The Scarlet Letter

The opening chapter of The Scarlet Letter may appear superfluous, but it is an integral part of the text. While only a scant three paragraphs long, "The Prison Door" serves a variety of functions. First, it establishes the novel's somber setting and tone. Next, it introduces the work's overriding themes of sin and penance. Most importantly, the first chapter subtly reveals the principle conflict at the core of Hawthorne's masterpiece. Through a combination of metaphor, allusion, imagery, and recurrent words, invaluable insight is provided into the tension among the autonomy and authority propelling the work. Therefore, "The Prison Door" proves to be indispensable in erecting the solid foundation in atmosphere and symbolism on which the novel securely rests.

In the most fundamental sense, the initial chapter supplies the story's setting. By opening outside a Boston prison during the mid-seventeenth century, the work is given a historical context. Certain knowledge and expectations are consequently evoked. Through its association with the colonization of the new world, the novel's locale summons images of austerity and peril. This fact alone successfully conveys the work's morose tone.

However, the gravity pervading The Scarlet Letter is best imparted through Hawthorne's deft use of language. From the very first sentence, he paints a dismal and foreboding portrait. The townsfolk's clothing is described as "sad-colored" and "gray" (53). While the prison door they have congregated around is "heavily-timbered" and "studded with iron spikes" (53). Marked by "weather stains and other indications of old age", this "beetle-browed" and "gloomy" edifice is characterized as "the black flower of civilized society" (53). Such images of corruption and condemnation run rampant throughout the first chapter. A nearby grass-plot is strangled by "burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation" (53). While the close proximity of the words "doom", "condemned" and "the fall" inevitably conjure the concept of original sin (53). Lastly, the phrases "never to have known a youthful era" and "more antique than anything else in the new world" complete a picture of utter despair (53).

These doleful images compose the nucleus of the novel. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all stained by their individual sins. For an act of passion, Hester is ostracized and set forth as a symbol of iniquity and shame to the Puritan community. While the bodies and souls of both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth steadily degenerate as a direct result of their own hypocrisy and vindictiveness, respectively. All three characters experience prolonged suffering before any achieve a sliver of enduring solace. The first chapter, therefore, is of paramount importance in creating an environment conducive to the heavy themes of sin and penance. Utilizing grim description and imagery, it assembles an atmosphere of profound debasement and misery. The novel's darkness in spirit is captured most simply in the chapter's concluding sentence, which refers to the work as a "tale of human frailty and sorrow" (54).

Further insight into the novel's major themes is provided through the host of symbols located within "The Prison Door". Of theses the most conspicuous are the prison and cemetery. They are the alpha and omega of the story, since it opens with Hester's journey from the prison onto the scaffold and concludes with a description of her and Dimmesdale's shared tombstone. Along with reinforcing the work's melancholy tone, both sites function as instruments of foreshadowing. The sinister cloud of sin and penance hovering throughout the novel is prefigured by the prison, a vessel of law and order. While the cemetery portends that the nature of the story's iniquities coupled with the severity of their punishments will culminate in death. Therefore, both places are much more than simple props. Together the prison and cemetery help disclose the forthcoming topics of sin, suffering, and penance intrinsic to the work.

The chapter's other obvious symbol is the aforementioned "unsightly vegetation" plaguing the lawn (53). These weeds hold two distinct meanings. First and foremost, they represent iniquity and the corruption it entails. This motif of sin and grappling with its consequences is the essence of Hawthorne's self-described romance.

In another aspect, the weeds symbolize the elements of authority which repress autonomy. The afflicted "grass-plot" in the first chapter, in turn, signifies passion, spontaneity, and individuality (53). Consequently, the two symbols interact to foreshadow the suppression of Hester's sense of passion and autonomy by the stern Puritan community. Just as the grass is smothered beneath the weeds, individuality, and emotional expression are stifled by authority and rigid tenets.

While the prison, cemetery, grass-plot, and weeds are all thematically significant, the preeminent symbol of the first chapter is unequivocally the wild rose bush. Anchored near the threshold of the prison door, this brier holds multiple connotations. In one perspective, it is a basic symbol of Pearl's resiliency. "The unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment" and a product of unlawful union, she is completely alienated from her community (90). Yet, despite being reared in an antagonistic environment, she never becomes dispirited. Conversely, Pearl's personality manages to thrive in such hostile surroundings much like the wild rose bush is able to blossom in the harsh, uncongenial New England soil.

Along a similar vein, the wild rose bush is a token of the paradoxical effect Pearl has on her mother. To Hester, the child is both a godsend and hellish tormentor. Her mother's sole source of joy, Pearl is the force sustaining Hester's will to live along with providing the key to her eternal salvation. Yet, she is also the thorny embodiment of the scarlet letter, a "living hieroglyphic" of her mother's sin (166). Therefore, in all their relations, Pearl is impelled "to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to give with a throb of anguish" (166). While she is ultimately the savior of Hester's soul, throughout the work Pearl remains a thorn deeply embedded in her mother's side.

However, Hester endures the acute pain her daughter engenders along with rest of her anguish. Regardless of her profound suffering, she invariably maintains her integrity. In this respect, the rose bush symbolizes her indomitable spirit. If the prison, a vessel of authority, is depicted as "the black flower