Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an early American New England colony established by British Puritans who were seeking religious freedom. This is the primary setting of the novel, in which most of the other places to be mentioned are found. While ostensibly seeking a place of freedom, the Puritans had created a society more repressive than America has ever known through the present day. Beauty and creativity in the surroundings the Puritans themselves created were not valued. A premium was instead placed on utilitarianism and frugality.

While there must surely have been sunshine and beautiful landscapes in the actual area, Hawthorne focuses on the starker, gray quality of New England, as those qualities seem to reflect the personalities of its citizens. Hester has been jailed and ostracized for her crime of committing adultery and having a child out of wedlock. As a result, there are very few bright spots in her world. The hard, dark landscape with its cleared fields and minimalist human-made structures mirrors the rigid mindset that represses her.

Prison and Courtyard

The prison and courtyard are the colony’s jail, in which readers first encounter Hester and her daughter, Pearl. The jail cell where Hester spends the days of her imprisonment is presented as small and gloomy. It is in the prison’s courtyard, also plain and cheerless, where Hester is dragged in front of the townspeople to parade her shame on the scaffold.

Interestingly, there is a spot of color in the prison yard. In the midst of the weeds and ugliness, a rosebush blooms. This can be seen as the landscape yielding up some hope for relief in all the surrounding bleakness.

Forest

The forest is the wilderness area surrounding the township. The forest is the scene of a meeting between Hester and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. It is a place of nature, beauty, and freedom from inhibitions. The sensual quality of the untamed land is a perfect backdrop for the forbidden lovers and the complete opposite of the repression of the settled areas of the colony. It is also in the covering of the forest that Hester is able to shed her shame, physically (by removal of the A) as well as mentally, and be a more free-spirited woman.

King’s Chapel Church

King’s Chapel Church is the church at which Arthur Dimmesdale is pastor. The church is a typical New England building of worship—square and boxy—suggesting that something is pent in by its shape. It is within the cloak of the church that Dimmesdale hides from his part of the guilt of his relationship with Hester and where Hester’s sin is condemned in the name of God; it does not project an image of love or forgiveness.

Scaffold

The scaffold is the platform in the center of town, near the prison, where prisoners are brought for public viewing. The scaffold is the scene of Hester’s initial shame as well as the novel’s climax. Although it is under darkness of night that Dimmesdale stands on the platform with Hester to finally accept his shame, it is its openness that is important. It is elevated and open, a place for the revelation of secrets.

Narrator

One of the most evident challenges when discussing The Scarlet Letter is identifying the narrator. This ambiguity is clearly deliberate. In the second paragraph of “The Custom-House,” Hawthorne asserts that he is merely “explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into [his] possession,” aiming to provide “proofs of the authenticity of a narrative therein contained.” Hawthorne describes himself as just an editor, “or very little more.” However, he later admits, “I have allowed myself . . . nearly or altogether as much license as if the facts had been entirely of my own invention” and asserts that all he can confirm is “the authenticity of the outline.” Thus, Hawthorne’s use of ambiguity is both a central theme and a principal technique of the novel.

Symbolism

The Scarlet Letter is abundant in symbols. A symbol, like a metaphor, represents something else: an object, a person, or even an idea. However, the term symbol implies a deeper or more significant meaning, for which metaphor is insufficient. Naturally, the scarlet letter itself is the primary symbol in the novel, but there are many others. In the first chapter, the wild rosebush symbolizes dissent, referencing the historical figure Anne Hutchinson, who led a group of religious dissenters in colonial Massachusetts. It also symbolizes Hester and even foreshadows the scarlet letter she wears.

Characters in the novel can also be interpreted as symbols. For example, Arthur Dimmesdale, with his profound pain and suffering, symbolizes the high value of truth and the irony of its elusiveness.

Setting

Another technique Hawthorne employs to effectively immerse us in the story's atmosphere is his use of setting. The entire novel is set in and around the small colonial town of Boston, Massachusetts. Hawthorne describes the town as precariously positioned between the sea and the vast “wilderness” of unsettled America. Beyond the town lies a “black forest,” which symbolically represents moral absence and evil. The narrator describes a “footpath” that meanders into the “mystery of the primeval forest. This [forest] hemmed it in so narrowly, and stood so black and dense on either side . . . that, to Hester’s mind, it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in which she had so long been wandering.” (©eNotes) This evokes an almost claustrophobic pressure, alluding not only to Hester but also to the community she is part of, always confronting the possibility of moral failure.

