I would primarily like to shed light on the fact that the question says Henry James “criticized” the novel for its surplus amounts of symbolism. Perhaps, criticize isn't the correct word to use in this case because James carries on to tell that he didn't mean to “expatiate upon [Hawthorne’s] defects” he simply had an opinion. Also, he goes on to praise The Scarlet Letter saying “The Scarlet Letter has the beauty and harmony of all original and complete conceptions, and its weaker spots, whatever they are, are not of its essence; they are mere light flaws and inequalities of surface” Anyway, in my opinion, despite the overwhelming amount of symbolism jammed into The Scarlet Letter, I do believe that Hawthorne does this to make the writing his
