Symbolism Of The Forest In The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, the forest means different things to different people. To the honorable and respectable members of Puritan , the forest is an evil and frightening place where witches lurk and the devil resides. To Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, two people unable to speak their minds in Puritan community, the forest offers a place of refuge where they can be true with each other. To Pearl, the forest . The symbolism of the forest setting’s inherently good and bad natures offer a deeper insight into the emotional complexity of Hawthrone’s characters. The inherently bad characters and dark events that take place in the forest reveal that the setting itself is a symbol of evil. The forest is something very much
The forests’ most frequent visitors, the Black Man, Mistress Hibbins, and Hester, embody just how evil the place is. From his first mention in the novel, the Black Man, has made a reoccurring appearance as a spiritual of the Devil in Puritan society that is responsible for much of the fear of forests in the novel. According to Hawthrone, the Black Man lurks around the forest, “…write their names with their own blood in a big heavy book, with iron clasp to fasten its pages shut." (Hawthrone 161). If the devil, the ultimate symbol of evil resides in the forest, than that makes the forest inherently evil. The forest is full of evil and Mistress Hibbins and Hester, demonstrate the evil that exists. In many ways, Hawthrone uses the forest as a symbol for evil. The woods are the
To Pearl the forest is like a best friend. It treats her as if she were one of its own. The animals do not runaway at her ever move, instead they come to her with open arms. The light is chasing her no matter where she goes. She is able to run and play freely to her innocent hearts content. She can do ;;that because her heart is innocent and the forest recognizes that. Family love. Bastard. The forest setting played a vital role in the story by affecting and describing every one of the characters in novel. Nature had assisted the narrator in portraying the different state of minds the characters were in, and was effectively used as a literary device in these scenarios. Without nature, The Scarlet Letter could not portray the story as much intensity of feverency as it could with nature. Nature has been brilliantly wounded into a story of sin and passion to flawlessly execute a great