What Does The Forest Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

The doctrine of Primitivism, which declares people closer to nature as more noble and pure, can be used to analyze chapter 18 of The Scarlet Letter in a manner that paints a reborn Hester and Dimmesdale, being in the forest, as more noble and pure than that of their society of developed Puritans. Hester Prynne, being in the wilderness, throws off the stigmatic letter sewn upon her by her peers: “So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves”. The scarlet letter symbolizes her place in Puritan society, being an adulterer. The Puritans, being firm believers in predestination, never allowed Hester to truly flourish and live, and instead,

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

Throughout this scene of the Scarlet Letter, both Hester and Arthur possess common and conflicting beliefs about the forest which they seek privacy in. Hester appears to have a direct impact on the atmosphere surrounding the forest due to her change in emotion when she rids the scarlet letter off of her (a symbol of Puritan law) and the formal hat that hid her hair (a symbol of Puritan society). As determined by the text, "All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming down the gray trunks of the solemn trees." Similarly to Hester, Arthur also has a reflection on the "forest" they use as a getaway from the hatred of the town.

forest is like a best friend. It treats her as if she were one of its own. The

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important and symbolic role.  Hawthorne uses nature to convey the mood of a scene, to describe characters, and to link the natural elements with human nature.  Many of the passages that have to do with nature accomplish more than one of these ideas.  All throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.

From stanic parties in the forest to being isolated from the public setting is important in The Scarlet Letter. The forest is used for love meetings expressing love for Hester and Dimmesdale. Isolation helps Hester and Chillingworth change significantly. In the critically acclaimed novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne setting develops characters and also has special connections to characters. Being forbidden to see each other in public the forest acts as Hester and Dimmesdale’s freedom.

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

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 man-made world seems to be engrossed in itself and has no intelligence of the natural world that it is assembled over. However, whether humans acknowledge it or not, they are dependant on the physical world’s knowledge. Architecture and roadways are constructed over the natural earth in an attempt to isolate it from their “civil” community. The societies they create are liberated of pandemonium and sinister spirits that lurk in the uncertainties of the unknown world. Although, it occasionally peeks out and uncovers the bitter reality that the man-made world is corrupt. This phenomenon that comes with the natural world, is camouflaged to most because they are completely submerged in false deception and sins of the artificial world. Nevertheless, outcasts that are forced away from the contaminated world are welcomed by the untouched world. These fugitives are insightful of the honesty and purity that the human world has concealed with their sins. In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is isolated from society because she is a product of adultery. Her state of outcast allows her access to the organic world, man-made world, and the truth they both bear. Pearls appearance in the forest, actions on the beach, and her knowledge of the truth at the governor's mansion are classic signs of how she demonstrates her supernatural connection to the natural world in all different environments, due to her state of isolation. All of these occurrences portray her inner power to illustrate unwanted

Every human being needs the opportunity to express how he or she truly feels, otherwise, the emotion builds up until they become volatile.  In Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, life centers on a rigid Puritan society which does not allow open self-expression, so the characters have to seek alternate means in order to relieve their personal anguishes and desires. Luckily, Hawthorne provides such a sanctuary in the form of the mysterious forest. The forest is a sanctuary because it allows the freedom to love, the freedom to express emotions, the freedom for sympathy and the freedom to be one’s self.

The Scarlet Letter’s Symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (The Symbolism of the Letter “A” in The Scarlet Letter) In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the letter “’A” symbolizes many things through out the story. In the beginning of the book, Hester is standing on the scaffold holding Pearl as a small baby and wearing the scarlet letter, which at this early point in the plot represented her sin of committing adultery.

The Scarlet Letter is a book that is heavily loitered with symbols and symbolism. Hawthorn does an amazing job creating many intricate links between many of the characters emotions and attitudes to symbols scattered throughout the novel. One of the best examples would be the forest and rosebush or nature itself. Representing kindness but at the same time representing the unknown and mysterious.

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.

She had to live outside of town in a small cottage, apart from the rest of the society. While she could still sew for a living, she could not make a wedding dress, for the people feared that she would stain the purity of the bride. Most importantly, she must forever wear that scarlet letter, so that no one would ever forget that she was an adultress: “The poor, as we have already said, whom she sought out to be the objects of her bounty, often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them… If she entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse... They (the children) pursued her at a distance with shrill cries, and the utterance of a word that had no distinct purport to their own minds, but was none the less terrible to her, as proceeding from lips that babbled it unconsciously.” (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 58-59) The Puritan society never let Hester live down the crime that she

In nearly everything she does, as a young child, she finds immense pleasure. However, the forest is also a safe place. the unhappy culprit sustained herself as best a woman might, under the heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes all fastened upon her, and concentrated on her bosom. Her existence came from what Puritanism deems “evil”. Hester demonstrates human naturalness by obeying her instinctual urges and having a relationship with Reverend Dimmesdale.