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Essay On The Forest In The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter focuses on a small Puritan town in Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. Through the use of setting, The Scarlet Letter reflects the romantic idea of society as a destructive influence on humanity while presenting nature as a transcendent experience. In the novel, the town and the forest serve as opposing settings that affect how the characters express themselves and interact with others. The town forcibly prohibits the expression of true emotion, while conversely, the forest serves as an escape from the harsh rules of Puritan society. Hawthorne uses the perspective of a young Puritan woman named Hester Prynne to emphasize the contrast between the social environments of the town and the forest …show more content…

When Hester enters the woods, she experiences freedom from the limitations of her society. While no longer fearing the consequences of her actions, Hester is able to show her feelings for Dimmesdale. The forest releases Hester of her societal burdens and allows her to connect with Dimmesdale, spiritually and physically. Hester shares intimate moments of caring and love that can only be seen in the forest where she emerges as her true self. She gives in to nature and enjoys her spirituality. “Such was the sympathy of Nature—that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits! Love, whether newly born, or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create a sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world. Had the forest still kept its gloom, it would have been bright in Hester’s eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale’s!” (178). The light imagery depicts the true happiness that Hester feels for Dimmesdale, the pure joy shared by the lovers.
Hawthorne stresses the contrast between society and nature through their effects on the characters.The town is the representation of imprisonment, while the forest represents freedom and all that is good. Both Dimmesdale and Hester are affected by nature and society. Nature has the same effect of freedom and individuality

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