The Symbolic Use of Nature in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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.

    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.

A common theme throughout literature is religion and how the author feels about his or her faith. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices to draw comparisons between characters and events in The Scarlet Letter and Biblical figures and accounts. A few of the devices found in this novel that connect it to the Bible are symbolism, paradox, allusions, and characterization. It is important to first look at the characters and how they are described through characterization.

The power of imagination makes us infinite, and when it is dulled, one can feel trapped. Only after freeing ourselves, can we understand the beauty of a creative mind. Nathaniel Hawthorne explains how he also had to get back in tune with his imagination after not using it for years while working at the Custom House. Hawthorne draws a very well sketch of the boring life at the Custom House, and how after his head was “cut off” he got the mindset to be able to write the Scarlet Letter. In this long introduction to the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices to describe character traits, show relationships between characters, hint at future events, and enrich the plot for the reader's enjoyment. With his effective use of imagery, symbolism and biblical allusions, Hawthorne adds depth to the novel while creating a connection to the meaning beyond the story that it tells.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne often demonstrates the frailty of humans. Nature is often described as beautiful, while the Puritan society and human nature are viewed in a harsh light. Hawthorne illustrates that human nature is flawed and judgmental through use of figurative language, critical diction, and symbolism.

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen once said, “Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” A person should be able to find beauty in nature to truly live their life. Nature gives symbols for how life happens. Every spring trees comeback to life and every winter trees “die”. Sunshine gives warmth and life to the plants. By being free to live however they please, plants are given the truth of how life truly is. People have to find nature and believe in the power of nature to explore life. Just as Hans Christian Andersen believes one should find nature, Nathaniel Hawthorne believes nature should be shown in The Scarlet Letter. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, nature uncovers the truth about

The element that adds the most mystery to this tale is suggestion. Hawthorne never explicitly tells the reader what is happening; his skillful use of suggestion allows for multiple interpretations of the story to exist, with no particular one being wrong. Foremost,

Hawthorne, after exposing the surprised people to the sable veil, develops the protagonist through a description of some of his less exotic and curious characteristics:

First of all, these three short stores deal with nature and science, but when one delves deeper into the stories, it becomes apparent that Hawthorne actually explores relationships among family members. These three works of writing portray Hawthorne’s thematic writing

     In Hawthorne's revered novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of Romanticism plays an important role in the development of his characters. He effectively demonstrates individualism in Hester to further our understanding of the difficulties of living in the stern, joyless world of Puritan New England.  It is all gloom and doom.  If the sun ever shines, one could hardly notice.  The entire place seems to be shrouded in black.  The people of this society were stern, and repressed natural human impulses and emotions than any society before or since.  But for this reason specifically, emotions began bubbling and eventually boiled over, passions a novelist

Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many forms of symbolism in his book The Scarlet Letter. Symbolism is, according to Merriam-Webster, “the art or practice of using symbols, especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visual or sensuous representations.” This means that the author was using objects to represent an action or idea. The symbols used in his book is either all physical or visible objects. Many of the symbols in the book are about characters.Nathaniel’s ideas came from his bonds with the Puritans. According to CliffsNotes, “the Puritans had great difficulty in loving the sinner and hating the sin”. With the Puritans strong hatred for sin,

During the Puritan time period, puritans believed god created nature but in contrast, Romantics believed god was in all nature. In reaction to religious puritan views, people began to look at nature in a new way, wanting to be a part of nature rather than just observing it. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in the time of Romanticism and with these views he suggests that dark colors and light colors make us feel different emotions. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter and the short story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, Hawthorne suggests that nature uses dark and light colors to suggest the beauty of nature and the darkness and wrongness in sin. This reliance upon nature gives us emotions from these colors portrayed in these stories.

The novel is displayed as gloomy and dark. The reason for this is that Hawthorne uses excellent imagery, the use of

The greatest underlying difference in Poe and Hawthorne’s stories are their categorized styles. Hawthorne is an author drawn to writings of romance, which holds broad guidelines. He uses his “unexplained” happenings as part of this genre. Hawthorne uses his characters to portray his belief that the truth of life comes from the human heart. Hawthorne’s romantic literature likes to use the extraordinary. The importance of nature plays a strong role when the secrecy and evil of the woods are described and gossiped about in The Scarlet Letter. All of these aspects portray stories built on the romance theory, which Hawthorne helped to develop.