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Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—Light and Dark:
Light and dark imagery appears throughout the novel as a motif, often representing secrets and disclosure. For instance, in Chapter 12, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl stand together on the scaffold at night but under the light of a meteor:
And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.
Although Dimmesdale is Pearl's father, these three have scarcely ever spent time together. Dimmesdale is too afraid to publicly claim paternity, and Hester will not reveal his identity for him. This nighttime rendezvous on the scaffold represents the fact that they would like to stand together in public but that they remain shrouded in the darkness of their family secret. The meteor's sudden light is described as "the light that is to reveal all secrets," and the meteor itself forms the shape of an "A," like the twin scarlet letters on Hester and Dimmesdale's chests. This sudden burst of light is a clear sign that the universe wants Dimmesdale to disclose his secret so that he, Hester, and Pearl can be "united." That union will be a relief from dark and shameful secrecy, and it also seems as inevitable as "daybreak."
Light and dark imagery is especially heavy-handed in this scene on the scaffold, but it has been at play since the first scene on the scaffold in Chapter 2, when Hester is brought out of the prison to be publicly shamed:
The door of the jail being flung open from within, there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into sunshine, the grim and grisly presence of the town-beadle, with a sword by his side, and his staff of office in his hand.
The beadle is supposed to lead the town's effort to force Hester to disclose the identity of Pearl's father. He emerges out of the shadowy prison into the sunshine because he is seen as a crusader for truth (which, as we have seen, is associated with light). When Hester and Pearl emerge, Pearl hides her face from the light: she and Hester are not ready to expose the secret. Throughout the novel, secret conversations take place under cover of night and in the forest. By contrast, when Dimmesdale finally does confess, the sun is high in the sky. Dimmesdale may die right after he discloses his secret, but this moment still constitutes a "daybreak" because he dies in light (truth) rather than darkness (shameful secrecy). Just as the meteor promises, telling the truth allows Dimmesdale and Hester, who "belong to another," to be eternally united in a shared grave.
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