Scarlet Letter Symbolism of Darkness

Shadows and Darkness

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is full of symbolism and imagery. One could find a symbol that is relayed throughout the book on every page. To be able to identify and recognize these more subtle symbols, there is a symbol that must be recognized first. Darkness is a recurring theme in this novel that represents secrets, sins, and the nature of one’s soul, but often times darkness is used in terms of shadow and gloom. Three characters show similar, yet completely different, ways that Hawthorne uses Darkness to connect with the reader. Hester, who is the image of darkness to the townspeople. She eventually accepts her sin, yet she is always under the judgemental eyes of the townspeople who will never let her be seen as anything but an abomination. Dimmesdale, who lives in the darkness. He is the father of Pearl, and no one knows this. So he lives his life in a lie, keeping his dark secret buried deep inside him until it eventually kills him. And Chillingworth, who is the literal embodiment of the darkness. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, is consumed with revenge on the father of Pearl, and he lets his soul get consumed by the darkness of his rage. Multiple other accounts of darkness and shadows can be found in the text in relation to Pearl and her ever-growing nature, as well as Mistress Hibbins, the self-proclaimed witch of the novel.

At the very beginning, even before the first chapter, we get into the meaning of this symbol and later find out how during the introduction, Hawthorne is preparing us for what the symbol stands for. “‘What is he?’ murmurs one gray shadow of my fore-fathers to the other” (Hawthorne 13). Hawthorne had decided to be a writer back in times when it was not acceptable, or that being a writer was not considered a job, and he felt as if his ancestors were attached to him. They never left his side and he always held the weight of disappointment -- that they would have had if they were there to see him -- on his shoulders. He can never escape these judgements, because they follow him around. This is the same situation that Hester is in. Hester can never escape “the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddens it” (Hawthorne 93), because even if she chose to escape and leave town, her sin would keep her to this town where she had committed her great sin in the first place. Even though this town has given her life color, -- her affair with Dimmesdale was a great, exciting thing that had been brought into her life, -- it had turned from being vibrant to being dull, because the townspeople caught on and turned this relationship which made her happy, into something that brought her pain every day. Hawthorne uses Hester to show judgement of people and how they are willing to expose other’s wrongdoings, and make one’s life duller, yet are not willing to expose their own. A cottage that once drew no attention from the townspeople has been turned into a “mystic shadow of suspicion” (Hawthorne 95), just due to the fact that Hester now lives there. She has let the townspeople into letting her believe that she is nothing more than sin. She even comes to believe that during her labor with Pearl, her “deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the black shadow and the untempered light” (Hawthorne 105) had been passed along to her child and she expects to “detect some dark and wild peculiarity” (104) in which Pearl had received from her “sinful” act. Not only have they convinced her that she is just sin, but they also show her that too. Although, as she is walking back into the prison from the scaffold “it was whispered, by those who peered after her, that the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior” (Hawthorne 80). The townspeople give the impression that through the scarlet letter, Hester can redeem herself and possibly be seen in the light again, because the letter is leading the way for her. But this is not true, because throughout the whole book she is pushed into the shadows and the people never allow her to be seen in the light. She is used “not as a guest, but as a rightful inmate, into the household that was darkened by trouble” (191). Hester is able to console people who have sinned because these people who have sinned are scared of her fate, and they do not want the other people of the town to know. But, “when sunshine came again, she was not there. Her shadow had faded across the threshold” (Hawthorne 192). In this sentence Hawthorne uses the sunshine, -- which is another symbol, -- as a way of contrasting to the dark, yet he still manages to leave Hester out. As the people started to feel better about what they had done, they just go back to themselves, and Hester leaves, only to be judged just as harshly by the same people.

When it comes to Dimmesdale, Hawthorne portrays him in terms of this symbol as an old dog that chooses to fall “asleep in the sunshine or in the shade” (48). In Dimmesdale’s case specifically, he chooses the shade. The first time we meet Dimmesdale, Hawthorne brings this up about him, and how “he trod in the shadowy by-paths” (77). Dimmesdale is a minister who is greatly worshipped for his strong, angelic voice, and has a good following of parishioners. Little do they know of his secret which he holds so deeply in his heart, that it soon begins to affect his physical health. Dimmesdale seems to want to tell his secret throughout the story but he believes “‘these revelations, [. . .], are meant merely to promote the intellectual satisfaction of all intelligent beings, who will stand waiting, on that day, to see the dark problem of this life made plain.’” (Hawthorne 156). Although “more than once, he had cleared his throat and drawn in the long, deep, tremulous breath, which, when sent forth again, would come burdened with the black secret of his soul” (Hawthorne 170), he believes that his sinful secret is to only be judged by God on judgement day. That revealing his secret before then, would just be to satisfy the people of the town as to who Pearl’s father is. Not only does he keep his secret hidden, he tortures himself over it, and this is the start of a cycle. When he tortures himself, his sermons become great. While his sermons keep getting better, his “popularity in his sacred office” (Hawthorne 167) becomes greater, and as his popularity rises, the more guilt he feels over his secret and he tortures himself more. During one of his vigils,-- a form of his torture, -- he seems to get this “amazing” idea as to how to relieve his guilt. He decides to live his guilt out in the middle of the night on “the same platform or scaffold, black and weather-stained with the storm or sunshine of seven long years”