In The Scarlet Letter, light appears as either a positive or a negative symbol depending on the personal integrity of the character on which it shines, and Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this symbol to convey the importance of personal integrity. Sunlight shines on Hester Prynne as soon as she steps out of the prison cell in the opening chapters of the novel, and beams down on her once again towards the end after she discards her scarlet letter in the forest. Yet, when Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale encounters light, such as on the night when he goes on the scaffold for self-punishment, the light he encounters is a red, accusatory perversion of light. The type of light a character encounters is dependent upon the personal integrity of the character –
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During Hester’s venture into the forest, the sunlight shies away from Hester at first while she wears the scarlet letter (166). Then, after she talks to Dimmesdale, “She undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. …All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine… The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now” (184-185). By taking off her scarlet letter, Hester is being true to herself because she no longer hides her true love for Dimmesdale and her lack of regret for committing the crime. She tosses away the ignominious A and with it the façade in which she hides the identity of her paramour from society, while also rejecting the control and label that the society seeks to impose on her. In the forest, Hester is finally free of the burden of her scarlet letter and talks to Dimmesdale for the first time in years. As a result, the sunlight shines on Hester, illuminating not only her self-honesty and the good that can come out of personal integrity, but also “the objects that had made a shadow hitherto” – Hester’s secret love for …show more content…
When Dimmesdale imagines what would happen if the townspeople discover him on the scaffold while he is punishing himself there, he asks himself, “Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow? Whom, but the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, half-frozen to death, overwhelmed with shame, and standing where Hester Prynne had stood!” (136). The “red eastern light” on Dimmesdale’s brow illuminates Dimmesdale 's guilt as the light is what would enable the townspeople to see Dimmesdale in the first place, and then the light shining directly on him would point the townspeople towards him – the hidden sinner. This light shines accusingly upon Dimmesdale because he is neither being true to himself nor to the community, as he hides the immoral crime that he committed from society while continuing to play his role as a seemingly virtuous, saint-like reverend. Similarly, when the meteor appears in the sky, the narration reads, “We impute it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own eye and heart that the minister…beheld there the appearance of an immense letter – the letter A – marked out in lines of dull red light” (139-140). In this quote, the "red light" is accusatory, indicating Dimmesdale 's crime and his connection to Hester’s “A.” As
During Hester’s venture into the forest, the sunlight shies away from Hester at first while she wears the scarlet letter (166). Then, after she talks to Dimmesdale, “She undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. …All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine… The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now” (184-185). By taking off her scarlet letter, Hester is being true to herself because she no longer hides her true love for Dimmesdale and her lack of regret for committing the crime. She tosses away the ignominious A and with it the façade in which she hides the identity of her paramour from society, while also rejecting the control and label that the society seeks to impose on her. In the forest, Hester is finally free of the burden of her scarlet letter and talks to Dimmesdale for the first time in years. As a result, the sunlight shines on Hester, illuminating not only her self-honesty and the good that can come out of personal integrity, but also “the objects that had made a shadow hitherto” – Hester’s secret love for …show more content…
When Dimmesdale imagines what would happen if the townspeople discover him on the scaffold while he is punishing himself there, he asks himself, “Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow? Whom, but the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, half-frozen to death, overwhelmed with shame, and standing where Hester Prynne had stood!” (136). The “red eastern light” on Dimmesdale’s brow illuminates Dimmesdale 's guilt as the light is what would enable the townspeople to see Dimmesdale in the first place, and then the light shining directly on him would point the townspeople towards him – the hidden sinner. This light shines accusingly upon Dimmesdale because he is neither being true to himself nor to the community, as he hides the immoral crime that he committed from society while continuing to play his role as a seemingly virtuous, saint-like reverend. Similarly, when the meteor appears in the sky, the narration reads, “We impute it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own eye and heart that the minister…beheld there the appearance of an immense letter – the letter A – marked out in lines of dull red light” (139-140). In this quote, the "red light" is accusatory, indicating Dimmesdale 's crime and his connection to Hester’s “A.” As