... letter such as 'able' or 'agony' or how the townspeople has interpreted it as 'angel' when it has been seen in the sky. Another use of symbolism is through nature that is used for the most part in the forest for this novel. The forest symbolises both good and evil, ... and freedom, yet can be dark, foreboding and evil. Another good example of the use of major element of Romanticism in the novel is in the first chapter where Hester leaves the jail house, on one side of the portal, is a rosebush. This rosebush is a powerful symbol of survival as it has survived. ... apos;Th...

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• Has Bibliography

... contributions to the rise of American Literature. Much of Hawthorne's symbolism is very hard to find but several symbols are also obvious. In the first chapter Hawthorne describes the prison as "the black flower of civilized society". The prison represents the crime and punishment that was incorporated in the early Puritan life ... prison with the tombstone at the end of the novel by suggesting that crime and punishment bring about the end of civilized life. In the same chapter he describes the overgrown vegetation of weeds around the prison. The weeds symbolize how corrupt civilization ...

• Word Count: 502
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• Grade Level: High School

... agony as well as mine!" Her statement signifies an early attachment to the letter and declares her plans to willingly endure her punishment. The scaffold is again made prominent in chapter 12, when Dimmesdale ascends its steps as Hester had done seven years prior. Hawthorne depicts Dimmesdale as evidently overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and remorse, saying, "Mr. Dimmesdale was ... to conceal his identity. In this scene, Pearl and Hester join him on the scaffold, as they link hands together and watch as a meteor illuminates a letter "A" in the sky. Pearl, consistently distinguishing c...

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... what he did. Dimmesdale has been feeling guilty ever since Hester was shamed for the affair. He envies Hester for being able to be true to herself. For example, in chapter 17, Dimmesdale says to Hester, "Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!" (Hawthorne, 192). Dimmesdale got to a point ... is the reason why he kept bringing his hand to his chest. Another symbol emphasizing his guilt is when the lightning in the shape of an "A" strikes the sky on the same night he had been with Hester and Pearl. He's negatively impacted by the l...

• Word Count: 958
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... story, the 'A' is a symbol of her guilt and shame. It represents the sin Hester has committed, and is a constant reminder of that sin to both herself and the community. In chapter five, Hawthorne writes "Another peculiar torture was felt in the gaze of a new eye. When strangers looked curiously at the scarlet letter, "and none ever failed to do so ... admit to his guilt, and his stature in the community remains.  He remains silent of his crime, and his guilt is symbolized by the A-shaped meteor that flashes across the sky while he stands with Pearl and Hester on the scaffold. To Reve...

• Word Count: 872
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... around the town, natural symbols in the heavens, and nature in the forest. First we see two symbols in the town that show how sin isolates people. In the first chapter we see a plant which stands out, "But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered with its delicate gems" (Hawthorne). This rosebush ... the skies. Our first instance occurs during the second famous scaffold scene. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl are atop the scaffold when, "a light gleamed far and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors ...

• Word Count: 1118
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• Grade Level: High School

... shame with Dimmesdale's secret shame by having them both touch the stop where the scarlet letter is simultaneously. The second scaffold scene, also the climax of the plot, occurs in chapter 12. As a result of his guilt, Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold late one night, while Chillingworth cautiously watches in the darkness nearby. Hester and Pearl, who are out late because she ... had taken measurements for a funeral robe, climb the scaffold to join him. While on the scaffold, they see a meteor in the sky that resembles a red letter "A". Then, Pearl asks him to stand on the scaffold with t...

• Word Count: 443
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... a red light before him, as when the felled trunks and branches of clearing have been set on fire and throw up their lurid blaze against the sky." It is true that evil was ahead. However, one can remain strong and fight temptations. Through the use of Faith and the pink ribbon, ... doubtful situations, one can still be strong and hopeful, through the use of vivid imagery. While Brown was in the forest, "He looked up to the sky, doubting where there really was a Heaven above. "Yet, there was a blue arch, and a star brightening in it." Sometimes one may begin ... Even in the roughest moments...

