Chapter Eighteen
Entry Forty-Four
As a symbol of a new beginning, Hester takes off the "A."
"Taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream. With a hand’s breadth farther flight it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about."The stream is still whispering foreshadows and if the "A" had fallen into the water it would have carried it away. In the water would be space for different tales to tale about and Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne would have never seen it again. If Hawthorne would have made that happen he would have wanted to emphasize that Hester and Arthur are finally free from harm. But the "A" did not fall into the water showing it is not over yet.
Instead it lands among leaves.They represent the past and sin (the leaves belong to the fallen and moss covered trees). The "A" is now unified with its match but it does not vanish like it would if it had landed in the water.
"But there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill-fated wanderer might pick up, and thenceforth be haunted by strange phantoms of guilt, sinkings of the heart, and unaccountable misfortune."The "A" has the same function as the snake in Paradise. It deluded Eve to eat an apple of the Tree Of Knowledge. And now that the "A" is laying there, looking so seductive as a jewel in a woman's eyes, ready to allure an innocent person, its beauty has something ominous.
Are you suggesting that the "A" is evil? Greater than all the characters?
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