The most important part of any story is the plot, but what is the most important part of the plot? As shown in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the characters are what drives the plot. Characters can drive the plot in a couple of ways that can be shown with The Scarlet Letter; they can be symbols, they can be used to show aspects of the plot in a more visual and less abstract way, and they will physically move the plot forward. Without the characters there is no plot and so by transitive property the characters are arguably the most important part to any story. Symbols give a plot depth; they can be obvious or requiring multiple readings of the text to notice them. When characters are symbols though, they tend to lean on the side of obvious. Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. Each of the three
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He represents Hell best because his story nearly correlates to the story of Lucifer, the angel who became the Devil. In the same way, Chillingworth was a good guy from what can be told by the book before learning of his wife’s sin then he morphs into an evil man bent on revenge on the man who slept with his wife. Every sentence describing Chillingworth had some form of negative connotations attached to it such as when learned that he is Dimmesdale’s new physician, “In this manner, the mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became medical adviser of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale” (84). In some situations in the present day the adjective phrase “mysterious old” would carry a fantastical, magical connotations, but in this society at this time witchcraft and anything remotely relating to it was considered evil which in turn carries over to Chillingworth, who is now, in effect, being called evil in a subtle way. Chillingworth completes this group of main characters acting also as symbols with his depiction of
He represents Hell best because his story nearly correlates to the story of Lucifer, the angel who became the Devil. In the same way, Chillingworth was a good guy from what can be told by the book before learning of his wife’s sin then he morphs into an evil man bent on revenge on the man who slept with his wife. Every sentence describing Chillingworth had some form of negative connotations attached to it such as when learned that he is Dimmesdale’s new physician, “In this manner, the mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became medical adviser of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale” (84). In some situations in the present day the adjective phrase “mysterious old” would carry a fantastical, magical connotations, but in this society at this time witchcraft and anything remotely relating to it was considered evil which in turn carries over to Chillingworth, who is now, in effect, being called evil in a subtle way. Chillingworth completes this group of main characters acting also as symbols with his depiction of