The Prison Door
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After the little Custom-House intro, Hawthorne dumps us right in the middle of the Puritan community, at a door that's "heavily timbered with oak,...
Pearl, Hester's Daughter
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If you want to know about Pearl as a person, check out her "Character Analysis." But she's just as much a symbol as she is a character in her own righ...
The Scarlet Letter
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Hester's scarlet letter is a hardworking symbol. At various times, it symbolizes adultery, sin, hard work, skill, charity, righteousness, sacredness,...
The Red Mark on Dimmesdale's Chest
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Hester isn't the only one with a symbol on her chest; Dimmesdale has one, too. In blood. But we can't quite figure this mark out. It's the physical ma...
The Meteor
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Life in the 21st century sure is boring. We may have iThings and FaceFinds, but we don't have meteors-in-the-shape-of-an-A and exploding stars and bl...
The Black Man
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The Black Man is a euphemism for Satan in this book: Hester considers the scarlet letter A to be the Black Man's mark, and Pearl wonders aloud if the...
The Forest and the Wilderness
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To the townspeople, the forest is the unknown. It's outside of the town, it's full of American Indians and scary creatures, and, worst of all, it's ut...
The Custom House
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If you snoozed through the little introductory appetizer to The Scarlet Letter, we won't tell. (Shmoop will never tell.) The language is particularly...