Hawthorne Literary Symbolism and Hawthorne\'s

HAWTHORNE

LITERARY SYMBOLISM and HAWTHORNE'S

YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN and the SCARLET LETTER

Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the major figures during the period known as the "American Renaissance" when the concept of Transcendentalism was influencing many of his literary contemporaries, provides us with a syllogism related to his personal views on the application of literary metaphor/symbolism in works of fiction and poetry -- "Words are signs of natural facts" and "particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts;" thus, "Nature is the symbol of spirit." Exactly what Emerson is saying with this syllogism has much to do with words as emblems, for he claims that "it is not words only that are emblematic, it is things which are emblematic." These "things" are generally natural objects or events utilized by the writer to "suggest, mirror or symbolize inner mental events." In essence, Emerson views the entire world as emblematic, due to the idea that "the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind" (Richardson, 112).

Clearly, Emerson's emblematic "things" can be found in almost every fictional/poetical example written during the "American Renaissance," particularly in the novels and short stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. As Herman Melville, author of the proverbial American classic Moby Dick, declares, Hawthorne's use of emblematic symbols, especially in the short story "Young Goodman Brown" and in his novel the Scarlet Letter, derives their force from his "appeals to that Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity and Original Sin" which "no deeply-thinking mind is always and wholly free" (Bell, 25). Two particular emblems in these works of Hawthorne stand out as exemplary examples, being the pink ribbon of Goodman Brown's wife Faith and the scarlet "A" embroidered on the dress of Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter.

In "Young Goodman Brown," the reader is first introduced to the pink ribbons of Faith in the opening paragraph -- "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap... " for Goodman Brown, Faith is the human equivalent of a "blessed angel on earth" and upon encountering the devil in the woods, Brown announces that he would much rather spend his time "so purely and sweetly... In the arms of Faith!" (Bell, 123-24). Upon realizing that Faith is now under the fiendish control of the devil, Goodman Brown cries out "My Faith is gone!... There is no good on earth... " (Bell, 126). The emblematic/symbolic importance of Faith's pink ribbons could be interpreted in several ways. Simply put, the color pink is most closely associated with femininity, but under the skillful hands of Hawthorne, the pink ribbons symbolize Faith's chastity, purity and innocence. Deeper yet, since Goodman Brown cries out "My Faith is gone!," the pink ribbons may also symbolize his own faith in God which is taken away when he comes to believe that Faith has been bewitched by the devil.

In utter contrast to the pink ribbons of Faith in "Young Goodman Brown," the proverbial scarlet "A" embroidered on the dress of Hester Prynne in Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter is an emblem/symbol of Melville's "Innate Depravity and Original Sin," meaning that the scarlet "A" is an emblem of adultery or as Hawthorne calls it an "ignominious badge" of dishonor and degradation. The only material similarity between Prynne's scarlet "badge" and Faith's pink ribbons is that both are made of cloth and adorn some type of clothing, i.e., Faith's ribbons are part of her cap while Prynne's "badge" is sewn into her dress as needlework.

The reader is first introduced to Prynne's "badge" in Chapter Two of the Scarlet Letter when she emerges from jail -- "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter a." Upon being led to her "place of punishment" for committing adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale, all eyes are immediately drawn to the scarlet "A" which "had the effect of a spell, taking (Hester) out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself" (Bell, 163-164). Obviously, this scarlet emblem upon Hester's dress seems to emit a life of its own, much like a flaming torch burning in the darkness. It is also a symbol of her "evil doings," for Hester "hath raised a great scandal... In godly Master Dimmesdale's church" (Bell, 170).

In Chapter Five, this weird property of the scarlet "A" is made even more pronounced when Hester walks out of prison -- "She came forth into the sunshine which... seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast" (Bell, 185). Notice that Hawthorne intentionally equates Hester's "heart" with the scarlet letter, i.e., both are emblematic/symbolic of the color red, much like Faith's pink ribbons.