As illustrated earlier, Hawthorne skillfully uses color to enhance his depiction of settings. Apart from the black wilderness, there is the grayness of the village and its residents, whom the narrator notes, “seemed never to have known a youthful era.” Although the settlement was relatively new, the jail “was already marked with weather stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its . . . gloomy front.” This dark and somber portrayal of the town creates a tension with the forest, suggesting that the town is already similar to the forest and thus more susceptible to its influence.

Ambiguity

Though the significance of ambiguity as a theme has already been highlighted, it remains one of Hawthorne’s most crucial techniques. Time and again, when the reader expects clear information, Hawthorne complicates and retracts certainty, often leaving the reader feeling frustrated. In chapter 16, even the small forest brook where Hester discards the scarlet letter hints at ambiguity:

The giant trees and granite boulders seemed determined to shroud the course of this small brook in mystery, perhaps fearing that, with its constant babbling, it might whisper secrets from the heart of the ancient forest from which it flowed, or reflect its revelations on the smooth surface of a pool.

Hawthorne crafts this exquisite passage to continually remind the reader that discovering meaning or truth will be profoundly challenging.

Hawthorne structures the tale of Hester and Dimmesdale around three pivotal scenes, each occurring on the scaffold outside the Boston prison. These scenes serve to reveal crucial aspects of his main characters. Throughout the novel, the author skillfully balances the narrative by depicting Hester's life among the villagers, Dimmesdale's increasing torment over his hidden sin, and Chillingworth's devious attempts to uncover his wife's lover.

The novelist excels in using imagery and symbolism. He frequently draws symbolic connections between his characters and elements of nature; light and darkness are used to reflect the moral conditions of the minister, the physician, and the woman who chooses to stay in the village despite her public disgrace. Hawthorne also cleverly uses character names: Dimmesdale represents a man whose spiritual light is dimmed by worldly faults, while Chillingworth is a person devoid of warmth, dominated by the chill of malice. Similarly, Pearl symbolizes the “pearl of great price” from the Bible—a reference Hawthorne explicitly mentions in the text. Though some view Pearl as a symbol of shame for an adulterous union, she instead represents the natural joy that springs from a union blessed by a higher power than Puritan society.

The novel’s central symbol is the letter A worn by Hester, signifying her sin. This symbol not only appears embroidered on Hester’s clothing but also manifests in the sky when Hester and Dimmesdale meet at night near the scaffold. It is also perceived (by some) on Dimmesdale’s chest when they reunite on the scaffold in daylight before the community. Throughout the story, Hawthorne transforms the scarlet letter into a symbol of honor and resistance against a system that suppresses human emotion.

The main influences on Hawthorne's stories come from two sources: the tragedies of classical and Renaissance literature and the romances of the Gothic period of the late eighteenth century. From the latter, Hawthorne adopts the technique of the discovered manuscript, which the narrator finds in the "Custom House" section of the book—a lengthy introduction to the main story. The dark forest scenes, the hidden secrets that plague the hero and heroine, and the presence of a malevolent villain are all hallmarks of Gothic tradition. Hawthorne’s characterizations are more closely aligned with the intense psychological portraits found in the works of Greek tragedians like Sophocles and Aeschylus, and especially in the masterpieces of Shakespeare. Similar to Oedipus Rex, The Scarlet Letter is filled with coincidences that might push the boundaries of realism, but the contrived nature of the plot is easily overlooked because both the author and the reader are deeply invested in the psychological aspects of the main characters. In this regard, Hawthorne excels.

Having secured a significant place in the canon of American literature, The Scarlet Letter has itself become a precedent for numerous tales and novels. Most notably, in the twentieth century, novelist John Updike created a modern rendition of the story. His novels A Month of Sundays (1975), Roger's Version (1984), and S. (1988) form a trilogy in which the protagonist of each novel represents one of the main figures in Hawthorne’s original story.