Scarlet Letter: Purpose Of Landscape

Matthew You
Juniors Honor English
11/12/14
Purpose of Landscape In the beginning of the nineteenth century, numerous writers were very concerned with the American landscape and how to properly analyze it and incorporate it into their work. Most writers at the time expressed their support for the harmony between humans and nature, and admired the American wilderness and praised both humans and nature. One of these writers is the author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne. He characterizes American landscape as the embodiment of kindness and forgiveness through examples of nature that symbolize a greater concept. Through these metaphorical examples, he hints at social issues involving the universal concept of right versus wrong. In context,
he implies Justice versus Mercy, Punishment versus Forgiveness, or Judgement versus Grace. Hawthorne links values to each piece of nature and emphasizes the cultural significance through them. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the novel The Scarlet Letter, characterizes the American landscape as kind and forgiving, and through the metaphorical pieces of landscape, relays the significance of understanding social issues and the possible interpretation of hope. Hawthorne manages to forge a symbolic meaning to the American landscape. The first chapter in the novel, he describes a prison door confining all the criminals of the town. Hawthorne drops the reader at a door that is “heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.” (41) The prison door is described as “marked with weather-stains and other indications of age,” and having a “beetle-browed and gloomy front.” (41) Within this prison door, are all those who are covered in all the bleakness. This bleakness is explained through the descriptions of the prison door itself. However, there is a yielding of hope, and that is the rosebush. This rosebush, which is part of the landscape, is the only thing truly beautiful in all the darkness surrounding the prison. If the prison represents the harsh justice of the Puritans, which it does, then the rosebush would represent kindness and forgiveness. “…the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.” (42)
The iron door is the strict and unrelenting ways of the society, but the rosebush is forgiving. By acting as the beauty and hope in the midst of the dark atmosphere given off by the prison, the rosebush becomes a symbol of grace. According to the Holy Bible, “grace is unmerited mercy and underserving forgiveness.” Since prisons are places for the sinful, the beauty that emanates from the rose bush, growing in such an unexpected place, symbolizes God’s grace. This particular beginning to the novel implies Hawthorne’s message in social issues concerning Justice and Mercy, which later on becomes a crucial concept for the two protagonists of the novel. Hester and Dimmesdale are the two main characters of the novel.
Hester, who commits adultery with Dimmesdale, is shunned by society and forced to bare the ridicule of the townspeople. A part of the colony claimed that Hester’s punishment of having to bare the scarlet letter on her bosom to be weak. The other part of the colony wished to be merciful and forgave Hester and did not pursue to punish her any further. Hawthorne reinforces the significance of the American landscape by incorporating a means of freedom for the Hester and later on, Dimmesdale. Similar to the rosebush in the aspect of purpose, the forest becomes a place where the two forbidden lovers can meet in secret. It is a very private place and is appropriate for the two to spend time with each other. The forest serves as a space for peace away from the chaos of the society, between condemnation and freedom, again reiterating the large social issue of right versus wrong. The wildness of the forest makes it an excellent place for the two, and acts as the epitome of nature, beauty and freedom, which is the exact opposite of what the colony is. The kind and forgiving forest leads to the shedding of shame for Hester, when she physically removes the scarlet letter that represents her sin. The quality of the landscape reflects the citizens’ personalities, for Dimmesdale and Hester feel mentally free-spirited inside the forest. Romantics, such as Hawthorne, believed that nature was the "inherent possessor of abstract qualities such as truth, beauty, independence, and democracy.” (Source 1) To the townspeople, the forest is the unknown. It is a lawless area, full of American Indians and scary creatures. The town, ruled by law and religion, seems safe compared to the forest. The forest, however, is a place of passion and emotion. Hawthorne compares Hester’s shun state to a forest: “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest.” (182)
Simply put, Hester is cast out of the town and forced to live in a metaphorical forest: a wilderness of shadowy right and wrong. Hawthorne associates the nature of the forest with kindness and love. The woods are not all rainbows and butterflies, for they are quite dangerous as well, but it seems to represent potential: that part of human nature that cannot be squashed and beaten into submission. It is a place for Hester and Dimmesdale to meet in solitude. The social issues that revolve around the conflicts between the two protagonists of the novel, Hester and Dimmesdale, inform further thematic ideas, such as hope that results in the ambivalent state of right versus wrong. In addition, Mistress Hibbins, Hester, and Pearl’s activities at night take place inside the forest and their actions serve as the hints for this concept. A person is forced to be hopeful, if he or she is put in a state where others are deciding if one is forgiven or guilty. The governor’s gardens helps the reader understand Hawthorne’s efforts in implying America’s innate provision of hope. The governor’s garden is not in an excellent state. To be precise, it is in a bad state. The owner of the gardens has given up, and only cabbages, pumpkins, and a few rosebushes grow. The decaying garden, aligned with Governor Bellingham, implies that he is unable of nurturing a garden, more or less a town. Gardens are grown to provide both a practical necessity and an elegant experience, but in this case, the governor’s gardens only provides the governor with the bare necessity for survival that which is food. Hope is a huge thematic idea that is constantly brought up throughout the novel, and in this particular case, the reader ponders about this garden with sympathy and seeks an improvement for the garden. The American landscape, as Hawthorne describes it, informs the thematic idea of hope. Without hope, Hester and Dimmesdale would not be able to live on normal lives. The hard, dark landscape with colored fields signify the lack of humanity of the man-made structures. Landscape has impact upon humans and is a reflection of people’s tastes, values, and aspirations. The interplay of light and shadow that works along with the metaphors used to describe the landscape and the examples of nature imply a sense of urgency in the necessity of hope, and signifies an uncertain brightness.