How Did Nathaniel Hawthorne Write A Symbolism In The Scarlet Letter

A Walk in the Forest
Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a revolutionary narrative in his piece, The Scarlet Letter through his layering of themes, symbols and literary devices. Hawthorne depicts the isolation that Hester and Pearl endure by using imagery to describe the road on which they are walking. He uses atmospherical medium to illuminate Hester’s sin and how it isolates her from sunshine. He uses moral ambiguity to show Pearl’s lack of sin, and how it isolates her from her mother, who has sinned. Hester Prynne is walking in the isolated path of the forest with her daughter, Pearl, in order to find the Reverend Mr. Dimsdale and warn him of the evil doings of Roger Chillingworth. In the Scarlett Letter, the theme of isolation is reveled through Hawthorne’s use of imagery, atmospherical medium, and moral ambiguity.
This word choice gives the reader visions of an area that is darkened by the past, where the narrow road wanders without path or purpose. Using imagery, Hawthorne also illustrates the path as being “black and dense on either side” (165), and also having, “ a grey expanse of cloud” (165). This also contributes to the gothic image painted by the author. A breeze is also disrupting the grey clouds, “so that a gleam of flickering sunshine might now and then be seen at its solitary play along the path” (165). This ties the entire passage to the theme of sin isolates by illustrating the lonely path on which Hester’s penance must walk. However, the sunlight itself is another phenomenon that Hawthorne uses to convey his