Question

In The Scarlet Letter, what natural phenomenon comes to symbolize both Dimmesdale’s “sin” and Governor Winthrop’s “virtue”? A. A lightning bolt

Answer 1

The meteor forming the shape of the letter A in the sky. Could this be a more tortured symbol. It might as well have "symbol" tattooed on its forehead. Basically you really would need three meteors at exactly the same time to form the stroke of the letter A, and so this is just contrived to an absurd degree.

Anyway, it is taken by some to mean that Winthrop has been assumed into heaven as a capital A Angel, but Dimmesdale takes it to mean that he himself should be marked as obviously as Hester is with her scarlet letter.

PS: this is a terrible book by a terrible (distantly related to me) writer