ter represents her sin of adultery. She becomes the scarlet letter, taking the symbol upon herself. "She gives up her individuality, she becomes the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and which they might vivify and embody their images of womans frailty and sinful passion" (Hawthorne 74). Dimmesdale also becomes letter, just as Hester took it upon herself, he does too. He lets the letter take him over by tattooing it upon his chest. He also lets the scarlet letter engulf him, making him weak and vulnerable. His weakness is shown when Hester and he meet in the forest, for he immediately agrees to run away and leave his problems behind. For the Puritans the scarlet letter "provokes hostile feelings in the citizens of Boston" ("Scarlet Letter" 8). Weiss explains the symbolism of the scarlet letter in the following paragraph:"The worlds great symbols, as they emerge in religious icons symbols of rebirth, rejuvenation, resurrection are seen as memorials to the anxieties that attend our biological rhythms. The anxiety is mastered by being displayed to a universal religious, scientific, philosophical, or a meaningful aesthetic experience. The anxiety is mastered by dint of repetitions, by the substitution of controlled rituals, and by condensation into unified and benign experience" (Weiss 21).This shows that the scarlet letter fulfills for the Puritans a social and religious function; the letter creates a story for them to tell and to show the sins that Hester has committed.Another symbol the scarlet letter A takes on is adultery, able, and angel. The scarlet letter stands for adultery because of the crime that Hester committed. Hester committed the crime with Dimmesdale and brought forth a child from it. Hester now has to wear the symbol A upon her chest to represent the crime of adultery. The scarlet letter stands for able, because after Hester was committed of the crime she helped the citizens in...
