the scarlet letter, symbol 16

Chapter 7


"It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!" Hester dresses her child in scarlet, where she becomes a living symbol of the scarlet letter, A.  "Her mother, in contriving the child’s garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play; arraying her in a crimson velvet tunic, of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread." I think Hester dresses her child in these colors to transmit some of her "pain" over to something she loved so it would be easier for her to carry it. When she sees her child in the scarlet colors she sees herself, but not as a bad person.