Hello again my fellow bloggers, readers, and visitors to The Scarlet Reader. I have decided to examine today the symbolism and the story behind the Black Man in the Scarlet Letter. As the week has progressed, I have tried to draw connections between The Crucible and the Scarlet Letter and I have found many similarities that could connect the two books together. They are connected through objects such as the black book, and the idea of the devil and evil.
The Black Man is a symbol for Satan in this book, and Hester considers the scarlet letter “A” to be the Black Man’s mark on herself. At the same time, Pearl wonders if the Black Man left his mark on Dimmesdale’s heart as well, because she notices that he grasps it quite often. Hawthorne loves to compare Chillingworth to Satan as well. Chillingworth has been seen in the town both as a leach and as something more than evil, so it is no surprise that when this Black Man appears, Chillingworth is the first to be compared to him. But don’t you find it coincidental that Pearl says that the Black Man comes to make people sign his black book, while in The Crucible, we see young girls accuse innocent people in the town of signing the black book? The Puritans believed during this time period that witches and the devil were prominent in their society, so whenever something horrible went wrong, they would automatically accuse that person of being a witch, or being influenced by the devil. The Puritans like to use the Black Man as a symbol of all evil, making evil something separate from common human life. But, it seems as though Hawthorne does not agree with that statement.
Hawthorne, I believe, looks at the Black Man as someone who has set its mark on society in a positive way, and these marks are symbols of something good in society. These symbols I am referring to are the letter “A” on Hester’s dress and the unknown symbol on Dimmesdale’s chest. Both Hester and Dimmesdale committed a sin that for that time period was punishable, but I think Hawthorne looks at them as examples of how to accept sin and move on. The Black Man is nothing more than a representation of that sin and the mark that it has had on people’s lives. Society, on the other hand, looks at the Black Man as being the symbol of all evil and the devil, as seen through the comparison to Chillingworth. But in reality, he is nothing more than a mark on society.
So, I leave you all with this; to you, does the Black Man represent something more than just evil, or do you believe that it is up to you as the reader to distinguish whether the Black Man represents something good in society? To me, I think that he is a representation of people who dare to be something greater in life, people who go their own path and do what their heart desires. These are the people in life who will be most respected and most loved just like Hester Prynne is with the scarlet letter.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Reader 
I really liked this post. I think that the information was really nice and the comparison to The Crucible which most of us have read was an interesting addition. The end was the real star though because you added your own personal opinion while leaving the reader with a parting thought which was quite clever. One thing to add would be that the title of the book is The Scarlet Letter, rather than the Scarlet Letter; “the” should be capitalized and italicized as well. Other than that I thought it was easy to follow and had a lot of good insight, so good job!
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