For our final lesson on this novel, we first studied how each major character closes out his/her life's conflicts: Hester returns to Boston;Chillingworth dies without the ability to torment his victim, and Dimmesdale dies while at last confessing on the scaffold. As the Romantic genre emphasizes imagination and subjectivity ,especially with regard to the interpretation of symbols, we noted how the scarlet letter has at the end of the novel become a symbol of "awe and reverence" ,not of shame and sin. In this regard, we examined the symbolic significance of the final cryptic words of the novel . In order to tie these final words and symbols to theme, we then worked on how to write and develop multi-sentence themes of the entire novel. As we discussed and developed these themes, I placed them on the board and concluded by noting where and how the novel's symbolic color imagery(red/black) fits into and supports the developed themes. We concluded on our second session by addressing final edits to Nina's college admission essay to St. Andews.