• Word Count: 724
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Europe with Dimmesdale? Towards the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, we see Hester being punished publicly for the sin she has committed with Dimmesdale. In chapter 2, Hawthorne writes, "He laid his right hand upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he thus drew forward; until on the threshold ... of her shame and she is constantly hurting because of her punishment. When she walks around town, the people look at her in a humiliating way. In chapter 5, Hawthorne writes, "Another peculiar torture was felt in the gaze of a new eye. When strangers looked curiously at The Scarlet Letter, - a...

• Word Count: 944
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... scenes that show Hester Prynne's love for the mutual partner of her sin. Such scenes can be found in: (1.) Chapter Two, The Market-Place (2.) Chapter Thirteen, Another View of Hester (3.) Chapter Seventeen, The Pastor and His Parishioner. Within the beginning of the novel, we the reader are introduced to Hester Prynne and ... finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes! "these were her realities,--all else had vanished!- Within the thirteenth chapter, Another View Of Hester, we the reader begin to learn that the once accusers of Hester Prynne's sin are now chan...

• Word Count: 1213
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... revision of the letter, her choice to change the original significance of the scarlet "A" into something that is interpreted differently than the meaning given by the law. By the second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is deemed a criminal and ostracized from the community. From then on, the reader is meant to interpret Hester's actions as those of a criminal, and ... novel progresses, the reader follows Hester's life and sees how she interacts with the world surrounding her. Later, in chapter thirteen, we get another view of Hester Prynne. Here she no longer occupies the st...

• Word Count: 1195
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... he publicly announces his true identity near the end of the novel. Evidence of such hints is found as early in the novel as the third chapter, "The Recognition." Reverend Dimmesdale opens conversation, pressing Hester to speak up against her coconspirator. After receiving a haranguing from Mr. Wilson, who ... identity of her child's father a secret provides a great hint to the fact that Dimmesdale may have something he is hiding. Further into the novel in chapter 8, "The Elf-Child and the Minister", Roger Chillingworth accuses Dimmesdale of speaking "with a strange earnestness" (105) as...

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... staff that represents the easy options we can choose in lives but that not are the better ones. When life is all what we thought we see a beauty and clean sky, how Goodman sees it. The visible blue sky symbol still signals there is still a little bit of faith left. When Goodman still has a little faith we can see it with this ... sky blue that is visible and clean, and that represents the maximum believe in God. When he started to lose that little faith still in him; "black mass of cloud" appears. ... ...

• Word Count: 713
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• Grade Level: High School

... the role model they have, in their minds Reverend Dimmesdale is a saint and he is their guide or path to heaven. Hester Prynne follows the puritan idea on idleness. In chapter 5 page 56, Hawthorne describes Hester making richly embroidered clothing at all hours for public officials. "Deep ruffs, painfully wrought bands, and gorgeously embroidered gloves"- "-there was a frequent and characteristic demand ... for such labor as Hester Prynne could supply." In addition she kept herself busy by caring for the sick and dying such as Governor Winthrop. In chapter 12 page 105, Hester is describ...

• Word Count: 745
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... footsteps of Henry Nash Smith and his analysis of the "Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth" (first published in 1950, walking in a slightly different direction). In chapter 1, Marx establishes his basic thesis: the intrusion of the machine into the natural idyllic (bucolic) landscape is a constitutive motif in American "culture" (here, his conceptual definition is rather ... certain products of the collective imagination meet"). Literary expressions range from Washington Irving to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville (Moby Dick), and Twain (Huckleberry Finn), to "contemporaries" s...

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Kiran Thomas 10/27/02 English 10 Honors The Scarlet Letter: Chap. 1-2 Chapter One In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne sets a gloomy and dark mood. The descriptions of the peoples clothing " in sad colored garments and gray ... the reader's mind of the tone and mood of the novel. The term juxtapose can be best defined as to place one on top of another. In the opening chapter of The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne juxtaposes the image of a prison against the image of a rosebush. The weathered prison described with its "gloomy front," which "seemed never ... the prison with the beauty ...

