The Scarlet Letter Symbolism The document discusses various symbols in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter. The prison door symbolizes punishment for crimes. The rose bush symbolizes Hester Prynne and later Pearl and her vibrant life. The scaffold is used three times and symbolizes sin, confession, and finally freedom from guilt. Shadow and light symbolize concealment and later love, forgiveness and grace. The forest symbolizes both natural love and wilderness, acting as a place of refuge by the end of the novel. Pearl represents innocence but also the dual nature of her parents. Dimmesdale's name suggests his doomed fate while Chillingworth's cold name represents his loveless nature. The Black Man

1. The Scarlet Letter Symbolism
The Door
In this novel, the prison door’s description captures the reader’s attention immediately when
he or she starts reading it. The prison door is a symbol of punishment given to the culprits and
jail inmates for their crimes
The Rose Bush
In the first, it perhaps symbolizes Hester Prynne, and later when it appears in the house of the
governor, it symbolizes Pearl and her vibrant life.
Scaffold
The scaffold has been used at three places in the novel. Once, it is used in the second chapter
where Hester is made to stand and humiliated for her sin of adultery. Here, it is a symbol of sin
and crime. It is again used in the twelfth chapter where it is shown as a symbol of confession
and hope, but nobody hears Dimmesdale’s confession. It again appears in the 23rd chapter
where it is a symbol of freedom from long-lasting guilt and secret, as Dimmesdale confesses
everything before dying.
shadow and Light
Two significant seasonal phenomena appear intermittently in the novel. They are sunlight and
shadow. For instance, when the question of Pearl’s future appears before the jury, Dimmesdale
is in the shadow of the garden. It means it is a symbol of cover. However, when the novel nears
its end, there is sunlight on Hester and Dimmesdale, which represents their true love and
peace. It also shows the love, forgiveness, and grace of God upon them.
Forest
Symbolically, a forest has two contradictory meanings. It means natural love as well as
wilderness. As far as its use in the novel is concerned, the forest is a terrifying place, an abode
of Satan, as is considered during the Puritanism, and Hester is left in the forest. However, by
the end of the novel, it proves a place where a person becomes mature and also does his
penance to shed off his sinful past. For example, when Hester and Dimmesdale meet by the end
to plan their escape, they meet at the forest. At this stage, it becomes a place of refuge for
them. In fact, the forest has also changed its symbolical meanings with time.
The Character of Pearl

2. Pearl’s character is very interesting in the novel as it represents a child’s innocence and also the
dual behavior inherited by her father, Dimmesdale, and mother, Hester Prynne. Her wild nature
represents the wild and passionate nature of her mother. She is also a symbol of the price
Hester has paid for her passionate love affair.
Dimmesdale and Chillingworth
Dimmesdale’s name suggests that he will have to face the decline or bad luck in his career. He
is, in fact, a symbol of a person doomed to fail. The same is the case of Chillingworth. Chilling
means icy cold. When he sees Hester Prynne facing the jury of the governor and the pastor at
the beginning of the novel, he doesn’t show compassion. Instead of helping his wife, he turns
cold-hearted and abandons her. He tries to find out the birth father of Pearl and continues to
ploy against Dimmesdale. His name is a symbol of a loveless person.
The Black Man
A Black Man appears twice in the storyline of this novel. It happens in the fourth chapter first
when Hester sees Chillingworth who is smiling at her. She compares him to the Black Man who
haunts the forest. By this, she means the Satan or evil that always keep chasing people to coax
them to do sinful acts.
Sin of Adultery in The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
Sin is a part of everyday life. Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around the
theme of sin and the effects it has on the mind, body, and soul.
A sin was committed by three of the main characters in the novel and throughout the novel Hawthorne
tries to point out that sin, no matter how trivial or how substantial, is still sin. There have been debates
on exactly who is the biggest sinner, but in Hawthorne's case, I think he believes that the sins were
equal and throughout the novel he develops each of them, trying to get the reader to understand is
reasoning.
Adultery, which was the sin surrounding two of the main characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur
Dimmesdale, was the sin in which the novel was based on. Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale,
a Puritan pastor, and had a child (Pearl) as living proof of her sin. She confessed her sin and was looked
down upon by the citizens living in the town. "She would become the general symbol at which the
preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's
frailty and sinful passion." Basically, she was an example of what nobody should become.
The sin of adultery was confessed by one of the two, but Arthur Dimmesdale decided to keep it a secret,
which in time tore him apart. Being a pastor, he was afraid of the consequences that would result from
his confession, so for seven long years he and Hester kept it a secret, and were never seen together in
public.

3. Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, and the other sinner in this novel, sought revenge on whoever
the father to Pearl was. He soon suspected Dimmesdale, and would not rest until got revenge on him.
Chillingworth pretended to be a physician and was to take care of Dimmesdale, but at the same time he
was slowly poisoning him and punishing him physically and mentally. "Calm, gentle, passionless, as he
appeared, there was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now...which led
him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy.
Character List
Hester PrynneCharacter Analysis
The protagonist of the novel, Hester is married to Roger Chillingworth and has an affair with
Arthur Dimmesdale. The affair produces a daughter, Pearl. Hester plays many roles in The
Scarlet Letter: devoted mother, abandoned lover, estranged wife, religious dissenter, feminist,
and outcast, to name just a few. Perhaps her most important role is that of an iconoclast, one
who opposes established conventions. Hester is not just a rebel, she's a glorified rebel, and
Hawthorne uses her to criticize the Puritan's strict society. He portrays Hester fondly, as a
woman of strength, independence, and kindness, who stands up to the judgments and
constraints of her society. Though society tries to demean and disgrace her, Hawthorne
emphasizes that Hester never looked more attractive as when she first emerged from prison
wearing the scarlet letter.
Pearl
The illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Pearl serves as a symbol of
her mother's shame and triumph. At one point the narrator describes Pearl as "the scarlet
letter endowed with life." Like the letter, Pearl is the public consequence of Hester's very
private sin. Yet also like the scarlet letter, Pearl becomes Hester's source of strength. Pearl
defines Hester's identity and purpose and gives Hester a companion to love. Although she often
struggles to understand Pearl's rebelliousness and devilish spirit, Hester never wavers in her
loving devotion to Pearl. Pearl, an outcast, is drawn to other outcasts, such as Mistress Hibbins
and her witch friends. Pearl's affinity for the occult associates her character with sin and evil,
but Pearl is first and foremost a product of love, not just sin. Her rumored happiness and
success as an adult in Europe make her character a symbol of the triumph of love over a
repressed and oppressive society.
Arthur Dimmesdale
A well respected Boston reverend who has an affair with Hester Prynne and is the secret father
of Pearl. Shy, retiring, and well loved and respected by his public, Dimmesdale is too frightened
and selfish to reveal his sin and bear the burden of punishment with Hester. Yet at the same
time, Dimmesdale secretly punishes himself for his sin by fasting and whipping himself.

4. Ultimately the suffering and punishment he endures, though self-inflicted, proves far worse
than Hester's or Pearl's, suggesting that betrayal and selfishness are greater sins than adultery.
Dimmesdale's guilty conscience overwhelms him like a plague, robbing him of his health and
preventing him from raising his daughter. His eventual confession comes too late, and he dies a
victim of his own pride
Roger Chillingworth
The old scholar who Hester Prynne met and married before coming to Boston. Chillingworth is a
forbidding presence. Even his name reflects his haunting, ice-cold aura. Hester's relationship
with Chillingworth, her actual husband, contrasts sharply with her relationship with
Dimmesdale, her lover. Chillingworth is an older man whom she married for reasons other than
love. Dimmesdale is a beloved reverend with whom she had an affair out of love and
irrepressible desire. Chillingworth recognizes this difference and punishes Hester and
Dimmesdale covertly by tormenting Dimmesdale almost to the point of killing him. Meanwhile,
he hypocritically makes Hester swear not to reveal his true identity as her husband in order to
avoid the humiliation of being associated with their scandalous affair. In the end, by tormenting
Dimmesdale, Chillingworth transforms himself into a sick and twisted man, a kind of fiend.