Scarlet Letter, And Young Goodman Brown

Hawthorne used common colors to evoke different feelings in his works. Mentioned throughout The Birthmark, The Scarlet Letter, and Young Goodman Brown was the color red. It was visible in the letter which Hester bore, the birthmark on Georgiana’s cheek, and the forest’s hellish fire that captured Goodman Brown. All provoked a negative feeling, one like that of sin. The scarlet letter was a visible image of the evil that Hester had committed, and for Georgiana the red represented her only impurity. Very literally in Young Goodman Brown, the use of red was involved with Satanism, and the fires from hell. Hawthorne also contrasted the harsh tint of red with the delicacy of pink. Georgiana’s complexion was a pale pink, radiant of her beauty, yet