First and Second Hours’
Symbolism
GOOD JOB, EVERYONE! Smart thinking here!
Technical Climax
!   “Happy are you, Hester that wear the scarlet letter
openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret! Thou
little knowest what a relief it is, after the torment of a
seven years’ cheat, to look into an eye that recognizes
me for what I am!” (Hawthorne 129).
Dramatic Climax
!   “I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I
should have stood, here, with this woman, whose arm,
more than the little strength wherewith I have crept
hitherward, sustains me at this dreadful moment, from
grovelling down upon my face!” (173).
Light
!   Light/sun represents innocence and redemption
!   Shade/ dark represents guilt and condemnation
!   Daylight = makes one susceptible to punishment/ exposes
individual, so people hide sins /public view, or conforming to
society
!   The meteor, which lit the marketplace like it was mid-day,
exposed the three on the scaffold
Light
!   Sunlight=purity, goodness, doesn’t shine on Hester,
when she takes off the letter the light does shine on
her, Pearl
!   Shadows=sin, impurity, Hester = relaxed in darkness
!   Night/darkness = people are themselves, conceals
individuals
!   Light= innocence, place of morality
Letter A - Motif
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Symbolizes= sin, adultery, repentance, strength
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Shows Internal and external Conflict
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Changes throughout novel. Examples are adultery,
angel, able, authority
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As an adulterer, the letter symbolizes weight on her
heart
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Symbolizes restriction (personal prison)
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Symbol of shame, but is a symbol of identity
Letter A - Motif
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Native Americans mistake her letter for a symbol of
high dignity
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Physical reminder of her sin
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Pearl makes her own out of weeds (weeds are the ugly
side of nature; Pearl recognizes Hester’s sin)
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Meteor also resembles A
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Coat of Arms, shows distorted A--Truth, guilt
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Sky-meteor Dimmesdale’s sin
Scaffold
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3 important scaffold scenes are parallel
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Represents Isolation and alienation, public
humiliation, discipline, public repentance
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isolation is accompanied by freedom (by being isolated
from society, individuals are free from confines of
society)
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Shows Dimmesdale’s progression towards redemption
(break into the three scenes)
Scaffold
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Scaffold is elevated=discipline is above all else?
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As seen with Dimmesdale and Hester it is a means to
(or path to) redemption through confession
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Elevated, closer to god
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Tool for author to show the flaws in Puritan America
Flowers/Weeds/Nature
!   Used to symbolize good and evil
!   Weeds = evil side of human soul
!   Flowers= goodness, forgiveness and hope
!   Scene where weeds are growing out of the unmarked
grave= guilt without redemption
!   Flowers= roses added contrast to Puritans lives,
Freedom of choice? Fate
!   Flowers and weeds show duality human nature
Flowers/Nature cont.
!   Pearl is called an “immortal flower, out of the rank
luxuriance of a guilty passion.”
!   Puritan children are described as “the ugliest weeds of
the garden… whom Pearl smote down and uprooted,
most unmercifully.”
!   Pearl claims to be plucked off the bush by the prison.
She will “relieve the darkening close of a take of human
frailty and sorrow.”
Forest
!   Forest=evil, escape from reality,
!   Dimmesdale acts righteous in town, but reveals himself
in the forest
!   Chapter 23=Pearl does not recognize D because he
looks different in the forest
!   Safe haven for Hester and freedom
Brook
!   Symbolizing Pearl (innocence)
!   Two different worlds (lightness and innocence vs.
darkness and guilt)
!   Boundary between good and evil
!   Barrier between sin and innocence, light and darkness
!   Represents Pearl’s innocence
!   Contrasts Pearl who is full of life. Brook is described as
sad.
Pearl
!   Symbol of sacrifice, sin, shame
!   H. named her Pearl because she gave everything she
had for Pearl (her great treasure, cost a high price)
!   Pearl is Hester’s sin but is also a blessing
!   Embodiment of “nature of sin” yet beautiful
!   Good and bad, beauty vs. ugliness
!   Something valuable created from undesirable object
Leech
!   Represents Chillingworth who is a Dr. and is ironic as
Chillingworth is supposed to help (as a Dr.) but does
the opposite
!   Symbolizes Roger Chillingworth’s revenge
!   Leech=blood sucking (blood =life)
!   Sucking life from Dimmesdale
!   Chillingworth has a parasitic relationship with
Dimmesdale
Leech=Doctor
!   Leech was born to suck life, so Chillingworth’s sole
purpose is to suck life (or truth) from D.
!   Chillingworth damaged D. until he repented
!   Leech = ugly like Chillingworth
!   Leech may appear friendly at the beginning, used as
medicine but with continued use can damage
!   Leech is sneaky, trickster
Prison
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Rosebush is outside prison (something beautiful can exist right
outside of sin or darkness?) reminder of moral tale author is offering
to reader. Pearl is often referred to as a rose.
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Represents evil and wrongdoing of society, yet maintains civilized
society
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Represents need for order- prison is one of the first things to be built
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Symbol of unrest and disorder of human existence, punishment and
fear of punishment
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Punishment for those who go against society and what society deems a
crime
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Represents strict foundation of rules
Prison
!   Represent the sin in Puritan society
!   Always some Hidden sin
!   Symbolizes separation and confinement,
!   Each character is imprisoned
!   H = alienation
!   C = revenge
!   D = unconfessed guilt
!   Shows truth about society, because prison is always
necessary. Represents dark part of Puritan’s lives that they
did not want to accept
Market Place
!   Market Place is where the townspeople meet
(civilization)
!   Public humiliation and punishment
!   Houses scaffold
!   Birth of story and death of story
Reflections
!   Supposed to reflect things as they are
!   Suit of armor reflects Hester’s letter and symbolized
her isolation from society
!   Should show how people actually are vs. what people
perceive