Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Symbols add so much to an authors work. To be able to play the game of figuring out those symbols is on reason most readers pick up certain author's writings. Hawthorne is one of those writers. In this book we are showered with wonderful symbols and clues to conjure into our interpretation of the story.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, life is centered around a rigid, Puritanistic-structured society in which one is unable to divulge his or her innermost thoughts and secrets. We get the honor of feeling those right along with the characters. Every human being needs the opportunity to express how they truly feel, or the emotion is bottled up until it becomes volatile. Beings our puzzle is placed in a puritanical setting the author gives us an inside ear to all of the "naughty" conversations and doings that we wouldn't see if we were in the era along with the characters. A secret hiding place, if you will, for them to divulge the enter most wrongdoings in the novel. Luckily, for the four main characters, and us Hawthorne gives us a forest much like something out of one of Poe's great gruesome poems. A dark and mysterious dwelling, and symbol, for the characters to fins sanctuary from the harshness of the society in which they live. From one of the scholarly articles we may point this point of the story out in Hawthorn's own life. It was said that Hawthorne had an out look on women that was much unlike the "norm" in his day… He was in love with a woman whom he respected and loved as an equal, much like Hester Prinn is loved in "The Scarlet Letter." "The article has retrieved a quote from Hawthorne which states, "I have always felt...

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...who gave himself fully to a married woman, and this brought about a jewel, a Pearl.

So yes, the other bits of symbolism that are most commonly talked about are somewhat obvious. The forest is one though that most can see but do not put much effort of thought into. It, to some, is simply another setting in the story. The forest is where it all began, the sin, the deceit, the lust, and the love, the child's beginning and the main characters endings all had direct relationships to the forest.

Bibliography:

1.Norko, Julie. "Hawthorn's Love Letters: The Threshold World of Sophie Peabody." ATQ (June 1993):127. 16 October 2000

2.Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Scarlet Letter." P. 187

3. McNamara, Anne M. The Character of Flame: The Function of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter." American Literature, Vol. 27(Mar. 1955-Jan.1956), 537-553.