Nature In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's work, The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very symbolic role. Throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. One example of this is with the character of Pearl. Pearl is very different than all the other characters due to her special relationship with Nature. Hawthorne personifies Nature as sympathetic towards sins against the puritan way of life. Hester's sin causes Nature to accept Pearl.

Along with the negative aspects of isolation, Hester realizes that being in her own sphere takes away many societal pressures to conform to a set of beliefs. When Hester starts to come back in contact with society, she still feels as if she does not belong. Hester feels that all contact she has with others demonstrates that she is “as much alone as if she inhabit[s] another sphere” (74). Even though she is physically in contact with others, Hester is still alone. She no longer has to conform to the beliefs of her Puritan town because she “communicate[s] with the common nature” in different ways than “the rest of human kind” (74). Because she is isolated, Hester “[stands] apart from [society’s] moral interests, yet close beside them,” meaning she can take a step back to look at the views of the majority, but she has the option to make her own choices (74). Even though she feels separated from society, Hester can still feel the influence of its beliefs. This idea is also illustrated with the location of Hester’s

Hester not only acknowledges her sin but also focuses on making the best of her situation. As the novel progresses, Hester’s strong will becomes more apparent

Hester is immediately ostracised from the stern community and endures years of shame, scorn and loneliness. Hester is passionate but also strong and equals both her husband and her lover in her intelligence and thoughtfulness. Her alienation puts her in the position to make acute observations about her community, particularly about its treatment of women.

From the emergence of the jail up until the last scene of the novel, Hester undergoes many changes, both externally and internally. She used to be more of a loving person, but by the end of the novel, Hester has become different, more of a “bare and harsh outline” of herself seven years ago.

Hester truly believes that the scene of her sin should be where her earthly punishment takes place. The sin that she committed defines her and her surroundings for the rest of her life, and it ties her down to her crime scene. As the plot progresses, Hester finds herself reconciled with Dimmesdale, and decides to follow her heart and free herself. She finally allows herself to be happy, and welcomes peace. “The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free… Shame, Despair, Solitude!

Few months later Hester is released from prison. She is free to leave to leave Boston, but she chooses not too because that’s where she sinned at. She settled in an abandoned cabin at the edge of the town. Hester remains alienated from everyone, including the town fathers , respected women, beggars, children, and strangers. These people look at her as a fallen woman, although she is an outcast. Hester remains to support herself due to her talent in needlework she made burial shrouds, christening gowns, and officials’ robes. Hester feels lonely and is constantly aware of her

The harsh townspeople force her up on the scaffold to be humiliated in front of the whole town. Not only is she sent up on the scaffold with her sin revealed by the “A” for everyone to see, Hester becomes an example of what a woman should not come to be. The author is talking about Hesters experience on the scaffold and her pregnancy, “Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion”(32). Hester looses her individuality and is labeled by the townspeople and known for the Scarlet Letter. Further, the townspeople singled her out as an alien or outcast of the town forcing her to live an abnormal live. She was ridiculed and known for her one sin, unable to have acceptance back into society. Although the townspeople feel as if Hester has brought sin upon there lives, she clearly have not harmed any of the townspeople physically, and they have no grounds to punish Hester. The cause of the townspeople's harsh disciplinary acts on Hester originates from a strict, unrealistic standards of puritan society and the zero tolerance of any ungodly behavior observed in the town. Due to the absence of proper justice, Hester's sentencing is left up to the harsh townspeople in which they show no mercy or

In Hawthorne novel The Scarlet Letter, his persona created a similar theme that connects with the Biblical story of Original Sin that runs a long with Nature. Through inspecting the main characters, their interactions, actions we gain the capacity to understand each other character. In the novel, Nature shows its ability to both harm and heal through its effects on the characters. The novel highlights Nature's complexity by showing that the Puritan idea of Nature as an entirely evil force is a naive misconception. The text reveals the beneficial attributes of Nature that the Puritans overlook or fear. Conversely, the text shows that aspects of Nature that help mankind also harm him. The duality and complexity of Nature

