The Scarlet Letter Symbolism

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as a punishment for Hester, and yet it hasn’t punished Hester. In chapter 18, Hawthorne writes, "Thus, we seem to see that, as regarded Hester Prynne, the whole seven years of outlaw and ignominy had been little other than a preparation for this very hour." Although the scarlet letter does bring shame to Hester, as Hawthorne writes, it has not performed its duty. Hester plans to skip town and go back to Europe with Dimmesdale. If she had learned anything from the letter, she would have known better than to run away with a man who wasn’t her husband.
Hester’s daughter, Pearl plays an important symbol in this novel. She is pretty young during most of the events of this novel and her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them piercing questions and draws their attention, and the reader’s, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. Pearl is the most perceptive and honest of them all. Although Pearl changes, she always ...

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