Scarlet Letter
...cter by looking at her dark hair, which often show highlights of sunshine. Likewise, Reverend Dimmesdale has a white (good) brow, suggesting that he knows what is right, and he has dark, melancholy eyes, which if viewed as the windows to Dimmesdale's soul says something about his character (Waggoner, Hawthorne 125). The analysis is born out by Dimmesdale's actions. He knows intellectually what is the moral thing to do, and he even tries to do good works, but the darkness in his soul supercedes the goodness in his head. Hester's daughter by Dimmesdale, Pearl, is often identified with the color red, which Waggoner identifies as evil. In this case, Waggoner's analysis does not seem to work. Pearl is not an evil child in the true sense of the word, but she is a reflection of her parent's immorality and their love. The color red, along with images of bright illumination show Pearl to be the product of a moment of passion between Hester and Dimmesdale. It represents two things in this context. The first is the idea that the passion between Dimmesdale and Hester is not such a sin in Hawthorne's eyes. The illumination indicates that Pearl is basically a good child. The second thing represented by Pearl's association with the color red is hope for the future. Just like the red rose at the start of the story, Pearl is meant to relieve the sorrow and misery. The most famous symbol is of course the scarlet letter itself. Called, "The Elaborate Sign," by Allen Smith, a noted writer on Hawthorne's fiction. the letter A manifests itself a number of times and in a number of ways throughout the story. The A may appear on Dimmesdale's chest; it appears as Pearl; in the sky as a huge letter formed by a comet; in the mirror at the Governor's mansion; and on Hester's tombstone (Smith 11). The letter A is such an important symbol to the story that one meaning cannot be attached to it. Of course the surface meaning of the letter is as a representation of, "Adulterer." This is the legal and literal interpretation of the symbol. The letter itself is red, which at first glance would seem to confirm Mr. Waggoner's theory that red in the story is a representation of evil. A case can be made, however, that even in the letter A that red is symbolic of hope and spirit. The scarlet letter is at once both the source of Hester's shame and disgrace and the source of her strength. Not only does it suggest the seed out of which Pearl grew, but it is a symbol of Hester doing the right thing in atoning for her indiscretions. The most interesting (and overlooked) aspect of the color red as it applies to the A is the overtones to Christian tradition. Whether or not Hawthorne would intentionally picture a woman and a sinner as a Christ figure is not a question that can be answered within the scope of this paper. The similarities, however, are too strong to ignore. The red of the A is representative of Christ's blood. Hester, like Christ, went to her cross (the wearing of the A) in atonement of another's sins. The problem of Christ being sinless and Hester not is solved by Hawthorne, as he portrays Hester as the highest moral character in the novel. This analogy holds up well in the context of the story and brings about new insight that was not mentioned in any of the reference texts cited for this paper. Perhaps one of the best ways to look at a piece of literature is through the writings that exist about it. There have been many critiques of The Scarlet Letter over the years. Henry Chorley did a wonderful job of describing the story in the opening sentence of his 1850 review of the book. He states simply that, "This is a most powerful but painful story" (Cohen, ed. 27). Cohen's review of the work is generally favorable. A telling statement illustrates, however, the newness of subjects like this being dealt with in the novel. "We are by no means satisfied that passions and tragedies like these are the legitimate subjects for fiction," writes Chorley, "But if Sin and Sorrow . . . are to be presented in any work of art, they have rarely been treated with a loftier severity, purity, and sympathy than in . . . [The] Scarlet Letter " (Cohen, ed. 28) This statement gives some idea of what Hawthorne was facing in publishing a work like The Scarlet Letter. It also s...