![]() ![]() Let me get straight to my main point (knowing that you are already familiar with the facts of the novel): no one is saved in The Scarlet Letter unless he climbs up upon the scaffold. Roger Chillingworth and Pearl – were saved (and by saved I am referring ultimately to the Christian meaning of that term, although it has other meanings as well). Especially by the use of these two symbols, I hope to demonstrate that all four of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter – Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Mr. I will maintain that the scaffold, formally a penal instrument of punishment, shame and humiliation, is ultimately a symbol of salvation, and the forest a symbol of freedom from conventional moral restraints. ![]() His main criticism of the novel was that it contained “a great deal of symbolism…I think, too much.” The point, however, is that symbolism is very important to understanding The Scarlet Letter, and in this short note I will make much of two very important symbols used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, namely, the scaffold and the forest. Henry James, the famous novelist, wrote a note about The Scarlet Letter in which he called it “the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth” in the United States. In this light, as I hope to demonstrate, The Scarlet Letter is a tale about repentance, forgiveness, rebirth and redemption. Chillingworth – one of the most menacing and evil characters in all of literature! But Chillingworth manages to make it up upon the scaffold, and even to kneel down for a moment, when a prayer is said for him. The power of the scaffold in The Scarlet Letter is most amply manifested by the redemption and salvation of Mr. “Is not this better than what we dreamed of in the forest?” (Chapter 23)
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