The_Scarlet_Letter

The Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the scarlet letter changes as a symbol for different themes throughout the book, but consistently remains a prominent representation of darkness and sin. In this short novel, Hawthorne writes a story about Hester Prynne, a talented seamstress who is doomed to wear a scarlet “A” on her garments for the crime of adultery. This “A” takes on many positive and negative manifestations throughout the novel for many different characters. However, the depiction of the scarlet letter as an icon for darkness and evil consistently prevails above all other depictions. Samuel Coale analyzes much of the changing imagery of the scarlet letter in his article, “The Scarlet Letter as Icon”, for American Transcendental Quarterly. In the first lines of his article, Coale writes: After all is said and done, examined, explored, analyzed, and allegorized in The Scarlet Letter; the letter itself remains undaunted and intact at the end of the romance: “On a Field, Sable, The Letter A, Gules.” It seems to outlive all the controversy and uncertainty concerning it and remains unto itself a kind of icon: intact, red, “one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow…” (Coale letter, scarlet, hester, sin, hawthorne, even, remains, however, symbol, coale, back, first, pearl, chapter, much, light, icon, hope, herself, else, darkness, throughout, story, shame, scaffold, reminder, positive, out, link, intact, embroidered, dimmesdale, comfort, burden