The Scarlet Letter: A Symbolic Narrative
After reading any sort of book or story, the reader may sit back and think about how the book was written. For example, one may look at the style, genre, and origins of the book. In this case, after reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I took a look back at how this great author created such a great work of literature that we still read some 160 years later. What I found was that this is simply a piece of well-written, mind enhancing symbolic fiction. It's interesting to take a good look at how Hawthorne uses symbols to get his messages across to the reader. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses symbols to better support his main ideas or other points of interest. Exploring this book inside and out there are many objects, characters, and figures, or colors that are used to signify abstract thoughts or concepts. For example the scarlet letter itself is a one of Hawthorne's brilliant symbols. That as well as, the meteor, pearl, and the rosebush next to the prison are parts of Hawthorne's emblematic writings. In this next piece of text, I will further describe these extremely intellectual symbols that Nathaniel Hawthorne used in The Scarlet Letter.
The first of these symbols is the scarlet letter itself. The scarlet letter is a different kind of symbol than the others because it is known to everyone that the scarlet letter is a symbol. It is the symbol of indignity and dishonor that the townspeople have brought upon Hester Prynne. Initially this elaborately decorated piece is meant to symbolize "adulterer." Soon, however, the meaning of the scarlet letter changes as does its significance and implication. In the beginning it is even tough for her to live with it. As told when she goes to visit Governor Bellingham and she sees herself in the armor, the letter takes up most of her image and this is basically a symbol of how she feels in life. Although this seems like the worst punishment possible for Hester, it actually isn't. What makes it so bad is that the letter does serve, as a physical punishment and reminder, like pearl, for her affair with Dimmesdale. At the same time though, compared to a child, the letter seems trivial, and helps to point out to Hester that the letter isn't of much importance.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her. After close analysis, it becomes evident of the amount of work that is put into each, but one must ask, why has the director adapted their own style of depicting the story? How has the story of Hester Prynne been modified? Regarding works, major differences and similarities between the characterization, visual imagery, symbolism, narration and plot, shows how free adaptation is the correct term used.
The Scarlet Letter is brimming with symbols which represent various aspects of Puritan society. In every chapter symbols are displayed through characters and the letter itself. The most dramatic of chapters using these techniques to provide the reader with vivid imagery of the events that took place. Hawthorne's ability to introduce these symbols and change them through the context of his novel is but one of the reasons that The Scarlet Letter is considered a classic masterpiece and a superior example of the romance novel.
200 Words of Teacher’s Praise and Comments Nathaniel Hawthorne uses several literary devices to give his novel The Scarlet Letter depth. One of these devices is symbolism. Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to convey certain points or themes to the reader by using ordinary objects. Three of the elements he uses as symbols are the settings of the Puritan town and the forest and weather.
Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter enables the reader to understand complex ideas more clearly. Beginning with the title of the book itself, Nathaniel Hawthorne weaves various symbols throughout the novel. The same symbol can mean different things to different people because symbols are subject to the interpretation of the reader. Nathaniel Hawthorne used symbolism to clarify the overall meaning of The Scarlet Letter.
Pearl from The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne represents the archetypal form of the loner. She is the daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale and represents the scarlet letter with her mom who was banished for committing adultery. Leonce from The Awakening by Kate Chopin represents the archetypal form of the ruler. He is the husband of Edna Pontellier and he views her more like property than an actual human being. Pearl and Leonce represent the archetypal form of the loner and the ruler in the different societies that they both live in, their relationship with other people, and how they change throughout the story.
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.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne has introduced a character that has been judged harshly. Because, she has been misinformed of her husband’s death; therefore, she was greave and had sought comfort resulting in a baby from the lover whom gave her comfort. When her secret had been discovered she was isolated for committing a treacherous crime of adultery, as one of her punishments she was forced to wear an A on her chest. The novel presents a structure of a society, using symbolism and diction to give underline meaning to the themes, portraying religious tendencies ruled by the philosophy of good and evil.
Symbolism is using a character or object to represent an idea. Hawthorne displayed much of it in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. He displays it in his characters and objects in the novel. He even symbolizes the book by calling it, “A tale of human frailty and sorrow.” Other displays of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, are like, the rosebush, the scaffold, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Symbolism can sometimes be hard to understand, or difficult to figure out what a character or object is symbolizing.
In the book, Chillingworth is a physician who had been captured by Native Americans sometime ago and subsequently released by them into Boston, Massachusetts, who was strictly a Puritan settlement at the time. In the years of his imprisonment by the Indians, he was taught many native herbs and plants of the New World, and their uses on the human body. Through this, he entered Boston as a physician, known to have "gathered herbs, and the blossoms of wild-flowers, and dug up roots, and plucked off twigs from the forest-trees, like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was valueless to common eyes." ( The Scarlet Letter , p. 120). Chillingworth had the knowledge of a particular drug, Atropine, which caused a sickness that closely resembled the condition of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth's motive for retribution to Dimmesdale for his adultery was very clear throughout the book, "There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine." (p. 80). Chillingworth's vengeful nature consumed his life and his only goal in life became the torment of Hester's adulterous husband, Dimmesdale. He was already showing signs of sickness, assumed by the reader to be attributed to his guilty conscience, and these were only amplified by the poisoning Chillingworth had inflicted upon him.
"She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace which is now recognized as its indication. And never had Hester Prynne appeared more ladylike, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison. Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped" - this is almost the first description of the main heroine that the reader gets. Hester Prynne is not dispirited by the grave crime that she is claimed with. She is going her way to the scaffold with a high lifted head and confident look. But why? Didn’t she committed an adulterous act, that came to light to all the society she had lived in? Didn’t she give birth to illegitimate child? Didn’t she have to wear on her breast the immutable sign of her disgrace – scarlet letter A? She did, but she still had a reason to be proud and graceful. Hester was in the middle of her journey to self discovery.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
Symbolism plays a very important part in Scarlet Letter because it helps to identify characters and the main ideas of the story. It can help a reader to visualize and understand the meaning of the story better when there are symbols to help explain the meaning of something. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale as symbols all throughout the book. They are the main characters of the story and they all overcome some difficulties in the end. They all have important roles in the book.
“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used by the author to represent abstract ideas or concepts.” Symbolism in literature is the depth and hidden meaning in any piece of work. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a powerful and evocative novel laced with symbolism. The most obvious is the symbol of the scarlet letter itself, representing Hester’s sin of adultery. Hawthorne’s other symbols are less obvious and are very often obscured in the novel.
Hawthorne's use of symbols clearly enhances The Scarlet Letter. From the setting to the characters themselves, the novel is filled with symbols that work together to provide a deeper, allegorical meaning. The symbolism contained in Hawthorne's works provokes much thought in the reader, through which the reader can enjoy the story much more. For this reason, The Scarlet Letter can accurately be described as a "symbolic masterpiece."
Throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter there are many symbols. One of the biggest symbols of the novel is the scarlet letter A that Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear after she commits adultery. It is a symbol that is sewn onto her clothes for everyone to see. It is a punishment that is meant to humiliate her for the duration of the time that she stays in Puritanical Boston. During the novel, the scarlet letter changes and evolves from meaning adultery to meaning ability and even physically changes its form.