Preview

The Scarlet Letter: Darkness Illuminated

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
659 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Scarlet Letter: Darkness Illuminated
The Scarlet Letter: Darkness Illuminated

Since the conception of humanity, man has been fascinated with that presence which illuminates, yet cannot be touched. Mankind has brought it into his religions, giving it a great deal of importance in his creed. Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses light as a tool of God that illuminates the darkness of human iniquity and exposes its permanence. He studies the psychological theme of the impossibility of eradicating sin from the human heart in his novel The Scarlet Letter. The use of light in order to fortify this psychological theme confirms its significance in the novel. As though he were weaving an elaborate tapestry, Hawthorne meshes light's intense symbolism into his characters' natures until a chef d'oeuvre manifests itself upon the loom of the reader's intellect. This tapestry serves as a subtle background upon which the characters' sinful hearts are bared. As Hawthorne navigates the reader through the passages of his dark tale, one follows Hester as she goes to Governor Bellingham's mansion. Light is reflected by almost every aspect of the extravagant dwelling. Through the narrator's words, we see the Governor's house as Hester sees it: "...though partly muffled by a curtain, it [the hallway] was more powerfully illuminated by one of those embowed hall windows..." (Hawthorne 101). One can envision the brilliant sunlight streaming though the immense window, slicing through the facade of the Governor's feigned sanctity. Is not simplicity one of the fundamental tenets of the Puritan faith? Yet Bellingham, the very person that passed judgment on Hester and her sin is laid bare to the reader's opened eye.
Here, light shows Governor Bellingham to be corrupt due to his improvident lifestyle. In his genius, Hawthorne defines light not only as a presence, but as an animate consciousness. Still acting as a tool of God, light seems to run away from Hester when she tries to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is one of the most analyzed and most discussed literary works in American literature. Hawthorne's ambiguity and strong use of symbols have made this novel very complex and detailed. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many symbols to give insight into characters and promote his views on society. The scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter tell the reader exactly what is to come, and the presence of light in those scenes gives the reader insight into the characters.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Scarlet Letter Essay

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A pattern to conform to is a kind of shelter.” This quote can be considered valid or invalid depending on the person who is reading the quote. Whether it is someone like the Puritans in the Scarlet Letter who believes that life should be lived in a strict manner, or whether it is someone who cannot stand a uniform life, there will be never a time when everyone accepts or denies this quote.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every day it comes up in the morning and sets in the evening. If it is present, it is a beautiful day; if it is hidden, then it is a gloomy day. In Nathaniel Hawthorn's book, The Scarlet Letter, the author uses the presence and absence of sunlight to represent the exposure and concealment of sin respectively.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses the recurring motif of the scaffolding in order to symbolize shame and public confession. Through various chapters Hawthorne uses the scaffolding to depict Hester’s shame, Dimmesdale’s struggle, and later his confession.…

    • 507 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scarlet Letter Essay +

    • 1813 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Throughout life we all will be faced with hypocrites or have the choice to be true to ourselves or to deceive ourselves. Especially as a Christian you may wonder if people look at you as a hypocrite and should also strive to not be one. Of course, the most important part is to be true to yourself because only then may you be true to God and to others. Nathaniel Hawthorne also shows this in The Scarlet Letter through the characters he portrays. In chapter 20, Hawthorne writes, “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one fact to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” Hiding the truth from others just confuses life and oneself.…

    • 1813 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    5) Why did Hawthorne write this novel and how does he use symbolism to portray his point?…

    • 2671 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Scarlet Letter Essay

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "To be fully human is to balance the heart, the mind, and the spirit.” One could suggest the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that one should not violate the sanctity of the human heart. Hester was well ahead of her time, and believed that love was more important than living in a lie. Dimmesdale’s theology and his inclinations render him almost incapable of action; Chillingsworth dammed himself, along with Dimmesdale. Hester was “frank with [Chillingsworth].”…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Light often has positive connotations that include purity and warmth. Puritan society would welcome light as a symbol of the former, but warmth is not reminiscent of the strict religion. Puritans valued simplicity and hard work, but experiencing warmth as an emotion stemming from joy and laughter was unacceptable. With their strict rules, anyone who sinned was persecuted. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrates the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman condemned by Puritan society. She committed adultery with the minister of the church, Arthur Dimmesdale. With the intention to shame her, the town requires her to keep a red letter A permanently on her chest. Hester and her daughter, Pearl, live on the edge of the town, near the…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    vestige of the white man's tread." (p. 187) If we look at the title of this…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The women, though, condemn Hester Prynne and say that she brings disgrace upon all the women. Someone so beautiful like Hester comes from the door, and the crowd is able to see the scarlet letter as well as the baby in her arms. The children and adults gaze, while she walks toward the gallows. Standing on the gallows alone, she starts dreaming of her previous life in England. Hester remembers her father, her mother, and herself when she was a child. She also saw a man, who is pale, thin, and has a scholar-like visage. She comes back to reality noticing the grim faces looking at her. Hester touches the Scarlet Letter as to make sure her punishment and shame were forreal.…

    • 4855 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    There are several different forms of suffering; internal, external, and pain brought by others. These forms of suffering happen all the time in the real world and the fictional world. One of the examples of suffering in the fictional world can be seen in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter. Several people in the book are intimate with the definition of suffering, some suffering longer and more than others. In this book, the one person who had the most suffering placed on him was the well-known minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has dealt with horrible internal guilt, has been mentally tortured by someone he thought of as a friend, and has physically harmed himself to try and repent for the sin, making him the character…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hawthorne uses ambiguity to get the readers thinking and to analyze the story to see if…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Scarlet Letter Images

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Images of light are seen throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter. These images illuminate a character’s true intention and personality, yet at the same time, force a character to hide certain aspects of his personality while under the public eye. The view of Hester on the scaffold, when she is receiving her punishment for adultery in front of the public eye, the image of light illuminates her scarlet letter and sin; liberating Hester from public judgment and the pain of concealing sin, “Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how here beauty shown out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.” (49). The fact the Hester’s sin is known to all and that she is stands tall with her baby in her arms and the scarlet letter on her chest shows that she no longer needs to conceal anything from the public eye, “And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison.” (49). After being revealed to the public, Hester must now live in isolation with nature, self-reliance and non-conformity being the ethics in her life; yet having the relief of wearing sin on her chest.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Lit Unit 8

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. How do the authors describe Hawthorne? He is described as a public figure, capable of a certain urbanity. He is absorbed by the evils of enigma and of moral responsibility.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The stigma gone, Hester heaved a long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit. O exquisite relief!...There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood. A crimson flush was glowing on her cheek…as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been the effluence of these two mortal hearts, it vanished with their sorrow.” (158)…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays