Thursday, November 21, 2013

S.L. chp. 12

#37

The letter A, marked out in lines of dull red light. Not but the meteor may have shown itself at that point, burning duskily through a veil of cloud; but with no such shape as his guilty imagination gave it; or, at least, with so little definiteness, that another's guilt might have seen another symbol in it.

The large letter A in the sky is a symbol to Dimmesdale of adultery and to Hester it is an alternate way to interpret her letter. After the letter is seen in the sky Hester's letter now means angel. The next sentence says that Dimmesdale sees the letter A and interprets it with his imagination as an A for adultery. The other persons guilt refers to Hester and how she interprets the letter to her benefit instead of in a negative way.

1 comment:

  1. So the "A" in the sky means different things to different people based on what they hold within themselves?

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