Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never whop what youre going to get," suggests Tom Hanks in the motion picture "Forrest Gump". He utilizes this fiction to align a box of chocolates as a symbol for life. symbol serves as a useful tool to convey a content or point subtly so that the concept lingers in the judicial decision of the reader, who then establishes a relation in his or her mind with that intention and the message. Hawthorne uses symbolism in The Scarlet Letter extensively to express the rudimentary truths about the stifling spirit of Puritan society and the dispositions of the characters in the refreshful. such(prenominal) elements as nature, color, and light the scarlet letter itself as well as the scaffold, where the three pinnacles of the plot occur, operate on a firm rump of symbolism.Nature, color and light are used as symbols throughout the novel to nauseousustrate several areas of the story (Waggoner 154). The prison threshold, for exa mple, was described as world composed of oak and iron and its coloring sad and gray, symbolize the rigidity of the Puritan society against blazeners (Waggoner 154). The rosebush situated outside of the prison door is like a moral blossom growing amongst the bitter weeds of society, in the most unlikely of places (Hawthorne). The placement of the rosebush in such a dank, improb competent position as outside of a place lodging sinners (the prison), imparts the fact that such an element of beauty and innocence is nevertheless 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 air of sin (Waggoner 156). However, her purity is just as real as that which comes from a commencement of virtue (Waggoner 156). She is often associated with roses (Waggoner 156). For example, in the governors she cries and pleas that she must extradite one (Waggoner 156). In addition, her very name is an indication of the symb ol she conveys (Waggoner 157). wish well a pearl comes from the mangled, muddied exterior of the oyster, Pearl comes from the equally impure and squalid exterior of the sin her parents willingly committed (Waggoner 157). Another nature related symbol comes in the forest. The forest itself holds its own variety of symbolism. license is one expression of the forest. There is no reason for Hester and Dimmesdale to be airless among the trees where no one can witness their union (Matthiessen 299).