The Moon and the Sun In the Scarlet Letter

Lucy GalstyanJanuary 16,2006

AP Language and CompositionMrs. Halajian

The Sun

• Represents the absolute cosmic power• Known as universal father• Symbolized by the wheel, a disk, a circle, or

a ball• Center of being and intuition• Knowledge and warmth• Glory and splendor• Can represent unbridled passion in youth

Sunlight

• Light is one of the most universal and fundamental symbols

• Represents illumination and intelligence• Source of goodness and ultimate reality

• Avenges darkness and evil forces• Light is knowledge

• Is connected with purity and morality

The Moon

• Feminine symbol• Represents the rhythm of time• Phases of moon symbolize

immortality & eternity• Could symbolize inner knowledge or

phases of a man’s condition• Middle ground between the light of

the sun and the darkness of night• Often represents the realm between

conscious and unconscious

The Moon• In astrology, the

moon is a symbol of the soul

• In horoscope, it determines someone’s ability to reflect and adapt

• Can also provide analogies for the stages of human development

The Sun In the Scarlet Letter“The bright morning sun, therefore, shone

on broad shoulders and well developed busts, and on round and ruddy cheeks.” Chapter 2, page 44

• Broad shoulders

• Well developed busts

• Round and ruddy cheeks

The Sun and the Scarlet Letter

“Such an interview, perhaps, would have been more terrible than even to meet him as she now did, with the hot mid-day sun burning down upon her face, and lighting up its shame.” Chapter 3, page 54

• Hot, midday sun

• Burning down upon her face

• Lighting up its shame

The Sun and Pearl

“How strange it seemed to the sad woman, as she watched the growth, and the beauty that became everyday more brilliant, and the intelligence that threw its quivering sunshine over the tiny features of the child.” Chapter 6, page 74

• Intelligence• Quivering sunshine• Strange it seemed

The Flood f Sunshine

“All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees. The objects that had made a shadow hitherto, embodied the brightness now.” Chapter 18

Sunshine and Pearl

“It was strange, the way in which Pearl stood, looking so steadfastly at them through the dim medium of the forest gloom, herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray of sunshine, that was attracted thitherward as by a certain sympathy.” Chapter 19

• Glorified with a ray of sunshine

Light and Dimmesdale

“The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. It was the exhilarating effect--upon a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart--of breathing the wild, free atmosphere of an unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region.” Chapter 18

• Glow of strange enjoyment• Dungeon of his own heart• Unchristianized, lawless region

Sunshine and Hester

“As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed like fading sunshine, and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her.” Chapter 19

• Womanhood

• Fading sunshine

• Gray shadow

The Moon & SunIn the Scarlet Letter

“Nothing was more common, in those days, than to interpret all meteoric appearances, and other natural phenomena that occurred with less regularity than the rise and set of sun and moon, as so many revelations from a supernatural source.” Chapter 12

• Interpreted all meteoric appearances• Rise and set of sun and moon

Moral Of Scarlet Letter

“Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence:--"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" Chapter 24

Be TRUE!!!!

Be TRUE!!!!

Be TRUE!!!!

Bibliography

http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html

http://staff.fcps.net/mkearl/links/Online%20Symbolism%Dictionary.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolism

www.freeessays.cc/db/18/esv269.shtml

http://www.cliffnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-167,pageNum-86.html

http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=30305

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne