Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Symbolism enhances the meaning of even a simple painting. It is when a person looks at the images in the painting and tries to understand why the painter made those images while another person looks at it and just calls it “dumb” without even trying to understand it. The latter person completely loses faith in the painting and misses the actual point. When people first read The Scarlet Letter, they notice not only the characters, but also the objects, which may be non-living, but carry tons of meaning. They no longer view everything as random occurring objects in our daily lives or as a mere coincidence, but try to find the specific reasons of them occurring in the story. All sorts of questions rose in mind: Why did Hawthorne use the red light? Was Pearl more than just Hester’s daughter? For what intention was the meteor there there? All the Hawthorne fans out there might answer these questions in a different way and there is no right or wrong approach to this, it is just Hawthorne’s use of symbols to create an emblematic and extraordinary story for the booklover. The use of symbolism is amazing and all the Walnut Eagles reading this book would agree that everything in the book is because of a reason, whether small or large.

The Scarlet Letter ‘A’

The title ‘The Scarlet Letter’ evolves from a depiction of shame and sin to an embodiment of power and strength. Originally, the ‘A’ stands for ‘Adulterer’ but Hester’s passion gives it a new meaning, ‘Able.’ Hester becomes ‘able’ when she becomes a loving mother and establishes a personal as well as public identity of her own. Another example is that when Hester removed the letter ‘A’, Pearl didn’t even recognize her which shows that the ‘A’ had become a part of who she is. As time pas...

... middle of paper ...

...light shines for the first time on Hester when she takes the scarlet letter off of her chest facing the sins she made.

In conclusion, Hawthorne deliberately uses these symbols in his mesmerising and completely breath-taking story to better provide a vision of what can be accomplished in a complete novel. Without symbolism an entire level of reading is abolished. It affects the way people look at literature. Now they understand why Hawthorne is known to use symbolism in the best of ways and this is what makes The Scarlet Letter one of the greatest novels of all time. Hawthorne’s allegory is one of the very strong mediums to make an everlasting impact on the reader and indeed he has been successful in it! Many do not know much about other American writers but they certainly develop an interest in reading novels, and it is all because of Hawthorne’s outstanding work!