The Scafolding Vs. The Forest Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter expresses various themes of dark romanticism using symbolism. One of the more obvious symbols is that of the scaffold, which is present throughout the story. Upon in-depth exploration, I discovered this use of symbolism relates both literally and metaphorically to the dark romantic themes present in Hawthorne’s tale. First, let me discuss the scaffold and its constant presence in the story. The townspeople, Hester, and Dimmesdale use the scaffold on numerous occasions; most often, its use is to shame, harass, and isolate Hester Prynne so that she will confess the name of her child’s father. However, at times, the scaffold is used as a sanctuary and a confessional for others.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, we notice that action only happens in a few places, among which are the forest, the market place, the governor’s residence, and Dimmesdale’s house. Although all these locations are significant to the story, the most important symbol among them is certainly the scaffold in the market place, where the story begins and ends. The scaffold’s meaning changes throughout the story and has different values for different characters. It represents humiliation, then insight, and finally redemption for Hester and Dimmesdale, but for Chillingworth, it symbolizes birth of sin, growth of sin, and ultimately consummation by sin.

Her decision to stay in the town is a form of self-penance which Hester uses to punish herself. Hester’s home is far from the town, but in close proximity to the woods. The woods symbolize her closeness to freedom from her exile, but she is tied to the place of her sin. She believed that New England “should be the place of her earthly punishment (Hawthorne 74).” However, she does meet with Reverend Dimmesdale in the woods, which closely connects both of them to the “Black Man, who haunts the forest”, who is the Devil and the ultimate symbol of evil (Hawthorne 72). She is also described as living in a “moral wilderness”, meaning that her exile from society caused her to develop her own ideas outside of the established ones of the

In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne utilizes the forest as the embodiment of freedom for members of the Puritan society in need of a refuge from the daily Puritan life. The forest itself is a free world with no Puritan laws. Nobody watches in the woods to report misbehavior, thus it is here that individuals may do as they wish.

The three scaffold scenes bring great significance to the plot of the Scarlet Letter. The novel is based on repenting the sins of adultery. The scaffold represents a place of shame and pity but also of final triumphs. Each scene illustrates the importance of the scaffold behind them with many potent similarities and differences.

Hester brings up this idea because she has had time away from the town and had no one to guide her on this path that she took. She does not think about how townspeople are going to perceive her and Dimmesdale leaving simultaneously. Hester very much resembles the forest because the forest cannot be tamed. The forest grows how it wants and only stops when others force it to. Hester will only gain guidance when the town forces her to listen to them. The forest also knows to show who Hester and Dimmesdale are inside: “Such was the sympathy of Nature-that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illuminated by higher truth- with the bliss of these two spirits!” (139). The forest shows the truth about the townspeople. The forest was always dark around Hester when she had her letter on because of her sin. Hester removes her letter once she and Dimmesdale confirm that they are going to go to Europe. Once Hester removes her scarlet letter, the whole forest lights up. Hester has removed the symbol of her wrongdoing because it no longer is a part of her. Seven years has past and no one in the town remembers what the A stands for anymore. They believe that it means able because Hester has dedicated her life to making clothes for the townspeople. She never commits her transgression again and works to make her life good. The forest reflects who the townspeople are and shows their true self once they realise

Various novels utilize contrasting places such as two cities or land and sea to represent opposing forces or ideas that are significant to the meaning of the work. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter set in the years 1642-1649, demonstrates this technique of writing. The early American Puritan settlement of Boston, Massachusetts, where residents observe strict laws and chastise people harshly for breaking them is very different compared to the mysterious forest where heathen Indians, witches, and wild animals abide. The novel conveys the story of two people’s adulterous sin that affects their lives and the life of their illegitimate child. These three characters’ lives are drastically altered in the course of the plot between these two contrasting places. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and their daughter Pearl are each

Although the forest represent darkness and fear for most puritans, for Hester the forest represents solace and peace. When in the forest Hester is able to be free from the prejudice surround her and her daughter. The town’s people do not dare enter the forest, for they believe it to be evil, but Hester enjoys her time alone where she can find solace with Pearl. The “mystery of the primeval forest (Hawthorne, 16)” represents a sort of paradox within Hester’s life. Hester is meant to feel shame for the rest of her time being in Boston, but the forest serves a location in which she is able to feel free from pain and humiliation.

READ: pg. 165 “ ‘ Mother, ’ said little Pearl… ” *Ask why the passage is of importance to the chapter. The chilly gloom of the forest almost perfectly reflects Hester's state of mind and the mood. Why do you think this is so?

People change depending on the environment or setting that they are placed in. In the Scarlet Letter the characters switch their personalities based on where they are placed. The scaffold, forest and market place are all places where the characters experience differences in themselves and each other. The scaffold symbolizes the humility and shame of sin, love, and punishment.

For Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale, the forest is the only place they can be honest about their sins without fear of the townspeople catching them. In the novel there are only two times the subject of Hester and her sin come up in conversation between herself and Chillingworth. The second time, Chillingworth admits to his horrible sin of torturing Dimmesdale, and he finally realizes he is a sinful person. Hawthorne notes that as Chillingworth is confessing he, “lifted his hands with a look of horror, as if he had beheld some frightful shape…when a man’s moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind’s eye” (Hawthorne 160-161). When he is in the forest Chillingworth can openly talk about his sin and finally realize who he truly is. Arthur Dimmesdale finds himself in the same place as Chillingworth when it comes to admitting his sin. In the novel, Dimmesdale takes a walk every day in the forest, as it is one of the few times he can be honest and not have to hide anything. During one of these walks Hester

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a writer in the 1800s, an anti-transcendentalist, and the great-nephew of John Hathorne, a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne is obsessed with Puritanism and, due to being obsessed, bases all his writings on Puritan towns. All of his stories take place in New England in the 1600s, before the Salem Witch Trials; The Scarlet Letter is one of these stories. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the Wild Rosebush, Hester’s Cabin, and the sunlight and the forest to contribute to the overall theme of imperfection.

Due to Hester’s sin, she is driven to the border of society to live as a seamstress with her daughter, Pearl. A strong sense of hopefulness is felt throughout this chapter as we picture a feeble woman living alone with her daughter. “Her sin, her ignominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil” (pg. 75). The metaphor Hawthorne uses here displays Hester’s decision of staying in Boston even as she was given the chance to leave. However, Hester feels that her sin was created here so she should stay to face the punishments at it’s birth.

Why, you can hardly walk without tripping over one commandment or another. Come to me, and be masterless” (Hawthorne 186).  Truly, Hester takes advantage of this, as soon as Arthur Dimmesdale appears.  She openly talks with Dimmesdale about unmentionable subjects which seem inappropriate in any place other than the forest: “What we did...had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said to each other” (Hawthorne 194)!  This exclamation shocks Dimmesdale.  He tells Hester to stop and quiet down, but he eventually realizes that he is in an environment where he can express his emotions.  The thought of Hester and Dimmesdale in an intimate conversation in the confines of the society in which they live is incomprehensible.  Yet here, in the forest, they throw away all reluctance and act as themselves under the umbrella of security which exists there in the forest.

Hester is forced to live in the wilderness, a forest of shadowy right and wrong, yet Hawthorne does not see this as a terrible consequence. What was meant to be a punishment is described as beautiful. The isolation to a cottage allows Hester and Pearl to live more comfortably and Hester is able to do her embroidery surrounded by