Symbols In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains multiple symbols throughout the text as any worthy piece of literature would. Although, Hawthorne differentiates his writing from others by adding in symbols that have more than one connotation in the book. Specifically, he uses the letter “A”, the meteor, and Pearl as cyphers during this novel that each could represent different ideas to the reader at different points. Since he uses this writing method so often during the novel, Hawthorne clearly does this for a specific reason. Through these various readings of symbols, Hawthorne is trying to make a point that people can experience the same thing but understand it radically different based on their expectations, beliefs, background,
In the beginning, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter on her bosom as a sign of the sin she committed, which was adultery. Since the setting is in the Puritan era, adultery was considered an appalling deed and resulted in immense punishment. Hester’s husband had not come over to the New World with her and she had a newborn baby to take care of from the adultery, so the men who judged her case-Governor Bellingham, Reverend Wilson, and Reverend Dimmesdale-forced her to wear this letter on her breast to publically shame her and hopefully teach her a lesson. Moreover, Dimmesdale didn’t want her to die since he was indeed the man the sin was committed with. At first, society thought of Hester as an outcast and a loner so they treated her poorly. Children noticed something different about her so they spied on her, preachers delivered lectures as she walked by, and people wouldn’t ask her to perform needlework for weddings. Hester didn’t have much of a social life. On page 75, Hawthorne writes, “…giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman’s frailty and sinful passion. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast-at her…as the figure, the body, the reality of sin.” This displays that the community interpreted Hester’s infamous letter “A” at first as a very bad thing that no one would ever wish for. “A” basically stood for a horrific sin and women strived to not end up like