Preview

Moving Towards the Light: the Sun's Symbolism in the Scarlet Letter

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
685 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Moving Towards the Light: the Sun's Symbolism in the Scarlet Letter
Every day it comes up in the morning and sets in the evening. If it is present, it is a beautiful day; if it is hidden, then it is a gloomy day. In Nathaniel Hawthorn's book, The Scarlet Letter, the author uses the presence and absence of sunlight to represent the exposure and concealment of sin respectively.
"it seemed to be her [Hester Prynne's] first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token [The Scarlet letter]… wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm" (50)
This shows that Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester's sin. Therefore, if sunlight conceals the sin, then Pearl should always be in the sun. "Pearl set forth at a great pace, and as Hester smiled to perceive, did actually catch the sunshine," (180) is but one of the examples of Pearl playing in the sun. Pearl is in the sun, because her very existence is due to a sin and there is no way to deny or conceal that. On the other hand, Hester has the Scarlet letter. Is that not a constant reminder of her sin? Hester Prynne does have the letter to always remind her of her sin, but she overcomes its punishment to a degree through her good works. "many people refused to interpret by its original signification. They said that it meant able."(158) It is true that she still wears the letter, and it still burns her on many an occasion, but she manages to overcome its burden and thus be come socially acceptable again. The sun, however does not accept her moving away from the sin. For example, after Pearl catches the sunshine in chapter sixteen, when Hester Prynne tries to do the same, "the sunshine vanished." (180)
During most of the novel the sun does not shine on Hester Prynne, but there are two times it does, and both of them are when her sin is exposed. The first is on the scaffold when the entire town sees her

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    She notices that Hester is not wearing her scarlet letter. Hester realizes that Pearl is not about to come. She has to put back on her scarlet letter before Pearl even thinks about walking over. Hester knows she has to wear the scarlet letter at least until they can leave.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book, Hester Prynne had a gentle attitude. When she had to stand on the scaffold and have insults hurled at her, she did not yell back at the crowd. Standing proudly, she held her baby, the “the burden of her sin”. Hester moved into a cottage away from…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the story Hester comes back to wear the Scarlet Letter because she didn't get forgiven. In the text, it says “But her hesitation was only for an instant,though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast.” With hesitation, shows she didn't get forgiven. Also in the text it says “And Hester Prynne had returned,and taken up her long forsaken shame!” Hester felt alone without Dimmesdale so they still weren't forgiven.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester Prynne wears a scarlet letter A on her chest as a symbol to represent that she has committed adultery. In the beginning, the letter is a means of reminding the town of Prynne’s sin, and therefore, negatively affects how society views her. Adorning the letter A is something that Prynne, originally, is meant to be ashamed of. The beautifully embroidered A’s intent is to humiliate her and enable her sin to haunt her for the rest of her life, “‘Ah, but,’ interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, ‘let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart’” (63). However, after years pass and Prynne continues to wear her letter, it starts represent new meanings other than adulterer.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hester Prynne, in the eyes of the Puritans violated her religion's principle: turning to sex for lust. By doing so, she defies “Puritanic code of law” (Hawthorne 50); therefore, as a punishment, she must wear an embroiled scarlet letter "A" on her bosom to mark her sin. However, Hawthorne contrasts the Puritan beliefs by using Romantic philosophy. Hester is portrayed as a young and beautiful woman who committed adultery but eventually earns the respect of most villagers. Not only Hester, but also the supposedly shameful scarlet letter- from “Adultery” to “Able”- is described as a majestic symbol when Hester wears it. A sinner is usually being viewed as a loathsome and ill-favored figure in society; however, Nathaniel Hawthorne contrasted the belief of Puritanism by showing how a sinner can earn back a place in society. Pearl, the child of sin is supposed to be ugly, evil, and shameful, but Hawthorne depicts her as a young, free-spirited child. Pearl's gentler action “here [the forest] than in the grassy-margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother’s cottage” (Hawthorne 194) shows Romanticism; Puritanism believes everything in the forest is wicked. In the “evil” forest, Hester is able to relax and escape her troublesome life. Hester and Pearl, even though both were Puritans, represent Romanticism through their actions and…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In chapter two of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne as she stands on a pedestal in front of her community and gets publicly condemned for her adultery. Hawthorne shows the irony in the situation through the symbol of Pearl being just as sinful as the letter A embroidered on Hester’s clothing. He also irony irony in describing the A and how it is so similar to how Hester herself is portrayed. Lastly, Hawthorne describes Hester’s physical beauty and the irony of how the town doesn’t see her as someone who wasn’t a Puritan would be.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Hester returns to Boston, she is still wearing the letter. People don’t believe their eyes. This is because Hester is not accompanied by Pearl. Pearl directly represents that letter and the end of the novel proves it. It has grown with Pearl and changed her too. As Wagenkenecht quotes John A. Andola in Characters in The Scarlet Letter, “‘Without her mother’s sin Pearl could not exist, nor could she exist without her mother’s love, both of which are symbolized in the scarlet A and in Pearl herself.’” (69) The ultimate symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is that Pearl is the scarlet A.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    <br>After Hester commits her sin, her beauty almost immediately vanishes into darkness. Her hair no longer hangs freely about her face, instead she ties it up in a bonnet. Hester is not perceived as an evil person, but her sin makes her "light" hide away. The sun is used as a descriptor of the goodness or pure nature of character. Because of her sin and the scarlet letter, Hester is no longer pure, therefore she is not seen in the sun. Hawthorne states, "It was only the darkened house that could contain her. When sunshine came again, she was not there." While on a walk to the forest, Pearl, Hester's daughter states, "...the sunshine does not love you. it runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom." This is evidence that the scarlet letter itself may be the cause of Hester's darkness.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    passed judgment on Hester and her sin is laid bare to the reader's opened eye.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the beginning of the novel, Hester’s community, specifically the goodwives, discuss how they are angry with Hester’s punishment because they think it is not severe enough. One of the goodwives says, “I’ll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!” (46) This quote shows the community’s resentment of Hester near the beginning of the novel. However, later in the book, it is revealed that as the years have gone by, Hester gained much respect and love through the community because of her hard work and her charity services. Her symbol, the scarlet letter, has also changed in meaning over time. Now, it is not a symbol of sin and isolation, but instead a symbol of Hester’s strength and kindness. Hawthorne says, “Such helpfulness was found in her,--so much power to do, and power to sympathize,--that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They say that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a…

