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English 7 A/C
April 11, 2007


The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romance, a highly stylized symbolic fable, and only in its moral significance is it firmly linked with the world we inhibit. Hawthorne uses literary elements such as symbolism, irony, and allegory throughout the novel to portray the theme: the effect of sin on the soul. The Scarlet Letter is set in the seventeenth century, in a New England colony of Massachusetts. The complete action is set in the town of Boston with the scenes shifting within it. Landscape is no mere backdrop in The Scarlet Letter; it’s inseparable from action, policy and meaning (Hawthorn). The crucial scaffold scenes are set in the market place, while the meeting of Hester and Dimmesdale is set in the forest. The novel, however, opens with a prison setting, foreshadowing the future seclusion, gloominess and condemnation of both Hester and Dimmesdale.
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recall the story of our own bible’s Adam and Eve. In both cases of Adam and Eve and Hester and Dimmesdale, sin results in expulsion and suffering (The Scarlet Letter). In the story of Adam and Eve, God expelled Adam and Eve from Paradise like wicked serpents and had cast them into exile. Adam and Eve engineered their own eviction from Paradise by eating "the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden" (Bible). Hester and Dimmesdale commit adultery which is confessed as a symbol in a scarlet “a” which Hester wears on her clothing. Dimmesdale walks freely throughout the community without the physical sight of adultery upon him, although he feels the pain of the crime he committed within himself. Dimmesdale suffers from knowing that he has done wrong, and knowing that Hester suffers from the same sin that he has committed and yet he is not shown to the community as Hester is.
“In The Scarlet Letter, landscape is no mere backdrop; it is inseparable from policy and action and...