The Scarlet Letter Assignment

Symbols in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter are encountered frequently throughout the novel. Simply noticing the architecture described in the novel of Hester’s town results in finding symbolic context. The prison door mentioned in the beginning of the novel exemplifies the Puritan society. Being made of iron and illustrated to be of great strength, the prison door represents the strict and remorseless Puritan society. The incompatible rose bush on the side of the prison door represents forgiveness. Although the prison is a place of shame and sin, the rose bush is a symbol of grace. Therefore, as a form of introduction to the novel the first pages of The Scarlet Letter informs the reader that in a society of strict laws and sin, there is still hope.  

          Hester finds herself living in the out skirts of town. Although the forest and wilderness seem to be an unholy place to call home, Hester finds the location more than comforting. The wilderness symbolizes the home where evil resides. Hester on the other hand finds her new home free and of less rule or guidance. One associates nature with love and kindness, to be a place where evil is sent to dwell is a contradiction. Hester may have committed a sin but she seems to find the good aspects of her wrongdoing. She recognizes her mistake and with that alone, she was in no need or assistance to confess her mistake. The manner in which goodness finds its way to Hester although she has committed the crime of adultery, symbolizes her natural good.  

          In the introductory of The Scarlet Letter, the Custom House is a symbolic feature of the novel. The tradesmen in the Custom House were not in a stable economic situation, business was slow, and they had to pay taxes on their imported goods. Over the entrance stood an eagle statue, Hawthorne described the eagle as horrifying and unpleasant like. Illustrated as an unwelcoming statue, the eagle on the Custom House symbolizes the unwelcoming of Hester as her sin was revealed. The eagle looks as it was filled with disgust and had an uncaring look that would not sympathize if one were to be hurt. The eagle may have symbolized Hester’s perception of the townspeople in the harsh Puritan society.     

The Fountainhead Assignment - Option #3

Ayn Rand creates a unique relationship between Dominique and Roark in her novel The Fountainhead. Not the typical dating couple, Dominique is a woman of great power that will destroy the man she loves instead of showing affection. Roark takes the womanpower of Dominique and responds with violent acts that satisfy his needs as well as hers. A new form of love is created in the Fountainhead. Power and love combine and takes the concept of affection to a completely different dimension. Couples work as a team; one will sacrifice for the other and vice versa. The whole idea of having someone always there for you is for support and care. The relationship between Dominique and Roark is not close to being associated to the typical relationship.

At the start of the secret relationship between Dominique and Roark, an architectural socialist begins to take power. Roark is seen as a threat to Toohey, the socialist, so Dominique plans to destroy Roark. Stoddard is hired by Toohey to hire Roark and trick him to doing business with Toohey. Roark’s work is sought as illegitimate in court and looses to Stoddard. Dominique then steps in finding a promising position to destroy the weakened Roark. The reader at this point in the novel notices the means behind Dominique’s desire to ruin Roark’s career. She does not feel that Roark’s gifted talent should not be revealed to society’s evil. Disgusted by society, Dominique will do anything possible to prevent Roark from designing buildings she admires and praises. As a selfish act, Dominique’s personality is introduced to the reader.

The attraction between Dominique and Roark is obvious but something seems to be holding them back even in their secret encounters. Oddly enough in public, Dominique tries to sabotage Roark’s career and desires to destroy him. Not until the sixth chapter in the second book does, Dominique’s feelings for Roark intensify. Pretending as if they just met, neither of them mentions their previous encounter at the cocktail party Roark hosts. Dominique then feels that Roark is testing her. This scene in the novel sets the mood of what the relationship will be like throughout the novel. An amused yet aggravated mood fills the room when Dominique comes to her conclusion. When Rand mentions Toohey spending the evening watching Roark carefully, this signifies that the connection between Dominique and Roark is visible. The ambiguity of Dominique’s reaction to her conclusion is erased, when Toohey’s perspective in taken into account, Dominique was pleased to find out that Roark would dare to do such thing.

Rand creates a difficult love race instead of improving the relationship between Roark and Dominique. Tensions between each other in public go beyond pretending and into reality. Instead of recommending Roark to Joel Sutton, for a business opportunity, Dominique gives the job to Keating but yet she confesses to Roark of her feelings and the reader is informed of how powerful her love towards Roark is at this point in the novel. The love she has towards him ironically harms their relationship. Instead of becoming closer to one another, Dominique promises to destroy Roark. Well aware, desire to test Roark’s strength will destroy Roark but at the same time, he is attracted by Dominique’s dangerous desires demonstrated in chapter seven of the second book.

Dominique and Roark visit each other at night more frequently and in the eighth chapter of the novel’s second book a significant scene reads, “When they lay in bed together it was—as it had to be . . . an act of violence. It was surrender, made the more complete by the force of their resistance.” This quotation describes the first stages of the true relationship between Dominique and Roark. Struggle and strength seem to be overwhelming but fuels this particular relationship. By day, Dominique does everything possible to tear apart Roark, showing her insecurity in finding out if Roark is a true man for her. At night, they sleep together and have violent sexual encounters. Negativity seems to evoke the relationship; they feed off of bad vibes, which they find attracting. Love in this novel is unique. The warmth and compassion in typical relationships are ignored. Dominique takes the good of relationships and turns it into hard and tough actions. The quotation describes Roark raping Dominique as a necessity in their relationship. At the same time, love between two strong characters is being contrasted by the warming and comfortable love between Katie and Keating. As Katie and Keating’s warm love leads to awful codependence, the tough love of Dominique and Roark creates power and free thought. Contributing to the progression of the plot, Dominique then marries to Peter Keating punishing herself for wanting Roark. The purpose of the difference in love is to prove that true love will not be perfect, no matter how it is expressed. The unexpected ending seems to prove that opposites attract each other as more personalities that are similar repeal one another.