Handbook Entry Defining the Term "Symbol"

from Edwin Barton and Glenda Hudson

The information quoted from this article is highlighted in blue. If I have paraphrased information, I highlighted it in orange. Some of the information given here is repeated in other sources, and by reading the same ideas repeatedly, they became part of my own understanding and are reflected in the essay I wrote. But anything that I consciously took from these sources is documented in my work.

The word symbol derives from the Greek verb sumballein, meaning "to throw together, compare." Literary critics and commentators commonly employ the term to designate an object or a process that not only serves as an image itself but also refers to a concept or abstract idea that is important to the theme of the work.. . .

A symbol may be associated withonly one referent, as is a street sign forbidding a left turn or another warning of a school-crossing. In literatrue, however, most symbols are multivalent. in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850), for instance, the letter takes on a number of competing significances. At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, is forced to wear the scarlet letter upon her breast as an emblem of her sin: A for Adultery. In the course of the tale, however, the symbolic meaning of the letter seems to change. . . .

Thus, the paplpable image of the scarlet letter symbolizes first the concept of her sin and later the idea of her strength. In some cases, the reference or meaning of literary symbols is deliberately indeterminate. . . .

Barton, Edwin J. and Glenda A. Hudson. A contemporary Guide to Literary Terms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. 491-493.

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