Emerson continues his criticism of society’s effect on the individual spirit by saying, “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members” (Emerson). So instead of remaining immersed in this society, Hester lives on the near the woods with her daughter Pearl away from those who judge them. Her cottage is “on the outskirts of town… put out of the sphere of that social activity” (Hawthorne 76-77). The relative isolation Hester that experiences allows her to escape the constricting Puritan society and continue to be an independent person. Hester is truly independent because her fellow sinner Dimmesdale chooses to keep his identity a secret. She alone must make a living to provide for Pearl. Hester “possessed an art that sufficed… to provide food for her thriving infant and herself” (Hawthorne 77). Her ability to raise a child alone is a testament to Hester’s self-reliance. She is truly alone in the fact that she is on the outside of the society now as well, but she is still able to care for herself and her

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses nature symbols as a romantic writer contrasting the Puritan view and critiquing Puritan life. Hawthorne gives an enormous importance to the individual in nature in The Scarlett Letter in that the story takes place in Boston which Hawthorne describes as "a little town, on the edge of Western wilderness” in the middle of an immoral forest (Hawthorne 55). Hawthorne contrasts the natural elements such as the forest, flowers, sun, and water contrast the weed-filled, sunless, and parched world of the Puritans.

Hester Prynne was isolated by her Puritan community after committing adultery, seen as a sin by many. Towards the beginning of the book, Hester was enclosed in this near “perfect” Puritan society. Blinded by the “utopia” and security of the Puritan society, Hester was ultimately unprepared for the uprising she caused upon after the revelation of her crime. Alone and far away in her cabin, Hester’s vivid vision of her Puritan community began to shatter. Hester was able to see the world for what it truly was, sinful, rather than the pure state that was projected by Puritan influence. Though the world around her was bleak, she was accepted by the surrounding nature. Away from the cursed town, Hester could think and act freely and disperse of her wrongdoings. ““She had wandered without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast and as intricate as the untamed Forrest…Her intellect and heart had their home as it were in desert places where it roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods (1440).” The surrounding environment allowed comfort for Hester and her daughter, Pearl, as the two were given the cold-shoulder of the Puritan society. ““She undid her clasp that fastened the scarlet letter and taking it from her bosom through it among the withered leaves (1441).” Though rejected by society, Hester was granted freedom through the flora and fauna of the

What is most remarkable about Hester Prynne is her strength of character. While the author does not give a great deal of information about her life before the book opens, the reader sees her great attitude towards life. Because of her great sin, she was shunned in the Puritan society. Hester’s honesty and her compassion were her two most noticeable traits.

    To begin, one person impacted positively by her isolation caused by her shame and ignominy is Hester Prynne. Hester’s adultery turns her into an object of shame and disgust, and it places her into a perpetual confinement. For instance, before the town beadle releases Hester from prison, a group of women gossip about how “this woman has brought shame upon [them] all, and ought to die” (49), and this illuminates right away that Hester has lost all meaningful relationships with the public and is now a subject of the public’s hate. However, this situation places Hester into a position that produces thoughts and ideas that are progressive for her time . Often, Hester conceives the notion that “the whole system of society is to be torn down and built up anew” before women can gain equal footing (162), and this illustrates a new flow of innovative ideas throughout Hester’s mind as she now

Hawthorne wrote The Scarlett Letter to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Puritans due to his own guilt for having an ancestor who served as a judge in the Salem witch trials. Therefore, to fully understand the nature symbolism Hawthorne intended for The Scarlett Letter, an analysis of Nathaniel’s Hawthorne’s background must be considered because it influenced Hawthorne's writing style. Due to his family background, Hawthorne frequently wrote about Puritanism, seclusion, and nature. His great-great-grandfather, William Hathorne fled from religious persecution in England on the Arbella. William Hathorne arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1630 (Person 17). He settled in Salem in 1636 where he soon became the Massachusetts Bay delegate to the New England Confederation of colonies and later became a magistrate, preacher, and finally the first Speaker in the House of Representatives.