Classwork on Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works a complicated thread of symbolism into the fabric of this novel. This symbolism is often based on a set of juxtapositions between opposite qualities. His repetition of these symbols forms a motif throughout the work that gives the novel several layers of meaning. The trick in grasping these motifs is to be able to read key lines with multiple layers of meaning in mind.
As you look over the passages listed below, consider how each one adds some new layer of meaning to the symbolic object or juxtaposition in question. Add one more quote to the motif, based on your own reading, and arrive at some interpretation of Hawthorne’s symbolic theme. Keep in mind that this interpretation is only provisional, and will shift as the novel continues. Also keep in mind that these are only a few motifs of many that are available for interpretation.
Team One: sunshine (daylight) v. shadow (darkness) p49: “…there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into sunshine, the grim and grisly presence of the town-beadle…” p50: “She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam…” p61: “There he stood… while his gray eyes, accustomed to the shaded light of his study, were winking, like those of Hester’s infant, in the unadulterated sunshine.”

Classwork on Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works a complicated thread of symbolism into the fabric of this novel. This symbolism is often based on a set of juxtapositions between opposite qualities. His repetition of these symbols forms a motif throughout the work that gives the novel several layers of meaning. The trick in grasping these motifs is to be able to read key lines with multiple layers of meaning in mind.
As you look over the passages listed below, consider how each one adds some new layer of meaning to the symbolic object or juxtaposition in question. Add one more quote to the motif, based on your own reading, and arrive at some interpretation of Hawthorne’s symbolic theme. Keep in mind that this interpretation is only provisional, and will shift as the novel continues. Also keep in mind that these are only a few motifs of many that are available for interpretation.
Team Two: wood & iron (building materials) p45: “The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World.” p51: “’It were well,’ muttered the most iron-visaged of the old dames, ‘if we stripped
Madame Hester’s rich gown off her dainty shoulders…” p53: “The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron.”

Classwork on Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works a complicated thread of symbolism into the fabric of this novel. This symbolism is often based on a set of juxtapositions between opposite qualities. His repetition of these symbols forms a motif throughout the work that gives the novel several layers of meaning. The trick in grasping these motifs is to be able to read key lines with multiple layers of meaning in mind.
As you look over the passages listed below, consider how each one adds some new layer of meaning to the symbolic object or juxtaposition in question. Add one more quote to the motif, based on your own reading, and arrive at some interpretation of Hawthorne’s symbolic theme. Keep in mind that this interpretation is only provisional, and will shift as the novel continues. Also keep in mind that these are only a few motifs of many that are available for interpretation.
Team Three: heart v. mind p53: “They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without a murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state, which would find only a theme for jest in an exhibition like the present.” p60: “…it would not have been easy to select the same number of wise and virtuous persons, who should be less capable of sitting in judgment on an erring woman’s heart…” p70: “ ‘Ask me not!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. “That thou shalt never know!”
‘Never, sayest thou?’ rejoined he, with a smile of dark and self-relying intelligence.”

Classwork on Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works a complicated thread of symbolism into the fabric of this novel. This symbolism is often based on a set of juxtapositions between opposite qualities. His repetition of these symbols forms a motif throughout the work that gives the novel several layers of meaning. The trick in grasping these motifs is to be able to read key lines with multiple layers of meaning in mind.
As you look over the passages listed below, consider how each one adds some new layer of meaning to the symbolic object or juxtaposition in question. Add one more quote to the motif, based on your own reading, and arrive at some interpretation of Hawthorne’s symbolic theme. Keep in mind that this interpretation is only provisional, and will shift as the novel continues. Also keep in mind that these are only a few motifs of many that are available for interpretation.
Team Four: the color black p46: “…the black flower of civilized society, a prison.” p50: “She had… a face which… had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.” p60: “He wore a dark feather in his hat, a border of embroidery on his cloak, and a black velvet tunic beneath”

Classwork on Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works a complicated thread of symbolism into the fabric of this novel. This symbolism is often based on a set of juxtapositions between opposite qualities. His repetition of these symbols forms a motif throughout the work that gives the novel several layers of meaning. The trick in grasping these motifs is to be able to read key lines with multiple layers of meaning in mind.
As you look over the passages listed below, consider how each one adds some new layer of meaning to the symbolic object or juxtaposition in question. Add one more quote to the motif, based on your own reading, and arrive at some interpretation of Hawthorne’s symbolic theme. Keep in mind that this interpretation is only provisional, and will shift as the novel continues. Also keep in mind that these are only a few motifs of many that are available for interpretation.
Team Five: civilization (town) v. wilderness (forest) p54: “Her mind… kept bringing up other scenes than this roughly hewn street of a little town, on the edge of the Western wilderness” p56: “By the Indian’s side… stood a white man, clad in a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume.” p62: “…a young clergyman, who had come from one of the great English universities, bringing all the learning of the age into our wild forest-land.”

Classwork on Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works a complicated thread of symbolism into the fabric of this novel. This symbolism is often based on a set of juxtapositions between opposite qualities. His repetition of these symbols forms a motif throughout the work that gives the novel several layers of meaning. The trick in grasping these motifs is to be able to read key lines with multiple layers of meaning in mind.
As you look over the passages listed below, consider how each one adds some new layer of meaning to the symbolic object or juxtaposition in question. Add one more quote to the motif, based on your own reading, and arrive at some interpretation of Hawthorne’s symbolic theme. Keep in mind that this interpretation is only provisional, and will shift as the novel continues. Also keep in mind that these are only a few motifs of many that are available for interpretation.
Team Six: heat v. cold p49: “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead.” p64: “…it assumed new terrors in their imagination, and seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the infernal pit.” p69: “My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, without a household fire.”