbolism gives the story excitement, while also providing the reader with a good read. The author can read the first few pages and determine the story is not a happy
III. Comparable aspects of Hawthorne's characterization in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables
In Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, there is a broad array of symbolism throughout the entire book. The purpose of using symbolism versus writing out the meaning making an extraordinarily boring and bland book is that it makes the reader have to think more and delve into the deeper meaning of things. Hawthorne also uses symbolism to convey a much deeper mental image of his words to the audience. He uses an vast array of colors, unique characters and grave sin to portray an deeper unconvoluted meaning to the audience; also, by using symbolism, Hawthorne manages to broaden the knowledge and imaginary context of The Scarlet Letter to allow people relate to the novel through the scarlet letter.