Pearl plays a important function in the novel as the girl of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, the community ‘s curate. Her female parent ‘s isolation and privacy from the other grownups in the community seems unusual to Pearl as she is merely a kid and does non understand the grounds behind it. Though she does non understand that she is a consequence of wickedness and criminal conversation, Pearl proves to understand affairs that even the grownups in the novel do non look to notice. Since Pearl ‘s perceptual experience of her milieus is non yet tainted by the society she lives in, she represents the pure, guiltless and finally true position of the events that occur in the novel. Pearl perceives the things go oning around her in a wholly different manner than the older characters due to her guiltless mentality of the universe. Near the terminal of the novel, when Pearl inquiries her female parent about “ the Black Man ” and how he is connected to Hester ‘s vermilion missive, it shows the reader that she is non wholly unmindful to what the community discusses. She attempts to coerce Hester into speaking about the “ A ” that is embroidered on her thorax when she uses eel grass to make an “ A ” on her thorax but her attempt is non successful. Her attempt to make so proves to the reader that though Pearl has this inexperienced person, stainless position on everything she still has the desire to cognize the truth, despite the fact that it is slightly apparent. The desire for the truth that Pearl possesses parallels the people in her community as the Puritans will blindly accept the truth that is presented to them in order to non upset the position quo. Pearl and her female parent both display analogues of the norms of their society. Hester exhibits this parallel by perpetrating the criminal conversation that consequences in Pearl who besides portions this trait with her female parent by desiring to cognize the truth. The reader besides sees Pearl ‘s nonsubjective position in the wood when Hester calls her over to recognize Dimmesdale. Pearl is hesitating to make what her female parent asks of her, relaying to the reader that the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale, every bit good as their program to get away and travel to Europe, may non be the best thought. These manifestations of Pearl ‘s point of position of the events that occur around her demonstrate Hawthorne ‘s effort to utilize Pearl ‘s character non merely as a “ human vermilion missive ” but besides as a symbol of societal rebelliousness and a pure/innocent position of the personal businesss that occur throughout the novel.

The Scarlet Letter is non merely what the rubric of the novel is based on but is the major symbol of Nathaniel Hawthorne ‘s best work. The ruddy “ A ” that is displayed on Hester Prynne ‘s thorax is the penalty that is given to her by her community ‘s tribunal for perpetrating criminal conversation. The “ A ” stands for fornicator and is ruddy as that was the coloring material that was associated with the Satan every bit good as “ evil ” ( or any error, including perpetrating a wickedness ) . This was chosen as a penalty as it would be at that place for everyone to see every bit good as to halt any other adult females from commiting the same wickedness that caused Hester all the humiliation and shame that she is put through. Though it was non meant to be so, the vermilion missive that Hester adorned on all her vesture was attractively embroidered with gold and vermilion yarn by Hester herself which caused even more scrutiny by the community as it seemed that she was proud of this item of her wickedness but the true ground was that Hester accepted her wickedness as a portion of her new ego and embraced it every bit best as she could. Hester ‘s penalty, to decorate this vermilion missive for the remainder of her life every bit good as on her gravestone, depicts the Puritans ‘ belief that wickedness should be publically punished in order to halt others to perpetrate the same wickedness. This belief is apparent in the history of Puritan opinion which the writer ‘s ascendants played a big function in. Nathaniel Hawthorne may hold obtained the inspiration for Hester Prynne ‘s public sentence from the real-life historic events of the Puritan community and their opinions. Hawthorne studied the General Court of Massachusetts ‘ old tribunal records and there he found records of two tests that involved public humiliation as a sentence. The first was a burglar who was punished by holding an ear cut off and a “ B ” branded onto his brow and the other was the sentencing of an fornicatress which was given 30 shots who had to stand in public have oning a paper with the words “ Thus I stand for my fornicatress and whorish passenger car ” on her thorax ( Barna, 1998 ) . It could be argued that the penalty for perpetrating criminal conversation may hold non been as drastic for a male in Hester ‘s place due to the fact that a female making so disrupted the set functions of adult females in the Puritan society. The Puritans believed that “ The figure of the married woman ideally contains the biological female, the obedient girl ( and possibly sister ) , the faithful mate, the responsible female parent, and the believing Christian, and harmonizes all the forms that bestow upon her these differing individualities ” ( Tanner, 1979 ) . These beliefs constituted that adult females should carry through all the mentioned functions and that pretermiting any of them as that would interrupt the stiff societal construction that the Puritans had worked so difficult to develop, something that was unacceptable in that society. The writer uses the vermilion missive to uncover the beliefs and judicial traditions of the Puritans which he knows about due to his ascendants ‘ engagement in it. The vermilion missive is besides representative of the consequence of wickedness as it is symbolic of Hester ‘s criminal conversation and consequences in her isolation from the community as it separates her from the other adult females as the “ Adulteress ” . Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter to portray the Puritans ‘ judicial traditions and beliefs every bit good as to stand for Hester ‘s wickedness and isolation.

The meteor is one of the most curious events in the novel and displays the different positions in the novel. Dimmesdale, Hester and Pearl are on the scaffold together when a meteor illuminates the sky, go forthing a ruddy dull visible radiation in the form of an “ Angstrom ” in the dark sky. The townsfolk stare in astonishment and come to the decision that the “ A ” stands for “ Angel ” , meaning Governor Winthrop ‘s entry into Eden. Their darling curate, nevertheless, believes that the meteor means that he excessively should have on a badge of shame merely as Hester must make every twenty-four hours. This contrast in positions shows two constructs that are apparent throughout the novel, guilt and the Puritans ‘ inclinations. Dimmesdale ‘s guilt is evident in this portion of the novel as it is what causes him to infer what he assumes the “ A ” signifies. The Puritan inclination to leap to the decision that any unnatural, unexplained event must be connected to a godly deduction is besides apparent in this portion of the novel. The meteor besides sheds visible radiation on the lip service that the Puritan community possessed because as the townsfolk are assuming that their asleep governor is enetering heaven, their curate is enduring from huge guilt from the exact same happening without their cognition despite the evident hints. The meteor symbolizes the miscellaneous perceptual experiences in the presumably perfect Puritan society every bit good as the guilt that Dimmesdale is consumed with.

The symbols that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses in The Scarlet Letter relay particular messages to the reader throughout the novel to pass on concepts/ideas that are important to the overall secret plan. Pearl and The Scarlet Letter both act as symbols of societal noncompliance every bit good every bit act as Markss of Hester and Arthur ‘s iniquitous act of criminal conversation. Pearl besides symbolizes purity/innocence and an nonsubjective position of the truth. The meteor is used to stand for the changing positions or lip service of the Puritan society every bit good as meaning Arthur Dimmesdale ‘s guilt. Hawthorne uses symbolism as a tool to help his reader to read between the lines in order to understand the novel better while understanding major thoughts that he intended to portray through his work.