Allusion And Symbolism In Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1800s, but the book is placed in the Puritan times of the 1600s. Hawthorne is an anti-transcendentalist, which means he thinks society is good and nature is evil and humans are naturally evil. Puritanism is a very strict religion in the 1600s. If you are a Puritan you are against all earthly pleasure and your life is hell on Earth. Hawthorne uses multiple symbols in The Scarlet Letter, symbolism is a literary device that uses symbols to represent ideas. In this novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolic significance of the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth to contribute to the theme of guilt.

Often times, we interpret a novel at its face value, only reading the text on the page instead of really delving into the true meaning behind that text. Since that meaning is not explicitly stated, different readers can develop different interpretations of the same text. This idea of repeated hidden meanings throughout a novel is classified as a motif, and most of the time motifs are used in order to subtly convey ideas to the reader through seemingly plain text. In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses motifs and symbols to convey subtle ideas, one example being his harsh criticism of Puritan culture. One of the most prominent motifs in his novel is the Black Man, an imaginary being who Hawthorne equates to the devil. Hawthorne employs

Hawthorne uses the motif of the scarlet letter as a symbol of the Puritan ideas of shame which Hester is throwing away. The brook near which Hester throws the letter has a symbolic nature as well. Its association with sadness reminds the reader of the sadness which Hester has gone through since she began wearing the letter. Here, Hester decides that she must throw away the scarlet letter in order to rid herself of the negative influential power which it holds over her. This shows that the negative influence of the scarlet letter and Puritan ideas about morality in general change Hester for the worse, and only the metaphorical removal of the letter can reverse that

However, as you dig deeper, you will see Hawthorne’s true purpose for writing the novel. In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses irony to criticize the Puritan ideals. Hester’s Scarlet “A” is used to show how imperfect the Puritans are. The narrator describes Hester’s scarlet letter when he says: “On the breast of her gown,

The Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, contains the motif of a red letter “A” that brings the story to life. The scarlet letter is an embroidered symbol which incorporates power in the novel. The scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom evolved and developed from something negative to something positive; from Hester, the villagers, Pearl, and Hawthorne, the views of the scarlet letter changed drastically. The letter “A” was intended to punish Hester Prynne, but instead, Hester made the punishment both beautiful and elaborate.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is one of the most famous and influential novels written in American literature. The story takes place in the seventeenth century in the Puritan settlement of Boston where a young woman named Hester Prynne is punished after having a daughter with a man who was not her husband. Though, instead of hanging Hester they spare her life because of her beauty. She is then shunned and forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for adultery) on her breast for the rest of her life, while, the “unknown” man who Hester had an affair with moves on with a guilt-filled life. The novel is a classic romance with it’s countless symbols tossed throughout the book.

Hawthorne says, “She has wandered, without rule or guidance, onto a moral wilderness. Her intellect and heart had their name, as it were in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods,” Here, Hawthorne wants the audience to recognize Hester as a free spirit, one who can not be tamed. Hawthorne contrasts Hester (and other young women) with older Puritan women, “Morally, as well as materially, there was a fibre in those wives and maidens...representative of the sex.” This quote shows the elders as symbols for conformity; this specific quote also doubles as a paradox is the sense that the women of the society are the ones who must conform, yet they are the most critical of individuality. Hawthorne continues to portray Hester as a normal person who is unique, “But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman…the scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.

The Puritan belief and lifestyle plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. The story takes place in Puritan New England, and opens with a scene presenting to the audience that a young woman named Hester Prynne has committed adultery. Wearing her punishment proudly, a scarlet letter “A” on her breast, Hester continues to live in New England where she raises her daughter and creates an embroidering business for herself. All the while, in the heart of the town, Hester’s lover and the child’s father, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale silently suffers and is ultimately overcome with guilt from his secret sin until the point of death.

Imagine living in a place where one small sin could define who you are for the rest of your life. That is what happened in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The novel is set in a seventeenth-century Puritan community in Boston, Massachusetts. A young woman by the name of Hester Prynne commits a small act of adultery and is shamed for the rest of her life, by wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The book is centered around the theme of justice and judgement.

There are various examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, but one of them wraps the whole story together: the meaning of the scarlet letter A. In this passage, Hester Prynne wears an embroidered letter A on her bosom as punishment. At first the A stood for “adulterer”, but the townspeople later gained respect for her and said “Such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do and to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original significance. They said it meant ‘Able’” (Hawthorne 107).

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne defies the Puritan society’s harsh laws by committing adultery and later redeems herself by becoming a helpful member of Puritan society. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthorne uses symbolism to help demonstrate guilt throughout the book. One of the biggest symbols in the story was the scarlet letter “A” in which Hester was sentenced to wear after she committed

This scarlet letter is his mark” (Hawthorne 168). Hester is explaining how she has seen the Black Man and/or the Devil for her mistakes; she knows what she has gotten herself into. She understands that she has to take responsibility for her actions and that sinning was also partially her fault. Even though Reverend Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are putting all the weight on her shoulders, she still continues to stand tall walking through the town and talking to other people. Hawthorne said at the beginning of the book that, “Man had marked this women’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such a potent a disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her save it were sinful like herself” (Hawthorne 81).

Introduction In the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, Hester is constantly reminded of her sin and put down for it. The Puritans look down upon her because she has committed a sin. Thesis: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” can be seen as criticism of the beliefs of puritans and how symbolism is used to show Hester’s sin and how she is defined. Body Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence: When the Puritans had found out that Hester had conceived a child with another man, the Puritans saw this as a sin that deserved punishment.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a famous American author from the antebellum period, notices the emphasis on individual freedoms in the works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalists during his residency in the Brook Farm’s community. In response to these ideas, Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter, a historical novel about Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale’s lives as they go through ignominy, penance, and deprecation from their Puritan community to express their strong love for each other. Their love, even though it is true, is not considered as holy nor pure because of Hester past marriage to Roger Chillingworth, and thus Hester gained the Scarlet Letter for being an adulterer. Hawthorne utilizes biblical allusions, such as the stories of