Literature Analysis #2 : The Scarlet Letter

 1. The Scarlet Letter begins when Hester is released from prison so that she can be paraded through town, displaying her scarlet "A" while standing on top of the town public stage. She carries her baby daughter, Pearl, in her arms. Pearl was born in prison. Hester steadfastly refuses to reveal the name of Pearl’s father, so that he might be saved from punishment.
   Hester Prynne’s long lost husband arrives in the midst of this parade through town. He visits her in prison before she is released and asks her not to tell anyone that he’s in town. He wants to disguise himself so that he can seek revenge on her lover.
   Hester’s husband tells the townspeople that he’s a physician, and he adopts a fake name: Roger Chillingworth. Hester keeps his secret. Chillingworth soon realizes that the minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is the likely father of Hester’s baby, and he haunts the minister’s mind and soul, day and night, for the next seven years.
  The minister is too afraid to confess his sin publicly, but his guilt eats away at him; Chillingworth’s constant examination really makes him antsy. Seven years pass and, finally, Hester realizes the evil her husband has done to the man she loves, the father of her child. She reveals Chillingworth’s true identity to Dimmesdale, and the two plan to runaway together.
   The minister can't follow through with the plan. Dimmesdale confesses his sin to the townspeople on the public stage that had, seven years earlier, been the scene of Hester’s public shaming. His dying act is to throw open his shirt so that the scarlet A that he has carved onto his chest is revealed to his parishioners. Dimmesdale finds peace through confession.
   When Chillingworth dies approximately a year after his rival, Dimmesdale, he leaves all his money and property to Pearl. Hester and Pearl finally escape the community where they have been outcasts for so many years and return to the Old World (England). However, many years later, Hester returns to the New England community that had been the site of her shame, resuming the scarlet letter of her own will.
   When she dies, she is buried near the minister, and they share a gravestone. The gravestone contains an image, described as follows: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules." In other words, marked on the headstone is a scarlet letter A drawn over a black background.

2. Some themes that can be interpreted by this book are sin, knowledge, the human condition, the nature of evil, and idenity and society.

3. The tone of this novel varies between contemplative and somewhat bitter in the introduction, thoughtful, fairly straightforward, yet occasionally tinged with irony in the body of the narrative.
- "In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvellous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it."
-"A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part."
-"It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates.  Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility"

4. Some Literary devives used in The Scarlet Letter are symbolism, allegory, and imagery.

-The prison door is described as having never known "a youthful era". It’s made of iron and very old and creepy. Yet, the wild rosebush that grows at the side of the portal is its saving grace. The rosebush represents kindness and forgiveness to the prisoners who must face either a prison sentence or a death sentence. The iron door seems to represent all that is strict and unrelenting in Puritan society, while the rosebush seems to represent the concept of "grace" or forgiveness.

- Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is a symbol of all that Hester gave up when she committed adultery and gave up her place in Puritan society. Hester has gone through hell as a result of giving birth to a child. She lives in perpetual punishment because of Pearl, and that is why she loves Pearl so much. The name “Pearl” makes us think of  jewels, and there is indeed something very regal about Pearl – we know that she becomes a great and wealthy heiress. The name “Pearl” also reminds us that pearls come from oysters, and oysters are hard to pry open at times. Pearl definitely is not an easy nut to crack – she mysterious and full of mischief.

- The symbolism behind the scarlet letter A changes throughout this novel. Though initially this letter A symbolizes the sin of adultery, Hester Prynne alters its meaning through her hard work and charity. Some people begin to suggest that the A stands for "able," since Hester is such a capable woman. Others begin to recognize that the scarlet letter has begun to achieve holiness, righteousness. It has "the effect of the cross on a nun’s bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen among thieves, it would have kept her safe". Many years later, when Hester returns and voluntarily takes up the scarlet letter again, it has become, for her and others, a symbol of grace.