Rough Draft Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbolism plays a large role in shaping and driving the story, allowing for a deeper interpretation of the text. This novel is filled with symbols that introduce and reinforce the story’s central theme of sin, acceptance, and grace that result from conflicts of good versus evil. Beginning with the prison door in the first chapter, leading onto the rosebush, the scarlet letter itself, the wilderness and civilization, sunshine, and pearl, symbols practically tell the story!

The first symbol in the book foreshadows the events to come. This symbol is the prison door, which represents sin and darkness. The prison is “the black flower of civilized society” because it is dark and gloomy, but nevertheless, a necessity of a town (Hawthorne 36). All towns need someplace where criminals and sinners can await their sentence, and the prison serves that function. The prison door, in particular, is very symbolic. Just as a door is the beginning to a room, the chapter about the prison door is the beginning to the novel. The prison door is the entrance into darkness, sin and pain. It is described to have “never known a youthful era (36).” This means those who enter the prison are without innocence, because they have tainted themselves through their crime and sin. In this case, Hester Prynne is the criminal and sinner who awaits her sentence inside the dark prison.

Outside the prison door is a beautiful rosebush. The “wild rosebush…with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner… “is a sign of hope and grace that “nature could pity him [the prisoner] and be kind to him (36).” The placement of the rosebush outside of the prison is representing how even in sin, evil, and darkness, there is always grace, kindness, and hope.  The symbolism of the rosebush contrasts with the prison door. In such an unlikely place, such as a prison, a beautiful rosebush grows. This foreshadows the story to come by setting a theme of hope in darkness, forgiveness in sin, and kindness when all is thought to be evil.

The most prominent symbol in The Scarlet Letter is the scarlet letter itself. This particular symbol changes meaning throughout the story. Traditionally representing sin in the form of adultery, it becomes, instead, a symbol of grace and forgiveness. Hester Prynne is the reason for this drastic change in meaning of the scarlet letter. Hester is first branded with the scarlet letter after having a child with a man she was not married to. As punishment for her sin, she is dealt the scarlet letter, to wear upon her clothes as a token of her sin and a sign of her unfaithfulness. Hester embroiders the letter herself, and to everyone’s astonishment it is “so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell (Hawthorne 41)”. Hester right away embraces her punishment and helps to expel herself from society by making her token of shame so beautiful and magnificent. The beauty of her scarlet letter, though at first interpreted as “pride meant for punishment”, is really a symbol of grace (Hawthorne 41). The scarlet letter represents the sin that Hester committed, but because it is so fancy and beautifully made, it acts a representation of God’s grace for mankind’s sins, which is something beautiful despite an ugly sin.

Hester deal’s with her sin in a very interesting way. Instead of moving towns to escape the pain and public rejection of her sin, she stays in the town that convicted her of adultery. Every day Hester suffers judgment from the towns people, even the children “fling mud at them [Hester and Pearl] (69)”. As a true sign of Hester’s character, she suffers through all of the judgment and ridicule as a part of her punishment. Hester’s presence after she has been branded with the scarlet letter works to change the minds and perspectives of the townspeople. After seven years of living with the scarlet A, the townspeople get to know Hester based in her acts and not on her brand. On page one hundred six of the text, it is said that “such helpfulness was found in her, ---so much power to do, and power to sympathize, ---that many people refused to interpret the scarlet letter by its original signification. They said it meant  Able.”  Hester proves to the people of her town that a label does not define a person, but that a person defines the label. Hester has chosen to live her life as a good woman, despite her early downfall. This decision is what really changes the idea of the scarlet letter, and serves as an example for everyone else to practice grace and forgiveness, and to leave judgment up to God. Hester’s peers learn to accept her just as Hester had accepted the scarlet letter.

Another symbol that plays a large role in shaping the story is the wilderness. The wilderness or forest is mentioned many times in the novel. This symbol represents untamed, raw emotion and instincts, which are present in most all of the characters in The Scarlet Letter. The wilderness is the most difficult of symbols because it represents such contrasting ideas. It is both light and darkness, and good and evil. In all characters in the novel, there seems to be a constant internal struggle between being true to one’s emotions and living by society’s standards. This struggle is best shown through Hester’s public conviction of adultery and Dimmesdale’s hidden guilt over his sin, which tears him apart.

 Throughout the novel many characters are found to have wandered, briefly or more extensively, “into the forest”, both literally and figuratively. Mistress Hibbins can be found dancing in the forest in the night, Mr. Dimmesdale meets Hester in the forest, and Chillingsworth, who gets his herbal medicines from the forest. These character’s outings into the forest represent their surrender to natural emotions and instincts. They travel into the wilderness to be released from moral law and to embrace both the good and sinful desires that they all naturally feel. Once they return to civilization, they become bound again by the puritan society that requires them to be disciplined, conservative, and pure.

Civilization is representing rules and force, living by the law and serving punishment for breaking that law. In civilization everything that one does is on display for everyone to see and judge, whereas in the forest acts are more secretive and remain undiscovered. This symbolic “civilization” is the puritan expectation and custom of order and righteousness. Hester Prynne’s home is symbolically located in between civilization and the forest; cast out from the town, but not enveloped into the dark wilderness. This represents Hester’s moral being—straddling both worlds of light and of darkness as she “had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest (128).” Hester’s sin and public conviction of that sin, has cast her from the puritan society, but because she continues to live according to that society’s beliefs and rules instead of a sinful life, she is left in a cultural “limbo”, stuck in between those two different lives.

As light versus darkness, good versus evil, or right versus wrong, becomes a common theme throughout the novel, sunshine develops into an active symbol, giving the characters and novel itself, a deeper meaning. When Hester is released from prison the “door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine… as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast (55).” The sunshine is bringing Hester’s sin out into the open and illuminating it for all to see. In this part of the book, sunshine is symbolizing bringing dark into the light, so that one cannot hide their sin, but must live out in the open with it, regardless of the consequences. Sunshine continues to play an interesting role in defining Hester’s character, as well as her daughter Pearl. Hester’s character seems to cast the sunlight away, whereas Pearl seems to draw it in and absorb it. In this instance, sunshine represents purity, love, and freedom, which because of the scarlet letter, Hester is doomed to be without. Pearl on the other hand, is still pure and without great sin, so she can be free to enjoy the light. The role that sunshine plays throughout the novel comes to conclusion on page 130 of the text. Hester and Dimmesdale are together in the forest, and Hester takes her scarlet letter off and throws it. Hester feels free from her guilt and with Dimmesdale, “creates a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.” Hester is finally able to feel the warmth and brightness of sunshine, instead of always casting it away. She is freed from her guilt and shame that haunted her through the scarlet letter, and finally finds a deeper happiness.