What Does The Rose Bush Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

Taking place in 17th century Boston; Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the Scarlet Letter, writes about a woman named Hester Prynne, who has committed a sin in which she had a child with the reverend. The townsfolk, wanting to know who the father is, rather than killing Hester, choose to leave her in permanent embarrassment by having her wear the letter “A” on her chest for eternity. As the child, soon to be known as Pearl, spends her first few months of her life in a dimly lit prison, the only physical object, other than her mother that sticks in her mind is the rose bush near the prison wall. As Hester stands at the scaffold as punishment, she meets eyes with a man that she knows, soon the reader learns that it is her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who has left his Native Indian imprisonment and has heard Hester’s wrongdoing from the man next to him. Chillingworth then promises to himself to get revenge on the man who had an affair with Hester.
According to Hawthorne the rose bush is “some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow. (45-46)” The rose bush could also be symbolized as Hester’s child, Pearl, grown from the thorns/pain of her sin, but blooming into a beautiful rose in Hester’s life. This indicates that Hester has compassion towards the one she committed her sin with. It also signals that she’s very passionate about Dimmesdale, where she slowly loved, unlike how Hester realizes that her only sin was “loving” Chillingworth. The rose bush symbolizes the whole story of the Scarlet Letter, all the way until the forlorn ending of the