cluding the narrator is ambivalent or dualistic regarding point of view. If we look at the primary symbol of the novel, Hester’s adulterous “A”, we can see the conflict between romance (individuality) and religion (community). For the “A” is symbolic of two main aspects of existence. On the one hand, it symbolizes the imposed will or enforced judgement of the Puritan community regarding adulterous sex. On the other hand, it must represent individuality and the conflict of personal identity over community. For, though it may symbolize a weakness or intemperance in Hester and Dimmesdale, it, too, surely symbolizes their rejection of what they know are community values in favor of their own personal desires. Brodhead (Gross, Bradley, Beatty, and Long, 397) points to the duality underlying the wearing of the “A”, and the inherent conflict between community and individuality it symbolizes:
He converts the isolated symbol into a badge fashioned by a historical community. The A becomes the Puritans’ A, the emblem through which they impose their judgment on a violator of their communal values. The letter thus brings the book’s social and historical stratum into being, and by meditating on their use of the symbol Hawthorne can analyze the peculiar nature of the Puritans—their devotion to law and religion, their addiction to formalized behavior, the imaginative outlook inherent in their orthodox symbolism. At the
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