The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

What is a symbol? A symbol is something used for or regarded as representing something else (dictionary.com). One of the most famous symbols is the scarlet letter “A” in Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. The scarlet letter “A” represents different things throughout the novel. Some of the different things “A” represents is adulteress, able, and then the past.

In the second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne comes out of the jail with a baby in her arms and a beautiful scarlet letter “A” embroidered over her heart on her dress. The “A” stands for adulteress. An adulteress is a woman who has sex with a man who is not her husband. “…Hester Prynne,- yes, at herself,- who stood on the scaffold of the pillory, an infant on her arm, and the letter A, in scarlet, fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom!”(Hawthorne 51) When Master Dimmesdale asks her to tell who the father is that he may share the punishment with her, she refuses to tell. Later, when she is released from prison, she lives on the outskirts of town as an outcast.

Years pass and the townspeople start to grow use to Hester Prynne and her child, little Pearl. Hester is always helping the people who need help and sewing for the townspeople. As we see this change in Hester, we also see a change in the scarlet letter. “Such helpfulness was found in her,-so much power to do, and power to sympathize- that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.” (Hawthorne 143) Now the scarlet letter is no longer a symbol for adulteress, but a symbol for able.

Hester meets Dimmesdale in the woods on his way back to town. Throughout the book we find that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl. We see that he is broken, consumed by the guilt of the sin he committed with Hester. She tells him to leave town and start a new life. Dimmesdale asks...