In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the imagery of light and darkness are portrayed through many characters that either open up to the new world or get consumed by its evil. In chapter XVIII, “A Flood of Sunshine,” Hester Prynne finds light when she takes off her letter, while Arthur Dimmesdale struggles to find this light like Hester and stays in the darkness. The comparison between these two characters shows the complexity, juxtaposition and sources of their internal strengths. Hawthorne intensifies the motif of light through a burst of sunshine, during Hester’s removal of the Scarlet Letter, strength and the complexity of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.
After wearing the letter for seven years, Hester Prynne learns many …show more content…
When Hester overcame the great obstacle of removing her letter, light shone through her beauty, from before, darkness covered her identity from the Puritan Society. By realizing this, “She had not known the weight, until she felt the freedom!” (130) This motif of freedom portrayed as light, Hester can live her life with no guilt; compared to Arthur, who eventually dies at the end of the novel, due to his internal conflicts killing him from the inside out. Hester culminates into a positive, dynamic character with experiencing various events of children throwing mud at her and the society looking down at her. Although the Scarlet Letter A means Adultery, Hester changes the significance of the letter into “Able” with her actions. Her history in the Puritan Society causes her offer her assistance to other women in the town, who are in the darkness of Puritan norms and need to be pulled into the light by Hester. Even though Dimmesdale confesses his adultery to the society, he is unable to live out his feeling of peace with Hester and Pearl. These three elements that support the motifs of light and darkness throughout chapter XVIII - Hester’s removal of the Scarlet Letter, strength and complexity of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale - contribute to Hawthorne’s reason for including this chapter in his
After wearing the letter for seven years, Hester Prynne learns many …show more content…
When Hester overcame the great obstacle of removing her letter, light shone through her beauty, from before, darkness covered her identity from the Puritan Society. By realizing this, “She had not known the weight, until she felt the freedom!” (130) This motif of freedom portrayed as light, Hester can live her life with no guilt; compared to Arthur, who eventually dies at the end of the novel, due to his internal conflicts killing him from the inside out. Hester culminates into a positive, dynamic character with experiencing various events of children throwing mud at her and the society looking down at her. Although the Scarlet Letter A means Adultery, Hester changes the significance of the letter into “Able” with her actions. Her history in the Puritan Society causes her offer her assistance to other women in the town, who are in the darkness of Puritan norms and need to be pulled into the light by Hester. Even though Dimmesdale confesses his adultery to the society, he is unable to live out his feeling of peace with Hester and Pearl. These three elements that support the motifs of light and darkness throughout chapter XVIII - Hester’s removal of the Scarlet Letter, strength and complexity of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale - contribute to Hawthorne’s reason for including this chapter in his