Scarlet Letter Essay Topic

So, right now I am still all over the place with what exactly I'm going to talk about. But I am pretty sure that my basic, overall topic will be about the symbolic representation of the "A". As I go through my paper, I can talk about how the role of the scarlet letter and the "A" has changed. First the "A" was supposed to stand for adulterer and bring shame to Hester. Hester first thinks about trying to hide the letter the first time she is on the scaffold. She strives to cover it with Pearl, until she realizes Pearl bascially is the living reason for the letter. There is no way she can hide it. Throughout the book though, Hester changes internally, but in a different way than society expects. Instead of wanting to remove the letter and be accepted again, she learns that her society is not worth joining again. She decides when she will take the letter off. She believes she will never be able to truely be herself in society with other people around. She can only be herself in the forest. There is also a giant change that happens throughout Pearl in the book. At first when she is young, many people in the society dislike her. They believe she is a demon child. Parents don't want their kids to hang out with her, because she is strange. They don't like that she doesn't have a father. She also tends to throw tantrums, and even reaches the point to where she is almost taken away from Hester by the town magistrates. But as she gets older, she tames down. In the end, she ends up married to a good, wealthy man. Also, the "A" seems to transform to able. This is more of society's views on her. She is able to gain respect, support her and Pearl, have a skill, and be a stable mother. In the eyes of the town magistrates, who sentenced Hester to wear the letter for the remainder of her lifetime, watch Hester over the years. They believe they see personal growth and allow her to take the letter off, but Hester refuses. It is like the town magistrates are rewarding her for her good behavior, but she has no desire for society's approval. The Puritan Boston society she lives in is hallow and unaccepting. The night when Dimmesdale first stands on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, a specific scene takes part in the sky. The night Governor Winthrop passed away, a meteor went through the sky and appeared to be an "A" that stood for angel. The people who saw the meteor believed that it was a sign that the governor went to heaven. This gradual change for what the three words the "A" stood for, adulterer, able, and angel, also show a change of how the book started from a negative scene to a postive scene. Adulterer was a sin, very bad. Then it improved a little to able. Then it improved to being angel. The book really turns around from a down beginning to a happy positve ending. Kinda. Except for all the deaths.