Symbolism is a great literary device used to enhance a piece of writing by taking a particular object and giving it an entirely different meaning that is much more significant than what the object actually is. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, written in 1850, the author uses many symbols throughout the book to reflect Dark Romantic themes and conflicts and to show the Puritan way of life. Three important symbols that Hawthorne refers to repeatedly throughout the book are the scaffold, the scarlet letter, and Pearl, being a child of nature.
Scaffolds in a Puritan society were used to publically embarrass sinners and criminals. This was first seen in The Scarlet Letter in Chapters 1-3 when the protagonist Hester Prynne stood on the scaffold before the people of the Puritan society. She had committed the sin of adultery and the people wanted to hear who she had done it with and who the father was of the child that she had. In the book, it states, "... this scaffold constituted a portion of a penal
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thus holding it up to the public gaze"(Hawthorne 53). The scaffold was used as a symbol to represent how Puritans dealt with law and punishment to the offenders of the law. The leaders of the society such as the governor, minister and others were on the scaffold trying to get Hester to acknowledge the name of the father of her child and kept telling her if she did she would be free from the scarlet letter she now wore through her confession. Being on the scaffold was the Puritan way of punishing the criminal. The people that stood before Hester wanted to shame her for her sin and made her a public spectacle. The scaffold can represent some dark romantic themes and conflicts as well. Hester