    • 1271 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynn was accused and found guilty of adultery after the birth of her child, while her husband was away. Because of this she was condemned to wear a scarlet and gold letter on her chest. Due to this letter,…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hester Prynne Change

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Contrast this with her appearance after seven years of punishment for her sin. Her beautiful hair is hidden under her cap; her beauty and warmth are gone, buried under the burden of the elaborate scarlet letter on her bosom. When she removes the letter and takes off her cap in Chapter 13, she once again becomes the radiant beauty of seven years earlier. Symbolically, when Hester removes the letter and takes off the cap, she is, in effect, removing the harsh, stark, unbending Puritan social and moral structure. Hester is only to have a brief respite, however, because Pearl angrily demands she resume wearing the scarlet "A". With the scarlet letter and her hair back in place, "her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her." While her punishment changes her physical appearance, it has a far more profound effect on her…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pearl, being the very intelligent child that she is can recognize that something is distinctly different from how sunlight behaves when she plays in it, and when her mother makes it scatter, even though she might not fully understand why. Only when Hester truly realizes the meaninglessness of the “A” and forgives herself and the townspeople their wrongs can she ever feel the warmth of the sunlight, and of God’s love and approval all around her once…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The absence of light in her life had come from being labeled an adulteress by the Puritan community, a sin that ostracises her and her daughter. Pearl is able to recognize that Hester is often physically shadowed, while she herself is able to have the sunshine on her. Pearl and Hester are playing in the forest, and as Pearl tries to catch the sunlight, she tells her mom, " The sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom" ( Hawthorne 162). The letter A attached to Hester's dress causes her to remain in darkness. The physical manifestation of sin repels sunlight around her while Hester understands that she has no light of her own. In the forest, Hester notices Pearl is playing in the light and feels " estranged from pearl; as if the child, in her lonely ramble through the forest, had strayed out of the sphere in which she and her mother dwelt together, and was now vainly seeking to return to it" (184). Pearl's attraction to sunlight contracts her mother's absence of it. Despite being born from sin, Pearl is determined to live in the purity of light. Hester does not reach out for the sunlight because she is tainted by the blackness of her…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hester Prynne has to spend each day and each minute with Pearl. When she looks at Pearl she has to have a constant reminder she committed adultery. In chapter six it says, “Pearl was born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin…” That’s evidence stating Pearl was even born because of sin, she was the consequence of sin. Pearl is even believed to be a demon child. When her mother tries to teach her about her God, Pearl says “I don’t have a heavenly father!” Pearl scares away all the children when they’re giving her and her mother evil looks. She doesn’t behave proper for a little girl either. She is so disrespectful to her mother. Like in chapter nineteen when Pearl wouldn’t listen to her mother to cross the brook, instead she has a big temper tantrum. Pearl would always ask her mother questions that seemed to mature for her. Like why she had the scarlet letter? All these demon-like attitudes she would do creates in our mind she is a sin. It must make Hester guilty of her committing adultery and having Pearl. When Pearl is first born she symbolizes the sin of Hester then when she gets older she symbolizes a ruined life Hester will live. Hawthorne makes the reader believe that Pearl was only made to be a reminder of sin, and torment Hester for the rest of her life. Since the scarlet letter is Hester’s sin, and the consequence of the scarlet letter was Pearl, Pearl is…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays