Throughout the novel “The Scarlet Letter” I was to examine and discuss some of the various symbols. The symbols I focused on pertained to thresholds, they were doors, steps, and scaffolding. Each played a very significant role throughout the novel. They helped to describe setting, character development and moods throughout the novel.

The first symbol that I focused on was door. It appeared 23 times throughout the novel. These are the chapters, pages and context in which I found the word door:

Chapter 1, page 33: “…in front of a wooded edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes.”

Chapter 1, page 33: “The rust on the ponderous iron work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the world.”

Chapter 1, page 34: “She entered the prison-door, - we shall not take upon us to determine… finding it so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal…”

Chapter 2, page 34: “…all with their eyes intently fastened on the iron-clamped oaken door.”

Chapter 2, page 35: “The women, who were now standing about the prison-door�

Chapter 12, page 104: “He felt limbs growing stiff…and doubted weather he should be able to descend the steps of the scaffold.”

Chapter 4, page 51: “…from the moment when we came down the old church-steps together, a married pair, I might have beheld the bale-fire of that scarlet letter blazing at the end of our path!”

Chapter 2, page 36: “On the threshold of the prison-door, she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character…”

Some topics in this essay:
Scarlet Letter”, chapter 12, chapter 2 page, 12 page, chapter 2, chapter 12 page, 2 page, chapter 5 page, chapter 23 page, 5 page, chapter 23, chapter 5, throughout novel, 23 page, Scaffolding Throughout, chapter 1 page, scarlet letter,