More：Biblical Archetype
The scarlet letter "A" also can be seen the symbol of Adam. It tells us that Hester's sin is the original sin of human being, it is forgivable. The writer shows his sympathy by describing the scarlet letter "A" on Hester's clothing as an ornament and a decoration.
• This letter is meant to be worn in shame, and to make Hester feel unwanted. "Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment„(P74)“ • Hester is ashamed of her sin, but she chooses not to show it. She commits this sin in the heat of passion, and fully admits it because, though she is ashamed, she also receives her greatest treasure, Pearl, out of it.
• She is a very strong woman to be able to hold up so well against what she must face. Many will have fled Boston, and seek a place where no one knows of her great sin. Hester chooses to stay though, which shows a lot of strength and integrity. Any woman with enough nerve to hold up against a town, which despises her very existence, and to stay in a place where her daughter is referred to as a "devil child," either has some sort of psychological problem, or is a very tough woman.
1.the Symbolic Meaning of the Letter“A”in the Scarlet Letter
2.On psychological conflict of Dimondale in the scarlet letter
In the novel, the scarlet letter "A" changes its meaning many different times. This change is significant. It shows growth in the characters, and the community in which they live.
A symbol of sin
A symbol of alone and
alienation
A symbol of able, angel and admirable
Adultery • The letter "A", worn on Hester's bosom, is a symbol of her adultery against Roger Chillingworth. This is the puritan way of treating her as a criminal, for the crime of adultery. The puritan treatment continues, because as Hester walks through the streets, she will be looked down upon as if she is some sort of demon from hell that commits a terrible crime.
• and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind. She stood apart from moral interests„ seemed to be the sole portion that she retained in the universal heart."(P78) • Hester has no friends in the world, and little Pearl is the only companion of her lonely life, so the scarlet letter "A" also is a symbol of the words "alone" and "alienate".
•torturing dimmesdale mercilessly and destroy his weak nerve as well as body at last. In these seven years, dimmesdale suffer painful psychological conflicts between belief and reality, individual and society, respect and sin, love and hatred. • <-> conflict between religious belief and real life. • As a clergyman, Dimmesdale is devout and dirine. Graduating from a famous
" It had been built Alone and Alienation by an earlier settler, and abandoned, The scarlet letter "A" because the soil about it was too also stands for Hester's lonely life in sterile for New England. After she cultivation, while its comparative is released, Hester remoteness put it out lives in a cottage near of the sphere of that the outskirts of the social activity which city. already marked the habits of the emigrants." (P75)
The scarlet letter has a different individual meaning to the various characters.
• To Hester, the A is a symbol of unjust humiliation. • To the Puritan community, it is a mark of just punishment. • To Pearl, the A is a bright and mysterious curiosity which symbolizes her existence and the meaning behind it. • For Chillingworth, the A represents the need for revenge and is the spur to this quest. • To Dimmesdale, the A is a piercing reminder of his the guilt engulfing his concealed
• Hester's social life is virtually eliminated as a result of her shameful history. Hester comes to have a part to perform in the world with her native energy of character and rare capacity." However, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came to contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banishedgel
• Later, the scarlet letter "A" changes its meaning into being able, angel and admirable. The townspeople who condemned her now believe the scarlet letter to stand for her ability to her beautiful needlework and for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick. "The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness is found in her so much power to do and power to sympathize - that many people refuses to interpret the scarlet letter ‘A' by its original signification."(P148)