Symbolism is a type of literary device that allows complex ideas to be explored and conveyed in a clear way for readers. As a result, it can have an impactful influence on the themes of a story. One author that utilizes this to enhance the themes of their novel is Nathaniel Hawthorne in his novel The Scarlet Letter. Through numerous encounters with symbolic objects, Hawthorne establishes a contrast between Puritan ideology and reality. While Puritan society often used symbols as a way to show God’s approval in their society, the symbol’s interpretation by the main characters and the knowledge of the readers provides a different perspective. The result is a better understanding of previous events and characters in the novel through repeated interpretations by the characters.
The dissonance created through the symbols is used by the author to improve a critique of the Puritans. Hawthorne is a descendant of the Puritans of Massachusetts with his grandfathers being a judge of the Salem Witch Trials. He was mortified yet fascinated with his family’s history and The Scarlet Letter is his attempt to explain his thoughts about the Puritans. In one of the book’s earliest scenes, he reveals his opinion of Puritans society when Hester is publicly humiliated. Even though the people are gathered as if they are witnessing the death of a notorious criminal, the strictness of early Puritans makes is so even minor offenses are treated “with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself” (52). To enhance his critique, the author introduces the scarlet letter which represents Hester’s sins and serves as a constant reminder for the rest of her life.
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An immediate effect of the brooch is that brands Hester as an adulterer and prolongs her humiliation. Because the letter is easily recognizable, it ostracizes Hester and allows the Puritans to identify her and treat her harshly. For example, as Hester and Pearl walked to Governor Bellingham’s mansion in chapter seven, the children call Hester “the woman of the scarlet letter” before throwing mud at them (105). Alongside that, parents taught their children to dislike the Hester, sermons would be made about her if she was present, the unfortunate would scoff at her attempts to help them, and so on. Even outsiders tend to single out Hester because of the brooch’s flashy nature and the rumors surrounding it.
The letter is so effective that it still isolates Hester years later and ultimately it becomes her legacy. By chapter thirteen, Hester has helped the community for seven years and has done so without fussing that they start to interpret the letter A as for “able” (168). However, as demonstrated in chapter twenty-two, the letter still separates her from the rest of the community. During Dimmesdale’s sermon, bored townspeople come over to watch Hester along with curious outsiders. An Indian even believed that Hester was an important person because she is “the wearer of this brilliantly embroidered badge” (257). In chapter five as she is walking to her home, she thinks that her sins “would be her only monument” which comes true in the form of the scarlet letter. When Dimmesdale dies, the letter becomes a legend when Hester is buried in the final chapter, her headstone reads “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules” (274). The effect and persistence of the scarlet letter in tormenting Hester demonstrates how the Puritans are able to continually punish Hester for an offense she committed long ago and how they will never fully forgive her for it.
Hawthorne also often uses symbolic people and events to display the oblivion and hypocrisy of the Puritans. For example, it is revealed that Dimmesdale, the devout minister of the community, was the father of Pearl. However, the people are unaware of the affair and the people continue to look up to and pray for him. This fact is made especially clear in another symbolic event in the book. In chapter twelve, Dimmesdale witnesses a red meteor that has the form of the letter A. The reader can assume Dimmesdale interpreted the event as a sign of his crime because Hawthorne writes that a person who believed that God would communicate to them using the vast night sky would be a person who is “rendered morbidly self-contemplative by long, intense, and secret pain” and is now imagining signs(161). This is contrasted with the Sexton who interprets it “to stand for Angel” in the same chapter because he associates it with Governor Winthrop’s death (164).
While both view the meteor in different contexts, the author seems to use this to mock the Puritans. While the sexton sees the A, the context of the story clearly implies it to represent the scarlet letter. This fact is made clear when the narrator explains “Pestilence was known to have been foreboded by a shower of crimson light” which was quickly explained after the meteor was shown in chapter twelve (160). This comparison is made even more clear when Chillingworth comments that “A bodily disease” could just be a sign of “some ailment in the spiritual part” when he is asking Dimmesdale about his symptoms in chapter ten (141). The effect is that it emphasizes and makes fun of how ignorant the Puritans are of Dimmesdale’s affair after it is revealed to the reader.
