The Scarlet Letter Theme Symbols Essay, Research Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne chose the market topographic point and the wood as scenes used to symbolically develop his portrayal of society and the characters in The Scarlet Letter. In this novel a narrative unfolds of three people who are torn apart by wickedness, retaliation, and guilt. The market topographic point reveals to the reader a topographic point of restraint and terrible Puritan Torahs. The scene of the forest outputs

the feelings of wild unrestraint and passion.

The market topographic point paints a careful image of restraint and jurisprudence that seldom delves into the deepnesss of natural human emotion. As we study the edifices, we receive an every bit rigorous message. The churches works a vision of severe faith and conformance into the heads of eager readers. The intimacy of the edifices in propinquity to one another demonstrates the degree of attention and

involvement each member of the population is meant to take in the others. One of the most outstanding constructions in the market topographic point is the scaffold. It was in short, the platform of the pillory ; and above it rose the model of that instrument of subject, so fashioned as to restrict the human caput in its tight appreciation, and therefore keeping it up to public regard. The really ideal of shame was embodied and made manifest in this appliance of wood and Fe ( 56 ) . It was made clear that this construction was a symbol of penalty to the people, but it besides came to be a symbol of wickedness, guilt, decease, and release.

How did this construction take on so many significances throughout the book? The reply is that each clip there was an event happening at the scaffold, each of the chief characters was present. The topographic point that Hawthorne chose to unify the characters and hoard symbolic significance was the scaffold. In the 2nd chapter, entitled The Market-Place, the reader is foremost introduced to Hester Prynne as she serves her penalty on the scaffold with her kid, Pearl, in her weaponries. A careful study of this scene reveals her curate Dimmesdale above

the scaffold and her hubby, Chillingworth, in the crowd. From the really beginning, Hawthorne has brought these characters together in the baleful presence of the scaffold.

In chapter seven, entitled The Minister s Vigil, we find Dimmesdale standing atop the scaffold with his weaponries outstretched to his mundane lover and girl. Chillingworth besides emerges out of the darkness to name in the curate. In the concluding scaffold scene, we see the curate openly admit his wickedness, with Hester and Pearl by his side, and Chillingworth at the underside of the

scaffold, merely out of range of the curate as he urgently attempts to halt him. After the confession, this becomes the site of Dimmesdale s decease. The scaffold anthologized these significances throughout the class of the novel. The scaffold ser

degree Fahrenheits as a topographic point of update on the immediate, delayed, and drawn-out effects of the wickedness. It carries Hester s initial guilt, Chillingworth s initial response of daze to the wickedness, Dimmesdale s insanity after Hester has already come to footings with the wickedness, Chillingworth s retaliation affirmed in the dark, and the eventual decease of the curate from the load of the wickedness.

While the scene in the market topographic point places an accent on the sufferings of wickedness, penalty, and jurisprudence, the forest gives us a glance into the unchecked passion at the bosom of the love narrative. Amidst the trees, a roamer may take safety in a topographic point far removed from the jurisprudence that governs the of all time austere market topographic point. This wild safety equals into the psyche in a manner that one might uncover concealed desires and passions. Symbolically, the wood is passion, the bosom, darkness, and visible radiation.

The passionate wickedness commited between Hester and Dimmesdale was one of unrestraint, the same unrestraint that might be found in the wood where the bosom regulations over the caput. It is in the wood that the two merge after the adversities that they have suffered. Darkness is related to the Puritain belief that the Dark adult male dwelled among the trees. Light is found when the hotheaded

Pearl pursuits after sunshine along the forest way, Hester streches out her manus to catch a beam. but the sunshine vanishes. The light found in the wood, represents the pureness that Hester seeks. The motion of the light represents the denial of pureness that Hester has faced. Hester s deficiency of surprise and speedy retreat into the darkness shows that she ne’er expects to be admitted into

pureness. These truths can merely be revealed as one explores the scene of the bosom, the forest. It is the wood that brings to life the dogged small town, yet the small town that shows how barbarous the wood is by contrasting these scenes.

When discoursing symbols, we must agree that they have their topographic point in heightening the subjects. The wood is considered by the Puritan people to be a beginning of wickedness, while the small town is a reassuring topographic point of ethical motives. This book explores the wickedness and passion in life that stands toe to toe with the hardship of a spiritual society. Two people who are really religious find themselves

overtaken by a wickedness of the flesh. Faced with the penalty, one unfastened and one ego inflicted, their shame placed on show in the small town.

In shutting, the two scenes of pick in Hawthorne s novels give manner to lament development of the narratives and a horn of plenty of symbolism. The market topographic point restrains a individual, a vision planted in our heads with the usage of Hawthorn s most outstanding symbol and scene, the scaffold. The forest, another scene that clearly conveys an image, is used as a topographic point of abundant

unrestraint where the reader can larn about the bosom.