Light and Darkness in The Scarlet Letter

The Color of Sin: The Importance of Light and Darkness in the Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter is a novel that is overflowing with powerful imagery, emphasizing the inner natures of characters and the significance of certain events. Specifically, the ideas of light and darkness, along with similar concepts, are constant sources of dramatic influence within the plot of the story. Hawthorne employs these descriptive devices to underline the overall importance of the coloring and shading that begins with Hester Prynne's Scarlet letter itself.

Light is used throughout the novel to highlight or point out aspects of characters, illuminating their intentions and thoughts, as well as their inner qualities. In the Custom House introductory chapter, light and similar constructs are used many times to illustrate representations of the narrator and other characters for the reader. A strong impression of the Old General, as the Collector was described, using light as a tool to symbolize an awakening of the character's emotion and attention when called upon for intelligent input from another person is given. This inner luminosity that is depicted is expressed using light, lamp, and rays as references to the recurring theme of light that Hawthorne plays with continuously in The Scarlet Letter. The narrator in the Custom House introductory recalls that people he worked with perceived him "in no other light" than as a smart, sensible worker. Again, the reference to light reinforces it as a recurring motif.