Symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Abstract

In American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Leter (1850) is a worthy symbolic novel, in which symbolism invades al its components. The objective of this work is to explore the symbols used in the novel, casting light on the level of words, leters and characters, and also to decode these symbols and identify the various interpretations they stand for, by aplying Sausure’s Theory. The present work is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the notion of aestheticism in general and presents the most common stylistic devices in literature such as simile, metaphor, and irony; as wel as their theories and views. The second chapter tackles the notion of symbolism as a movement and as a literary device and it presents diferent theories related to symbolism which are atributed to Whitehead, Langer and Sausure. Ferdinand De Sausure’s Theory is the one which is aplied in this study. The third chapter gives an overview about American literature and about the Romantic Movement, and it presents Hawthorne’s major works focusing on his masterpiece The Scarlet leter and its literary analysis. The fourth chapter sheds light on the symbols used in this novel and their interpretations. Al in al, this study aims at showing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s motive behind the use of symbols in his work The Scarlet leter (1850)