Sunlight In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'
Natasha Davis
Mr. Foster
Honors English 11.3
20 September 2014
Sunlight in The Scarlet Letter
“Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world” (Hawthorne 157). Throughout The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, sunlight is a monumental literary element, for it is how Hawthorne chooses to represent God’s love, or lack thereof for specific characters. Although light usually collects as randomized part of nature, sunlight is specifically used in The Scarlet Letter to be symbolic of God’s approval or disapproval of Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Hester’s actions throughout the novel.
By far the most abundantly sunlit character is Pearl, she is bathed in “…a glimmering light that comes we know not whence, and goes not whither” despite her being a bastard child (69). Religious doctrine …show more content…
It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. Now see! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet! ' 'Nor ever will, my child, I hope, ' said Hester. 'And why not, mother? ' asked Pearl, stopping short, just at the beginning of her race. 'Will not it come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown? ' 'Run away, child, ' answered her mother, 'and catch the sunshine! It will soon be gone. '” Pearl, being the very intelligent child that she is can recognize that something is distinctly different from how sunlight behaves when she plays in it, and when her mother makes it scatter, even though she might not fully understand why. Only when Hester truly realizes the meaninglessness of the “A” and forgives herself and the townspeople their wrongs can she ever feel the warmth of the sunlight, and of God’s love and approval all around her once
Mr. Foster
Honors English 11.3
20 September 2014
Sunlight in The Scarlet Letter
“Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world” (Hawthorne 157). Throughout The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, sunlight is a monumental literary element, for it is how Hawthorne chooses to represent God’s love, or lack thereof for specific characters. Although light usually collects as randomized part of nature, sunlight is specifically used in The Scarlet Letter to be symbolic of God’s approval or disapproval of Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Hester’s actions throughout the novel.
By far the most abundantly sunlit character is Pearl, she is bathed in “…a glimmering light that comes we know not whence, and goes not whither” despite her being a bastard child (69). Religious doctrine …show more content…
It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. Now see! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet! ' 'Nor ever will, my child, I hope, ' said Hester. 'And why not, mother? ' asked Pearl, stopping short, just at the beginning of her race. 'Will not it come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown? ' 'Run away, child, ' answered her mother, 'and catch the sunshine! It will soon be gone. '” Pearl, being the very intelligent child that she is can recognize that something is distinctly different from how sunlight behaves when she plays in it, and when her mother makes it scatter, even though she might not fully understand why. Only when Hester truly realizes the meaninglessness of the “A” and forgives herself and the townspeople their wrongs can she ever feel the warmth of the sunlight, and of God’s love and approval all around her once