Variations of Symbolism in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, 1988

Nathaniel Hawthorne's works have prompted consider-able study. The majority of these studies, however, have concentrated primarily on his development of themes through the use of various types of metaphorical devices. Few have considered the nature of the allegory employed in his romances. Since the romances afford material for an extended examination of the author's myriad symbolic devices, they will be used as bases for this study. Concentration will be placed on The Scarlet Letter (1850), the setting of which is laid in seventeenth-century Boston; The House of the Seven Gables (1851), laid in nineteenth-century Salem; The Blithedale Romance (1852), which immortalizes the Brook Farm experiment of the Transcendentalists; and The Marble Faun (1860), which is laid in Rome, Italy. Chapter One treats the essential components of Hawthorne's biography and symbolism. Chapter Two contains an account of his use of symbolism and suggests a conception of literature which such use implies of his 'neutral territory.' In Chapter Three, the writer attempts to analyze the types of symbolism used by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter and to determine the function of each in relation to the novel as a whole