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What Does The Color Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

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Colors in life can represent many things feelings, happiness, good, and evil. Hyatt Howe Waggoner’s review of “The Scarlet Letter” in his scholarly journal says that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the colors of pure, mixed, and drained in “The Scarlet Letter” to contribute as an additional character in “The Scarlet Letter”. Hyatt Howe Waggoner’s review of the colors being used as a character is very correct, the colors of pure symbolize the good during the puritan era, as well as mixed being the good conflicting with bad and drained as the evil during the puritan era. Together using the colors in “The Scarlet Letter” Nathaniel Hawthorne creates an additional character that contributes to the plot of the story greatly. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses pure …show more content…

Dimmesdale was seen as a godly man at first in the story seen in the light by many and was the purest of the community even. Although when things took a turn for Dimmesdale and he was seen as a heavenly man who had fallen. “The Blackman” which is very alike to how Lucifer had fallen from god. They both betrayed their fellow people who all trusted them and loved them as the pillar of heaven and the puritan community. But soon there light was changed into darkness. Pearl who is seen by her mother at times to have a darkness in her is also seen as radiant and beautiful. She is filled with light and darkness but will never be seen as one or the other completely. The mixed colors during “The Scarlet Letter” are very powerful and have great effect in showing the rising and falling of Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale. Hester who cannot seem to even touch the light at certain parts of the story is also seen as the most beautiful and pure person in the community because she follows her heart the most pure and bright thing you can do after all is follow your heart. Mixed colors are used to show the confliction of good and evil throughout the story, which causes for very strong moments in the story at some

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Symbolism Within The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne created symbolism throughout The Scarlet Letter in order to develop the theme throughout Hester’s life. Hester is portrayed as a sheltered soul, shunned from society due to her adulterous acts. The red A and her daughter, Pearl, are symbols of Hester’s shame which she bares proudly despite society's harsh judgements. Hawthorne is able to use symbolism to develop themes, characters, and analogies in the Scarlet Letter.

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Symbols and Motifs in The Scarlet Letter Symbols and motifs in stories often bring a deeper meaning to the writing all together. A symbol is a thing or character that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. Motif is a dominant idea or feature in a writing. Symbols and motifs go hand in hand in order to develop the overall theme in a story. However, motif is different from theme in that theme is the central idea (Literary Devices/ Motif).

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In The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, uses symbolism to prove that even in the darkest places, hope can exist and can survive even the gravest of dangers. In the beginning of the story, Hawthorne establishes a barren and desolate mood. Some examples of this are when he describes the clothing of the men and women involved in the story as “sad-coloured garments'' as well as when he speaks about the prison’s “gloomy front.” (Hawthorne 1 -& 13). The “sad-coloured garments” bring forth a desolate mood with no vibrance or visible happiness, along with the prison being described as “gloomy.”

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The Scarlet Letter Essay In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne found numerous ways to effectively develop his plot; symbolism being his strongest form when describing characters and events. With various symbols hidden within the text, Pearl, the Scarlet Letter , and the Meteor show how Puritans in the book have different views than Hawthorne. The symbols in the book are used to describe innocence, sin, and compassion during Puritan times.

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1063 Words | 5 Pages

Light And Dark How can a lie change or affect someone? In The Scarlet Letter a sin which the protagonist is not honest about, affects different characters in different ways. Taking place in the middle of the 17th century the book is about Hester Prynne. Hester is a married woman who lives in Boston, Massachusetts during the Puritan Age. When her husband does not join her in the colonies she is lonely and commits adultery.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Some secrets changed characters in many different ways throughout the story. A person reading this book could feel that from the beginning, it was going to be a dark, evil story in many aspects. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, he set out to write a story in the early settlements of Massachusetts, and all of the religious aspects that came with it. Light and dark imagery, alluding to the larger conflict between good and evil, is present throughout the novel in the characters of Hester Prynne, Pearl

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Contrasts of a Moral Wilderness In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbolism is employed in order to convey his message that man and nature are alike in that they both possess riotous and unruly characteristics, and are born with pure and benevolent instincts. The symbols of the rose-bush, the babbling brook, and the forest all share the idea that nature is benign. In the novel, Hester Prynne undergoes the ultimate test of faith; to herself, her family, and the man who shares her guilt and sin. Hawthorne juxtaposes man in the solicitous, natural world versus man in the immorality of the Puritan world, in order to emphasize nature’s sympathizing qualities.

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There is often a contrast in the colors of theatrical masks depending upon the mood and role of the character wearing it. Light colors are often worn by the protagonist or “good guy” in the scene. Darker colors are often reserved for an antagonist or villain. In older plays white masks were worn to convey a sense of happiness while, black masks often portrayed anger or gloom. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the same color scheme to project evil and goodwill throughout The Scarlet Letter.

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The symbol I'm going to write about is the Scarlet Letter. The letter "A" in this book has a major impact on the major theme of the scarlet letter. How people see this symbol changes throughout the book also. The scarlet letter is the big red letter "A" that Hester is forced to wear after committing Adultry. It effects how people see whoever wears it as.

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551 Words | 3 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter follows the development of a young out of place Puritan woman, Hester Prynne, and her scandalous affair with the young Arthur Dimmesdale. Shrouded in secrecy, this ultimately leads to the degradation of the well being of both Arthur and Hester, as well as the shunning of their daughter Pearl, and the tragic, and dramatic, death of Dimmesdale himself. Throughout the novel Hawthorne frequently uses sunshine as a symbol. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of sunshine in The Scarlet Letter is used to symbolize the revelation of truth, ultimately removing all veils of dishonesty and revealing all hidden circumstances.

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976 Words | 4 Pages

“He has his hand over his heart! Is it because, when the minister wrote his name in the book, the Black Man set his mark in that place?” (Hawthorne 128). Rather than show to the whole world what he has done, Dimmesdale is keeping it secret. Choosing to suffer in private instead of in public.

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“The young woman was tall, with a figure of elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes (Hawthorne, 55).” Hester had just gotten out of jail and she still looks like she could be of royal blood. The scarlet letter was very intricate and pretty just like Hester

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The Scarlet letter It is June, and a throng of drably dressed Puritans stands before a weather-beaten wooden prison. In front of the prison stands an unsightly plot of weeds, and beside it grows a wild rosebush, which seems out of place in this scene dominated by dark colors. In the scarlet letter the “A” on hester changes its meaning throughout the story. Society wanted hester to break

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1029 Words | 5 Pages

Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter that will never allow Hester to forget her past nor allow the town to view her the same again. Though the town has isolated her, Hester is not completely alone, she has Pearl, who is meant to bring happiness to Hester. Although Pearl does bring happiness to Hester’s life and keeps her from getting lonely, Pearls purpose in the book is to be a challenge to the normality of the strict puritan society. Pearl helps push through the strict puritan expectation of everyone being innocent, by challenging Dimmesdale to come clean about his past. Arthur Dimmesdale is meant to be the epitome of innocence, he is the town minister and preaches purity.

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509 Words | 3 Pages

“Pearl took some eelgrass, and … imitated, on her own bosom, the decoration… on her mother’s : A letter “A”, but freshly green, instead of scarlet!”, a quote pulled from Chapter 15, is another attempt by Hawthorne to convey the contrasting ideal of Pearl’s innocence and purity to Hester’s sin. The green of this imitated scarlet letter worn by Pearl is associated with nature and purity, while the scarlet of Hester’s original letter is typically associated with passion and

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