What Does The Golden Chain Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

“Hawthorne himself became a figure of national allegory¨ (Deutsch). Nathaniel Hawthorne is the author of the novel ¨The Scarlet Letter¨ he used symbols throughout the text. Ironically as time goes on, he also becomes a symbol. The symbols that were mentioned in ¨The Scarlet Letter¨ were represented by Pearl, the golden chain, evil, and Arthur Dimmesdale. In ¨The Scarlet Letter¨ Pearl starts off symbolizing sin at first but as the book progresses she becomes more than that. During the first few chapters of this novel, the author introduces Pearl as the product of sin, causing most people right away to symbolize her as sin. This is important because the reader should know what Pearl symbolized at first and that it has the potential to change. It will describe why
Towards the end of the novel Pearl receives a golden chain from one of the people working on the ship that will take Hester, Dimmesdale and her to England. This information helps the reader know where in the book Hawthorn decided to include the golden chain. It also shows how the golden chain was used in the novel. In other previous works of literature the golden chain symbolized love and it also has the same meaning in ¨The Scarlet Letter”. (Manheim). Knowing what the golden chain symbolize gives a person reading the novel a better understanding as to why certain objects were chose. Through the research that was done, the golden chain is said to symbolize control during most recent times. Being able to understand this means that the golden chain is given a more modern meaning. (Manheim). Over time the golden chain has developed a new meaning. The golden chain was first symbolized as love because it was what was taught back then and not enough people decided to think deeper about it until recently when it was symbolized as