The Scarlet Letter (colors) :: essays research papers

Essay The Scarlet Letter-ColorsThroughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the themes with various dramatic colors. Of the rove are the colors green and gold, where green symbolizes different aspects of reputation such(prenominal) as tranquility, security, and gloominess, whereas gold represents all that pertains to luxuriance, serenity and goodness. In certain chapters, it seems as if one color is codependent with the other.The implication of the color green was most verdant in chapter sixteen, where Hawthorne use much description to depict the dreariness inwardly the woods, yet adding a sense of security to it all. Here they sat down on a luxuriant heap of moss, which, at some epoch of the forego century, had been a gigantic pine, with its root and trunk in the darksome shade&8230 (177) in that respect is, apparently, plenty of references to the color green. Not only does green represent nature in general, its reference to the forest is also the very depiction of freedom. cypher watches in the woods to report misbehavior, thus it is here that people may do as they wish.The color gold is of dominance in this novel. It is used frequently to describe richness and luxuriance. On the breast of her gown, in fine blushful cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A. (60)However, it carries an even more important reference to the cheerfulness in chapter sixteen, the sun also symbolizing guilt-free happiness. Pearl seems to absorb the sunlight while it flees from Hester and her fix of sin. In chapter eighteen, the two colors, green and gold, intertwines and implicates pure serenity. Amidst the green, lush forest, Hester takes the letter take away her bosom and instantly transforms into a new person, a person in conclusion revealing herself from under a shield of shame.