Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what youre going to get," suggests Tom Hanks in the motion picture "Forrest Gump". He utilizes this metaphor to align a box of chocolates as a figure for life. Symbolism serves as a useful tool to convey a message or point subtly so that the concept lingers in the soul of the reader, who then establishes a relation in his or her mind with that object and the message. Hawthorne uses symbolic representationism in The Scarlet Letter extensively to declare the underlying truths about the stifling nature of Puritan society and the dispositions of the characters in the novel. Such elements as nature, color, and light the scarlet letter itself as head as the scaffold, where the three pinnacles of the plot occur, operate on a unswerving foundation of symbolism.Nature, color and light are used as symbols end-to-end the novel to illustrate several areas of the story (Waggoner 154). The prison house door, for example, was described as being composed of oak and iron and its coloring sad and gray, symbolizing the rigidity of the Puritan society against sinners (Waggoner 154). The rosebush situated outside of the prison door is like a moral blossom growing amongst the stifling weeds of society, in the most unlikely of distances (Hawthorne). The placement of the rosebush in such(prenominal) a dank, improbable position as outside of a place housing sinners (the prison), imparts the fact that such an element of beauty and innocence is provided able to be born out of a station with such an ill aura. Pearl is symbolic of the rosebush in that she was spawned from the same evil pipeline of sin (Waggoner 156). However, her purity is just as real as that which comes from a origin of virtue (Waggoner 156). She is often associated with roses (Waggoner 156). For example, in the governors she cries and pleas that she mustiness have one (Waggoner 156). In addition, her very name is an indication of the symbol she conveys (Waggoner 157). Like a pearl comes from the mangled, impure exterior of the oyster, Pearl comes from the as impure and squalid exterior of the sin her parents willingly committed (Waggoner 157). some other nature related symbol comes in the forest. The forest itself holds its own multifariousness of symbolism. Freedom is one expression of the forest. There is no reason for Hester and Dimmesdale to be secretive among the trees where no one can witness their union (Matthiessen 299).