What are 10 examples of figurative language in The Scarlet Letter? Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

With his
seminal novel, Scarlet Letter,sets in motion the American predilection for
symbol.  And, while symbols are the predominant literary device, there are others that are
employed such asand :

SYMBOL

• which first
  represents the sin of adultery that Hester has committed.  Later in the
  novel, this symbol's meaning changes to that of Angel as Scarlet so
  selflessly devotes herself to helping the ill of the community.  Then, as Hester nurses the
  ailing and aged, and sews for others, her symbolic A represents the word
  Able.
•  The
  characterherself is a symbol, representing the sins and passions of her parents, Scarlet and the
  Reverend .  In the forest Pearl arranges eel-grass to form a green A on her
  own breast.
• Theof the Reverend Mr. Wilson , andare symbolic of the Puritan
  worlds of church, state, and witchcraft respectively.
• The groups of unnamed
  somber and self-righteous Puritans in the market place who talk of Hester are also
  representative of Puritanism in general.
• The iron door, "the black
  flower of society," and scaffold are symbols of the restrictiveness and humiliation doled
  out by the Puritan community.
• The scaffold also represents the open
  acknowledgment of personal sin.
• The rose outside the prison is the
  tenacious passion and independence ofthat no scaffold or punishment can kill.


• The letter A upon the breast of the Reverend Dimmesdale
  represents his guilt over his secret-sin.
• The letter A against the black
  background on Hester and Dimmesdales' tombstone serves to unite them in their transgression and
  love.
• Night is used as a symbol for concealment and day for exposure.
  
• The sun is used as a symbol of untroubled, guiltless happiness; it also
  represents the approval of nature and of God.
• The forest represents the
  world of darkness and evil.  It also represents the natural world away from the Puritan
  community where Pearl can run freely and where Hester can take down her hair and be affectionate
  with Dimmesdale.

IMAGERY

• Light/dark imagery comes into play especially when Hester and Pearl are in
  the forest and the shadows fall on Hester.
• Gray is a predominant color used
  to represent the Puritan austerity.  The opening paragraph of the novel depicts the Puritans' in
  their "sad-coloured garments and grey, steeple-crowned hats..." before the iron dor
  studded with "iron spikes."
• Green is used to refer to nature. In
  the forest, a natural setting away from the Puritan community, Pearl makes an A
  upon her breast with green eel-grass.
• Black is used to connote
  evil and the sinister character ofas well as the "Black Man" who performs the Satan's
  Mass in the primeivel forest.

IRONY

• When Hester brings Pearl to the governor's mansion, the governor, himself a
  Puritan, has a fantastic home with suits of armor with a sword and resplendent ornamental
  English garden and stained glass windows. There the Reverend Wilson, a prominent Puritan
  clergyman, both delight in the sight of the crimson-attired Pearl, who recalls for them their
  "days of vanity, in old King james's time, when [the governor] attended a mask."  And,
  the Rev. Wilson recalls,"Methinks I have seen just such figures, when the sun has been
  shining through a richly painted window, and tracing out the golden and crimson images across
  the floor.  But that was in the old land. [An Anglican church!]  The leaders of the Puritan
  colony are themselves hypocrites, yet they condemn Hester.
• When Rev.
  Dimmesdale confesses to the congregation that he is "the worst of sinners," the
  congregation interprets his words as an attempt at humility, and, instead, "did but
  reverence him  the more."  While Dimmesdale wants the crowd to shun him, but they do and
  think just the opposite.