The Symbolism Of Guilt In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Guilt killed someone at the end of The Scarlet Letter. This novel, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the story of a puritan woman, Hester Prynne, who committed adultery in the 1600s. She bore punishment on the scaffold with her two tokens of sin: the scarlet letter “A” which stood for adultery, and her daughter Pearl. The partner in her adultery is Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister of the puritan town Hester lives in, and the father of their daughter Pearl. Masterfully, Hawthorne uses a mouth full of symbols throughout the book to teach guilt, the secrets of sin, the coexistence of good and evil, and his anti-transcendentalism ways. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter, Burrs, and the Scaffold to show how the weight

Dimmesdale feels dreadful guilt because Hester admitted to her sin and is bearing her punishment publicly while he is bearing punishment behind closed doors. While he is in this state of mind, he decides to visit the scaffold one night. Hawthorne states “And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart” (Hawthorne 144). The universe is “gazing at an imaginary scarlet token on his naked breast” because he feels guilty for not being able to bear public punishment like Hester and his “vain show of expiation” was all for nothing. While Dimmesdale is up on the scaffold, night turns into morning and he sees Hester and Pearl walking. With recognition, Dimmesdale calls out for them to join him up on the scaffold. Hawthorne narrates, “...all the dread of public exposure, that had so long been the anguish of his life, had returned upon him; and he was already trembling at the conjunction…he now found himself” (Hawthorne 149). This quote shows how the guilt keeps piling up because of the fear he feels for public shame and exposure from the townspeople considering how much they adore their beloved minister, and considering how Pearl had asked him just moments before if he would step up and claim her and he replied “Not so, my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee one other day, but not to-morrow.” (Hawthorne 150). The scaffold represents Dimmesdale’s guilt for not only the way Hester is bearing her punishment publicly, and Dimmesdale is bearing it in private, but also the way the puritan town revolves around the scaffold and how it brings public exposure, which Dimmesdale