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Nathaniel Hawthorne's Use Of Light And Dark In The Scarlet Letter

2076 Words9 Pages

In society, people are criticized and punished for their individual choices and flaws, according to Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter. The protagonist, Hester prynne, is a strong-hearted woman who faces hardship, but uses her inner strength to face the adversity and reveal her true self. Within the society that Hester lives in, Adultery is one of the worst sins that could possibly be committe, thus needing great punishment. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” upon her bosom as a life long punishment for committing Adultery. Arising from this punishment, Hester is forced to find her way to prosper her uniqueness and individuality, even amongst the rigid society. Hawthorne supports his point through each symbolic contrast to …show more content…

After Hester committed her sin, her beauty was immediately destroyed and she has literally and figuratively been walking in the dark. Hester is no longer pure because she is brainwashed into believing that she does not belong. Because of this, she goes to walk in the forest with her daughter, Pearl. As they walk, one notices that only Pearl is able to stand in the light. She teases her mother by saying, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom” (Hawthorne 191). This something upon Hester’s bosom is the scarlet letter, which is already interpreted as the outward indication of her past sin. Hawthorne uses “sunshine” to symbolize happiness, purity, and truth. He then uses the symbolic imagery of the light hiding from Hester, to represent her constant denial to forgive herself of her sin and develop as an uncommon member of society. Hawthorne uses this symbolic imagery of darkness to represent concealment and evil, thus validating that one cannot prosper under society’s pressure, so they must dispose themselves from

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He discusses Hester's daughter, Pearl, and how the fall of Hester would also affect Pearl's livelihood. Hawthorne explains, “often impelled Hester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill or good that the poor little creature had been born at all.” Hesters admittance of the fact that she has contemplated whether or not Pearl deserves to be alive signifies Hawthorne's use of a complex tone. Within the statement, he shows how Hester is recognizing that the life she has brought Pearl up in is not ideal. Out of the sorrow in her heart that she has for Pearl, Hester realizes that her daughter may have been better off never being born, as Hester has lost the abilities that she once had to be a loving mother.

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Previously to this passage, the sunlight would not shine on Hester when Hester was wearing the Scarlet Letter. As soon as Hester takes off the scarlet letter, a symbol of the Puritan community, her hair is described as “with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance”(186). The light is reclaiming Hester now that she has truly separated from the Puritan community. The last time that the sunlight claimed Hester in this way was when she was on the scaffold and separate from the Puritan community, however, she was not happy then. In the passage, Hester is described with words associated with light, such as “beamed”, “radiant”, and “glowing”(186).

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1113 Words | 5 Pages

In the beginning of the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces the main character Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful member of a Puritan society being punished for her sin of love, not lust. The opening chapters introduce the reader to gossips who deem her original punishment, death, too harsh and contrary to Puritan beliefs that unborn babies should be given a chance at life. Instead, Hester and her child are to be alienated and shunned. In addition she is to wear the letter ‘A’ (which stands for ‘adultery’) on her chest which will forever display her as a symbol of shame for her sin. Though a very resilient figure who soon overcomes this pain, Hester’s isolation takes a negative toll on her life.

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1581 Words | 7 Pages

Within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, antagonist Hester Prynne is subjected to the opinions and treatment of 17th century’s Massachusetts Bay Colony as a result of her sinful act of adultery. In the Puritan colony, it was important to be faithful, both to thine spouse, and most importantly, to God. Hester’s adultery issued her public ridicule and shunning, and a physical reminder to be forever worn; an embroidered ‘A’ placed upon her bosom. The symbol served to alert all of her faithless act, “It had the affect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (page 74). Throughout the novel, Hester’s treatment is obvious, and she makes many efforts to not let her choice, and her illegitimate child Pearl, define her.

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We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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The Scarlet Letter was Hester’s forced punishment and is a reminder to the whole community of Hester’s sin of adultery. As Hester’s character grows in strength she realizes that “if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom” (59). Hester expresses how everyone sins and if everyone was punished the way she was, many people would have to wear a letter of their own. The punishment of wearing the “A” gave Hester the freedom of not having to hide her sins from others. However, the people with hidden sins have to protect their reputation which causes a lack of freedom.

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The sunlight entering the dark forest casting joy and rejuvenation upon the shadows parallels the emotions that come with casting something off that has defined her for so long. The relief is felt within Hester when the conflict is resolved between social obligations and personal feelings. The release Hester feels comes from and end of fighting her responsibility to the community by wearing the scarlet letter and being defined by her sin. All her life in the puritan community had been a struggle to keep her spirited personality against the community trying to brand her as a bad person and once she is free from the community’s judgements, represented by the letter, the pleasure felt comes from the release of her life long

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Hawthorne uses the dark and light imagery in order to describe sentiments and feelings. Imagery helps the writer to describe, point out a special idea that he wants the reader to get. The color black, and the darker as well, help him to describe a treasure, a secret, a letter, or a trouble of soul. Everything helps him to show the character pain. Mr.Dimmesdale has, throughout the book, bad feelings.

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Literary Devices in The Scarlet Letter Literary devices are often used to capture a reader’s attention in a text. Nathaniel Hawthorne used many different types of literary devices in his book The Scarlet Letter. He uses symbolism to give hidden meaning to elements in the story, conflict to make the story interesting, and allusion to make references to historical events (ex. biblical references). While reading The Scarlet Letter, the literary devices did not jump out at me, but now as I reflect upon them they help me understand the book well. Literary devices can make a passage have a whole different meaning.

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First, Hester had just been released from jail. When she was released from jail she has the scarlet letter on her chest and she is holding a baby. Hawthorne says, “She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its existence, heretofore, had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison” (50). When Hester came out of prison Pearl faced away from the sun because she had just been living in a dark prison for her whole life. Pearls very existence represents truth.

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1284 Words | 6 Pages

Point #1: Hawthorne effectively establishes a dark and gloomy atmosphere that adopts the conventions pertaining to the gothic genre by highlighting the oppressive nature of the Puritan society. • Use of dark imagery, and prison as a symbol of sin. • Juxtaposition

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936 Words | 4 Pages

In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)

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