Converse to the busy cover of option #1, option #2 has little happening, but each figure has a discrete meaning pertaining to the themes of “The Scarlet Letter”. The foremost pronounced thing in the art is the large red “A” which overshadows almost everything in the illustration. The overt letter correlates with the scarlet letter overshadowing Hester and dehumanizing her. The “A” chokes “all the light and graceful foliage of her character… leaving a bare and harsh outline” (Hawthorne 151). As the quote says, the letter takes what Hester is and overpowers it, making her no longer a human being worthy of compassion, but an outline only recognisable as the scarlet letter. Around the ominous letter, hands point directly at it but no faces are
