'Symbolism In The Scarlet Letter'

In The Scarlet Letter, The scarlet letter at first was a symbol of her sin of adultery, but as time went on it became a symbol of her being able and being like an angel. The scarlet letter to the Puritan people was a symbol of disgrace and dishonor, until they saw the good works Herster was doing. Hester saw the letter as something that she had done, but the letter became part of her. The scarlet letter affected how Hester’s raised Pearl and who Pearl is as a person. The scarlet letter caused many changes in the lives of the people who saw it and to Hester, the one that wore it.

The people of the Puritan faith were the ones to give the scarlet letter its meaning, but Hester change their perspective of the letter. “She was self-ordained a Sister

Hester gave Pearl and herself a life of seclusion by living outside of the town. “Children have always a sympathy in the agitations of those connected with them; always, especially, a sense of any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind, in domestic circumstances; and therefore Pearl, who was the gem on her mother's unquiet bosom, betrayed, by the very dance of her spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble passiveness of Hester's brow.” (21.4) Pearl’s intelligent, perceptive, unorthodox attitude possibly was do to her never around other children. Hester in many occasions calls Pearl mythical begins because she had a supernatural aspect about her. Pearl becomes the scarlet letter in the flesh, by being the physical effect of Hester’s actions.

The scarlet letter changed meanings from having a negative connotation to a positive one when it changed how Hester acted, which changed how the people saw Hester and her letter. “It was none the less a fact, however, that, in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom.” (13.35) From being adultery to angel the scarlet letter impacted the lives of those in the Puritan community the novel The Scarlet