What Does The Light Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

Symbols are an important way that authors can convey their message to the reader. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne uses dark and light to highlight important parts of the story. In this novel, dark symbolizes both truth and lies and unhappiness. Light symbolizes both truth and lies and happiness. These to symbols together bring the story to a better fluidity and helps the reader understand Hester’s life. The reader can understand her life by looking at the sun. In this novel, the sun (or lack thereof) gives away much about Hester’s character. At the beginning, it seems that sunshine means truth and darkness means lies. One could argue, however, that the opposite is also true. Towards the end of the book, Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest, which is a place of darkness. Here they can finally be true to themselves and talk about what happened. Hester feels safe enough to take off her letter and bonnet. However, when Pearl throws a fit and forces them to return to town (and the light), Hester must return to her state of sadness and lies. …show more content…
Dimmesdale is a perfect example of this. He lives in the sunshine, but is a hypocrite because he lies. Sunshine is supposed to represent truth, but he misuses it. He shows that he realizes this when it says, “Did the sun, which shone so brightly everywhere else, really fall upon him?” (Pg 158). He has noticed a darkness about himself and is paranoid others will also notice. The darkness is found with Hester, too. She is put in jail and the dark because of her lie. She lied to her husband when she married and then cheated on him. The darkness becomes a reminder to Hester of her great