The Scarlet Letter: Light Vs Dark

4 Pages 993 Words

The Light and the Dark

“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom.” In the story of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Hester Prynne has committed the sin of adultery and wears a scarlet “A” on her chest to condemn her. Throughout the story, examples of lightness and darkness are used. Also can be known as good and evil. In the light, the community felt the need to obscure their sins and look pure, as not to let on that they have committed any. If they let on, they will be punished just as Hester was. But during the night and in the dark they feel free to let themselves go. They can all let out their sins, because no one else but them will know about it.
“The door of the jail being flung open from within, they’re appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into the sunshine…” Hester Prynne broke the unwritten law by presenting her sin in the light. When she stood on the scaffold, she stood proud. “Those who had before known her, and had expected to be hold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out…” The people of the town poked and yelled at the situation. Could this merely be away of trying to cover up their own indiscretions? As the story goes on, Hester does not stay as proud. Instead she starts to avoid the light. Because of her sin and the scarlet letter, Hester is no longer pure; therefore she is not seen in the sun. Hawthorne states, "It was only the darkened house that could contain her. When sunshine came again, she was not there." Pearl stated, “The sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself…” This showed that the scarlet letter and the sin, wanted to stay in the darkness, and that the light did not want her sin. Hester told her daughter, “Thou must gather thine own ...