Co-Op Homwork

The Symbol of Spanish Sailors
By: Patience R. Winterton
Book: The Scarlet Letter, By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Introduction.
In this essay I will be exploring the reasons why the Spanish sailors are in the Scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and what they could or could not symbolize. The sailors are introduced at the very end of the story, and never mentioned before hand. Why? This is what I shall talk about.

The Sailors as symbols.
There are many things that have come to my mind on what the Spanish sailors symbolize. They could be a symbol for escape or freedom; both are things Hester and Dimmesdale wanted for so long. They could show a way out, a way from one "sphere" to another, new life. They are also described as different, so different that if a man were to wear what the sailors did he would hide his face in shame "A landsman could hardly have worn this garb and shown his face, and worn and shown them both with such a galliard air..." (21, pg. 280) . This could show that the sailors are, in a way, like Hester. Hawthorne could be using the sailors to show us that Hester was not all alone, that they were other people as different and as strange as herself.

Why are they present in the story?
The Spanish sailors don't even come into the story until chapters 21 The New England Holiday, and 22 The Procession, they are last minute differences to get our minds saying "Why?". Maybe they are not in the story for any reason; maybe Hawthorne could of just been putting something there for us to linger on. They could also be there to give hope to the reader that everything will turn out alright, just like they gave hope to Hester. They could also be there so that Hester had a way out, for in the story, Hester and Pearl did leave with the sailors to someplace new. But, as I have assumed, the sailors are also how Hester returns to her home in the end of the story "Near this latter spot, one afternoon, some children were at play, when they beheld a tall woman, in a gray robe, approach the cottage door." (Conclusion, pg. 313).

Conclusion.
In this essay I have spoke of what the Spanish sailors might mean and why they are in the story of The Scarlet Letter. I have given you many ideas and conclusions, except for one: How would the story be different without the Spanish sailors? How would the story change? I believe that if the sailors had never been put into the story, Pearl would have never become a "woman", Hester would still be burdened with guilt and shame, and Dimmesdale would have died knowing that Hester and his little Pearl had no way of finding freedom. Without the Spanish sailors, the story would end without even a little bit of happily-ever-after. To wrap everything up, I will say that without the sailors, whatever Hawthorne wanted them to be, the story would have stopped at a dead end and not be as interesting and enchanting.