Imagery is included in The Scarlet Letter to insert a more profound message. The application of light and dark imagery is essential to the novel in creating a lively and melancholy moods to establish variance in the characters as well as their lives. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the societal hypocrisy of Puritans, elements of nature and the importance of the scarlet letter to exude the how sin is an entity of life.
Puritans are merciless and use public humiliation as an epitome of the consequences of sin. In Boston during the seventeenth century, Puritans came to set up a paradise colony but upon arriving “[the] founders of a new colony… have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of …show more content…
Pearl loves the sun sunshine to the point she prefers “to caper and dance, and imperatively required that the whole breadth of sunshine should be stripped off its front, and given her to play with. “No, my little Pearl!’ said her mother; ‘thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!’” (Hawthorne 90-91). Pearl is a living embodiment of the scarlet letter because in theory she too is also a sinner which is why she cannot receive sunshine. Pearl knows of her status in society and she is mature enough to figure out that she is a living embodiment of sin and therefore always puts herself into the light to make herself feel pure. The sunshine represents happiness and joy and therefore cannot shine upon Hester, reminding her that she cannot give Pearl happiness consequently rendering her to find her own joy and happiness. The sun is shining on the forest but it casts shadows on its shining objects that radiance which was “[such] was the sympathy of Nature – that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illuminated by higher ruth…” (Hawthorne 173). On the outskirts of society, the forest illuminates comfortability, where one does not have to constantly mold themselves into characteristics that satisfy another. Puritans exile sinners and to the outskirts of their society, which is basically the forest so that they can keep their …show more content…
While in the forest, Hester talks of traveling to Europe to start a new life with Dimmesdale so “she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves” (Hawthorne 172). When Hester lets down her hair it signifies her beauty, purity and rejuvenated youth that has been hidden behind her cap and the sinister scarlet letter. The sun shines down on Hester, who is radiating, as soon as she removes the letter away from her chest signifying the uplifting of the burden of sin. As Hester takes off the letter and the sun shines upon her, it shows that she can finally become one with Pearl now that she is free from iniquity. Hester feels relieved from removing the scarlet letter in which she “heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit… She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom!” (Hawthorne 172). Before Hester has the Scarlet Letter, she is described as beautiful and lively but as soon as she receives the Scarlet Letter she has this dark aura. The letter drains all her radiance and makes her grow tough skin to not care about the view of others and instead live life day to day taking care of Pearl. Hester is isolated which gives her time to reminiscence about her life and actions. Her once shameful letter A, representing adulterer
Puritans are merciless and use public humiliation as an epitome of the consequences of sin. In Boston during the seventeenth century, Puritans came to set up a paradise colony but upon arriving “[the] founders of a new colony… have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of …show more content…
Pearl loves the sun sunshine to the point she prefers “to caper and dance, and imperatively required that the whole breadth of sunshine should be stripped off its front, and given her to play with. “No, my little Pearl!’ said her mother; ‘thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!’” (Hawthorne 90-91). Pearl is a living embodiment of the scarlet letter because in theory she too is also a sinner which is why she cannot receive sunshine. Pearl knows of her status in society and she is mature enough to figure out that she is a living embodiment of sin and therefore always puts herself into the light to make herself feel pure. The sunshine represents happiness and joy and therefore cannot shine upon Hester, reminding her that she cannot give Pearl happiness consequently rendering her to find her own joy and happiness. The sun is shining on the forest but it casts shadows on its shining objects that radiance which was “[such] was the sympathy of Nature – that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illuminated by higher ruth…” (Hawthorne 173). On the outskirts of society, the forest illuminates comfortability, where one does not have to constantly mold themselves into characteristics that satisfy another. Puritans exile sinners and to the outskirts of their society, which is basically the forest so that they can keep their …show more content…
While in the forest, Hester talks of traveling to Europe to start a new life with Dimmesdale so “she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves” (Hawthorne 172). When Hester lets down her hair it signifies her beauty, purity and rejuvenated youth that has been hidden behind her cap and the sinister scarlet letter. The sun shines down on Hester, who is radiating, as soon as she removes the letter away from her chest signifying the uplifting of the burden of sin. As Hester takes off the letter and the sun shines upon her, it shows that she can finally become one with Pearl now that she is free from iniquity. Hester feels relieved from removing the scarlet letter in which she “heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit… She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom!” (Hawthorne 172). Before Hester has the Scarlet Letter, she is described as beautiful and lively but as soon as she receives the Scarlet Letter she has this dark aura. The letter drains all her radiance and makes her grow tough skin to not care about the view of others and instead live life day to day taking care of Pearl. Hester is isolated which gives her time to reminiscence about her life and actions. Her once shameful letter A, representing adulterer