Scarlet and Sin Symbolism Starts Swiftly

Name: Paulina Smolinski

WordPress user name: paulinasmolinski

Blog Title: Scarlet Reader

This post focuses on Chapters 1-4

A couple of pages into the novel The Scarlet Letter the plot is already filled with both glaringly obvious and slightly less blunt symbolism. The novel starts off with the description of a rosebush amongst weeds covering the prison door.  The narrator even accentuates the fact that he  “could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers and present it to the reader . . . to symbolize some sweet moral blossom” (46). We could easily infer that this delicate rose stands for the essence of Hester Prynne as she stands surrounded by the weeds of ridicule and shame. Somehow, she maintains her beauty by having strength and perseverance. Her thorns are made of self-worth and mental endurance, and they help her to survive the obloquy at the scaffold.   I find her mentality to be just as commendable as it is rare. Many delicate creations deteriorate under the pressure of nature’s wrath which is what makes it even more laudable that “this rosebush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history” (46).

Furthermore, the scaffold on which Hester Prynne is exposed to a pack of gossip-thirsty Puritans shows the symbol of the living sermon which the Puritans wish to make of Prynne. Those who mock her seem to create a foundation on the psychological defense mechanism of projection as they find no faults in their own lives and quite a lot in Hester’s. In essence, I think the Puritans act like a group of teenagers as they revel in backstabbing and malicious talk.  The exhibit that is Hester serves as a threat and reminder to those who dare to follow in her sinful footsteps. The scaffold “in old times was used as an effectual agent in the promotion of good citizenship, as ever was the guillotine among the terrorists of France” (52). I find it important to note that Puritans often searched for symbols in their lives to confirm divine sentiments. Clearly they found it quite necessary to confirm let’s call it less divine sentiments or, in other words, symbols of condemnation. I mean the worst thing that the scaffold does is it takes away the ability to hide. Exposure is inevitable as a shroud of judgment covers her soul. Henceforth, the scaffold also becomes a symbol more obviously of ignominy.

As if this were not enough, the condemning symbol of the ever so flagrant scarlet letter reigns supreme as it even is the namesake of the novel which means it has to hold some paramount purpose. Overall, the scarlet letter A is meant to mark Hester’s soul with her sin of adultery. Every soul she is to encounter is to see and judge her based on this shameful display. The interesting thing is that Hester does not hide the stain of shame. Instead, she embellishes it with “elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourished of gold thread” (50).  I mean it is a huge slap in the face to the Puritan ideology that simplicity is key. She actually goes out of her way to go “greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony” (50). Other than that, it is important to note that Hester almost immediately becomes an anit-hero in these first few chapters. Her refusal to confess the father of the child and mental strength when on the scaffold makes the dreaded scarlet letter also embody power in the face of adversity. Hester proves to accepts her fate and all the pain that is to come as we can see by her last moment before entering the prison doors as she sees that “yes!- these were her realities” (56). Overall, I find the abundance of symbols from the start of the novel to lay the groundwork for the plot to come.

Work cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Dell, 1850. Print.