Nature In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

The natural world, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American Romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, is utilized as the main tool to exemplify that appearances are deceptive, and often hide the truth beneath themselves. Hawthorne shaped the presence of nature through his interpretation of how the Puritans interacted with it, how nature itself shaped the personalities and actions of some characters (such as Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth), and how Pearl interacted with it. Using nature as a cloak for reality in his novel has influenced the creation of many critical essays that focus on the mythological and archetypal aspects of The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne constantly highlights the Puritans’ discomfort towards nature. When Hester is released
Her estrangement from the general population causes many people to stay suspicious of her and her actions (Hawthorne 55-56). Laura Mclelland analyzes that “the Puritan community seems to have a discomfort with nature generally, as legend has it that a Black Man who steals souls lives in the forest.” Nature is unruly, which contrasts the strict regime of Puritanical society. Puritans live for worshipping God and their scriptures. To them, nature is sinful because of its primitivity. Nothing controls nature, and since there is no power over it, it’s susceptible to falling into the clutch of the devil. Since Hester lives out near the forest, and raises Pearl there, it provokes the town to distrust them more. The townspeople believe that Hester can be easily seduced to sin, and Pearl, too, because all she has to model her behavior after
In the forest, Hester and Pearl meet Dimmesdale. There they decide to run away as a family back to England. Hester then removes the scarlet “A” and her cap. Hester’s beauty causes the darkness to dissipate and, “all at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine” (Hawthorne 137-38). The effect of nature in this instance is that it provides as an escape for the two to think and act freely, unlike what their oppressive community lets them do (Hallenbeck 25). Mclelland expands on how the forest serves as an imaginative space of exploration when witchcraft and allegory are intertwined. Arthur Cleveland Coxe criticizes how it promotes promiscuity and is poisonous to the minds of the readers (189-90). Coxe’s strong opinions of the novel and the effects of nature on the plot can be credited to his position as an Episcopal Bishop. Unlike Dimmesdale, Hester is able to accept her wrongdoings and continue on without terrorizing herself. They committed a sin of passion, which is a natural temptation that’s only corrupt because their rigid religion said so. The forest is the only place that could accommodate for their feelings for each other and not shame them. Hester revealed her true self by removing the traces of her society. When the light shone on her it was Hawthorne’s way to emphasize that that state of being was who she truly was. Also, it leads to interpretation that she herself is a human guided