What does the letter A mean? According to Nathanial Hawthorne, in the book The Scarlet Letter, the letter A in seventeenth century Boston is symbolized in many different ways. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbol of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.
When first starting out, negativity grew in Hester’s life due to the poor choices she made and she had to learn how to let the sunshine back in. “Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarse garment for the poor” (Hawthorne 77). Although Hester had committed adultery, she felt it as an opportunity to help the poor and make amends …show more content…
Arthur Dimmesdale is a man consumed with guilt, but when he talks to Hester, someone who knows his secret, he feels livelier. Under Arthur’s guilt he tortures himself; he believes that the torture will relieve him. “…Dimmesdale’s secret closet under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge… fasting for days… stays awake in vigils” (Hawthorne 113). He believes that what is happening to him mentally should be happening to him physically. Why did he do this to himself? Arthur’s congregation upheld him in a saintly manner, which caused him to increase his personal guilt and destroy him spiritually and physically. Arthur told his congregation that he had sinned, but no one except for Hester, Pearl, and Roger knew his secret. This made the people believe that if he had not done anything worthy of sin, and if they thought he was a sinner, they must have committed the worst sins. After Arthur and Hester met in the forest, they made a decision to leave together. “The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment there its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast… his spirit rose… Of a deeply religious temperament, there was inevitable a tinge of the devotional in his mood” (Hawthorne 185). With this, Arthur felt a sense of joy and life came back into him. He felt he no longer had to hide his secret if no one knew about it in a new place and in a new life. Once he repented his sin, the
When first starting out, negativity grew in Hester’s life due to the poor choices she made and she had to learn how to let the sunshine back in. “Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarse garment for the poor” (Hawthorne 77). Although Hester had committed adultery, she felt it as an opportunity to help the poor and make amends …show more content…
Arthur Dimmesdale is a man consumed with guilt, but when he talks to Hester, someone who knows his secret, he feels livelier. Under Arthur’s guilt he tortures himself; he believes that the torture will relieve him. “…Dimmesdale’s secret closet under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge… fasting for days… stays awake in vigils” (Hawthorne 113). He believes that what is happening to him mentally should be happening to him physically. Why did he do this to himself? Arthur’s congregation upheld him in a saintly manner, which caused him to increase his personal guilt and destroy him spiritually and physically. Arthur told his congregation that he had sinned, but no one except for Hester, Pearl, and Roger knew his secret. This made the people believe that if he had not done anything worthy of sin, and if they thought he was a sinner, they must have committed the worst sins. After Arthur and Hester met in the forest, they made a decision to leave together. “The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment there its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast… his spirit rose… Of a deeply religious temperament, there was inevitable a tinge of the devotional in his mood” (Hawthorne 185). With this, Arthur felt a sense of joy and life came back into him. He felt he no longer had to hide his secret if no one knew about it in a new place and in a new life. Once he repented his sin, the