The author also uses another prominent Puritan to reveal the hypocrisy of their society. Governor Bellingham was based on the real historical figure Richard Bellingham and serves, along with John Wilson, as a strict, devout leader of the community. Even though he is a leader of the Puritan community, he seems to violate some of the values of Puritanism. When Hester goes to Bellingham’s home, it is described as a lavish mansion designed after the “wealthy gentlemen in his native England” even though Puritans are supposed to live simple lives with few material possessions. This quote is even more ironic because one of the reasons Puritans originally went to the New World was to escape the corruption of the Old World and Church and to establish a society that worships God the correct way. However, his association with Mistress Hibbins is one of his most hypocritical actions.
Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses an array of symbols to reveal the flaws of Puritan society. However, the symbols he used to do this most often were Pearl and nature. Throughout the novel, Pearl acts as a symbol of truth that continually antagonizes the Puritans for their narrowmindedness and the adulterers for their crime. A scene that displays this effectively is in chapter nineteen in which the narrator describes Pearl as a visible symbol “in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide” (216). Pearl also serves to be a symbol of the scarlet letter to Hester with her constant questions and conversations about the brooch torturing her mother. She even forces her mother to don the letter once again in chapter nineteen even though it pains her mother and acts like a “withering spell” (220). What makes Pearl unique to the community is her peculiar attitude. When her mother describes her, she is described as an elf and while most Puritans were described to be somber and strict, Pearl is described to be fearless and lives outside of the constraints of Puritanism. These differences allows Pearl to become an effective foil to the community by
Nature is another common symbol Hawthorne uses throughout the novel. To the main characters and reader, the woods are described to be an impartial place that serves as a refuge for the two sinners. It is the setting for crucial events in the story like Hester taking off her letter, the reveal that Chillingworth is Hester’s old husband, and the plan to England. Pearl is also described to have some connection with the woods because she is able to play in and both her and wild animals seem to have mutual respect for eachother. A scene that exemplifies her connection to the wilderness is in chapter nineteen when she stands across a brook and looks at Hester and Dimmesdale. The author describes the seen to be almost heavenly saying that she looks “more refined and spiritualized than the reality” and even Hester and Dimmesdale feels the difference with Hester feeling isolated from Pearl in the scene and Dimmesdale commenting that the “brook is the boundary between two worlds” or “she is an elfish spirit.”
However, to the Puritans, they literally demonize the woods. Mistress Hibbins throughout the story says that the woods are a place that the Black Man or the Devil roams and where people come to give their souls and become witches. It is ironic how even though she is described to be a tempting, witch-like figure that she is still able to live within the community. This is made more humorous because she lives with her brother-in-law Governor Bellingham who is a strict figure in the Puritan community. Even though the Puritans seem to attempt to maintain social structure by blocking out the outside, traces of wilderness and by symbolic extension the truth is still shown throughout the community. A rosebush grows near the prison door where it provides beauty to the prisoners. Another situation is when Pearl throws a burr at Dimmesdale in chapter ten and it lands on Dimmesdale’s chest which almost serves as a symbolic reveal of the truth.
The common thread between all the symbols in the novel is that it helps amplify the ideas that Hawthorne tries to convey. The responses from the characters to the symbols helps the readers understand previous events in the story while establishing a contrast between the Puritans and the truth. Scenarios like the meteor show how the Puritans are ignorant of the truth and Dimmesdale’s death reveals how the Puritans are able to ignore facts in order to uphold order. While the Puritans want to live a pure life and uphold order, ultimately sin is a natural part of a person. As Nathanial Hawthorne once wrote “Life is made up of marble and mud.”
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