• Word Count: 808
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... footsteps of Henry Nash Smith and his analysis of the "Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth" (first published in 1950, walking in a slightly different direction). In chapter 1, Marx establishes his basic thesis: the intrusion of the machine into the natural idyllic (bucolic) landscape is a constitutive motif in American "culture" (here, his conceptual definition is rather ... certain products of the collective imagination meet"). Literary expressions range from Washington Irving to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville (Moby Dick), and Twain (Huckleberry Finn), to "contemporaries" s...

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... self-respect and survives her punishment with dignity, grace, and ever-growing strength of character. From the moment Hester Prynne is introduced into the plot of The Scarlet Letter in chapter 2, "The Marketplace", the reader realizes she is very prideful and strong. As an adulteress, she is forced to endure ignominy from her peers and is sentenced to have the letter ... courage all throughout The Scarlet Letter. The best example of this courage is her willingness to stay in Boston, the town where both the sin and punishment took place. In chapter 5, Hester arrives at a reason for her t...

• Word Count: 909
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... pearl for just as a clam produces a beautiful creation as the result of a terrible incident, so pearl was created. This terrible incident is the sin committed between Hester and Dimmesdale. In chapter two, the reader sees Hester refusing to hold Pearl next to her breast with the scarlet "A." Hester dose this because she feels that one symbol of shame would be inadequate ... illustrated by Pearl many times thought the novel. By acknowledging the letter on her mother's chest, Pearl plays an extremely active role in Hester's penance rather than a passive one. In Chapter 15, the reader sees...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... self-respect and survives her punishment with dignity, grace, and ever-growing strength of character. From the moment Hester Prynne is introduced into the plot of The Scarlet Letter in chapter 2, "The Marketplace", the reader realizes she is very prideful and strong. As an adulteress, she is forced to endure ignominy from her peers and is sentenced to have the letter ... courage all throughout The Scarlet Letter. The best example of this courage is her willingness to stay in Boston, the town where both the sin and punishment took place. In chapter 5, Hester arrives at a reason for her t...

• Word Count: 912
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• Grade Level: High School

... when Ellen mentions that she thinks railroads are smoother and faster. Henry retaliates angrily, "And dirtier and uglier. Thank God men haven't learned to fly: they'd lay waste the sky as well as the earth" (34). In this scene we see Henry's outstanding ability to teach, his patience, and his love for nature. A few traits of Henry David Thoreau ... of his ideas, he predicted what would happen to the world. In the boat scene he predicted that if the human race learns how to fly, we would ruin the sky. So what happened in the future? We learned how to fly, and in the process we polluted t...

• Word Count: 1091
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Brown at this point doubts the people around him and whether they are truly the good people he thought them to be. Upon seeing the pink ribbon fall from the sky he becomes convinced that Faith has succumbed to evil, he even shouts "my Faith is gone there is no good on earth; sin is but a name" (pg. 23 ... doubt the good in some of the people he admired most, including his minister and Deacon Gookin. When Young Goodman Brown sees his wife, Faith's pink ribbon fall from the sky he truly believes the symbol and that everyone around him is evil and that there is no good left in the world. A...

• Word Count: 1193
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... because she has a bad feeling about what is out there. The symbolism in the story deals with good and evil. When Mr. Brown is stares into the sky for some comfort from Heaven, the sky clouds up and all good feelings are gone. The forest is symbolic because it is a place of mystery and unknowns. The author also uses imagery in the ... ...

• Word Count: 900
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• Grade Level: High School

... is Goodman that needs to be content with his view of things when he returns. An interesting fact is when he is in the woods he looks up to the sky wondering if there is a heaven up there, everything looks normal but then he hears some noises and immediately a dark cloud covers the stars above. It is Goodman's idea of horrid ... blasphemy that changes the perception of the town just as it did with the sky in the woods. Every aspect of the town is the same as when he left it, he just distrusts his eyes. Something very interesting is said in the story when ... ...

• Word Count: 819
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• Grade Level: High School

... lived for eighty years. The peacefulness is clear in the painting. Perhaps more important is the use of light in the skyline. It shows the stormy sky above the house as oppose to the bright blue sky of the open field. J.M.W. Turner was one of the most romantic Romantic painters so to speak. He kept true to form. His painting "The Slave ... ...

• Word Count: 939
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School