In life one can see that there are two sides in most situations, which are either light or dark. Hawthorne shows this in his characterization of the major characters of The Scarlet Letter. His writing shows the nature of an individual’s sin or the overall nature of sin in each character in this novel. It also shows the contrast between light and darkness in everyone, even the people readers expected to hold the qualities of a righteous individual.
Hawthorne uses many rhetorical devices in his writing to better express the personality and attitude of the characters and to establish the plot. One of these devices is motifs. Hawthorne uses the motif of light and dark to contrast the various personalities of each character, from Chillingworth who barely shows an evidence of any light; to Hester who even from the beginning of the book refused to secome to the darkness. By using the motif of light and darkness, the author shows the strengths and weaknesses of each character, specifically Chillingworth and Hester. Chillingworth’s weakness prevails, as he is shown that he ultimately has nothing to live for, making him content with his darkness. Hester is seen as a character whom is optimistic, and tends to find the good from the bad in most circumstances. Pearl is seen as a light, in order to guide Hester away from her tendencies to revert to the path of darkness. His writing evidently shows the difference between light and dark in these two character.
Along with Hawthorne’s brilliant use of motifs, the author uses chiaroscuro. This becomes one of the most prominent devices seen in this novel. This is a device is a technique commonly used to contrast between light and dark in order to highlight certain elements in a piece of artistic work. He doesn’t just use this to portray the attitude of each character, but he also uses this technique to contrast the settings of the town and the forest. But the most important form of this technique was when used to characterize Dimmesdale.
Hawthorne devotes whole chapters just to describe his internal struggle with battling light and dark (which is most evident in chapter 11, The interior of the heart). The descriptive words used get darker and darker as the sicker Dimmesdale gets. “… Gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul” (page 128) and “… He looked like a ghost”.
But the real question is, was Dimmesdale just supposed to be perceived as light or did he actually have that light side in him? Hawthorne doesn’t use many metaphors or descriptions to show the lightness of Dimmesdale, but you see it used in the language by the towns people and Hester. They see him as a light character with his kind heart and riveting sermons but they do not see the inner darkness within him. So was he even really light or “good”?
reading between the heart 