Scarlet Letter Symbols :: essays research papers

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many symbols to add means to his novel, The Scarlet Letter. This novel was written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel is class as a romance due to the events that happen through and through break the book. The book takes place in 1640s Boston. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many symbols to give the book stance and power over the reader. Two symbols that Hawthorne uses are the rose scrubbing, and Pearl. These two symbols help in the revelation of the story, from beginning to end.     Hester is kept in the prison house due to her vice of adultery that she has committed. As she walks herself from the prison doors to the scaffold, the readers become acquainted with the rose-bush . This rose bush is said to be kept alive with history. Hawthorne says how he plucks one of the rose-bush flowers and presents it to the reader. "It whitethorn serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that whitethorn be found along the tra ck, or relieve the darkening remainder tale of human frailty and sorrow." (p. 46) When Hawthorne shows the reader the rose bloom, he orchestrate out that beauty comes with a price, but also it is next to the prison door. The rose-bush symbolizes the pain and experience that come through Hesters sin.           One of the most nasty yet most important thing to Hester is Pearl. Pearl is also a very important symbol though the story. She is Hesters pride and joy that leads her through the day., but also her full time reminder of the sin she has committed.      "thusly it is good for this poor, sinful woman that she hath an infant      immortality, a being undecided of eternal joy or sorrow, confided to her care,-to at      ever moment, of her fall,-but yet to thatched roof her, as it were by the Creators sacred      pledge, that if she bring the child to h eaven, that child forget also bring the parent      thither"(p.105)Here Mr. Dimmesdale explains how Pearl, is the eternal joy and sorrow of Hesters life. Also how Pearl can come through her mothers soul, if Hester can save Pearls first. Hawthorne says at the end of the story that Pearl grew up and took her mothers sin into circumstance in her life, and grew up to have a happy family.