Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

Symbolism in “The Scarlet Letter”
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s “ The Scarlet Letter”, an abundance of significant symbols are used by the author to contribute to the overall meaning of the novel. The numerous symbols seen throughout the book convey a variety of images and help the reader to identify many of the important themes and lessons of the novel. These symbols range from Hawthorne’s characters themselves to the various settings of the novel as well as the book’s most evident symbol, the letter A and it’s various forms. There are also many less apparent symbols which are important such as the rosebush or the scaffold. As a whole, all of these symbols are effective in developing the presiding theme of the book.
When first looking at symbolism in   “The Scarlet Letter” it is easy for the reader to overlook the main characters themselves as important symbols.   However all of the major characters are vital symbols in the novel and work to portray different aspects of human nature and also shed new light on the concealed side of Puritan society. Hester, who is in many ways the novel’s main protagonists, also serves as a symbol. At the beginning of the novel, she is viewed by Puritan society as the obvious sinner and helps to show the long term of effects of punishment on a human’s personality. The embroidered A on her chest is put there to be a constant remainder of her sin, and to reduce her to a seemingly worthless woman who is constantly and subject or ridicule and scorn. However, over her seven years of punishment the inner struggle that she goes through alters her view of Puritan society and humanity as a whole. She knows she is an outcast and embraces her alienation from society. This isolation is seen at the very outset of the novel in these lines from chapter 2: “ It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne 41).   This separation leads to the transformation within...