How Does Hawthorne Use The Rosebush In The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne is an author who wrote a book in 1850 called The Scarlet Letter which takes place in 1642. The book is about a society and their puritan ways. In the book there was a woman named Hester whose name means star. She is very important in the story for her sin of adultery and is forced to wear a letter A on her dress as a sign of shame. She had a baby outside of her marriage with a man named Dimmesdale whose life is dimming in guilt. Dimmesdale had a hard time confessing about his sin because of how highly he is seen by the town. He is so guilty about his sin and not knowing how to confess to it he physically harms himself. Their daughter's name is Pearl. Pearl got her name because she was her mother's greatest treasure. Hester only

The story starts with being outside of a prison to show that the town was built on punishment. Next to the prison is a rose bush. Hawthrone narrates, “ But on the side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems. …” ( Hawthorne 52). The rosebush was outside of the prison because the rosebush stands for good and evil, because the thorns was the bad and the roses was the good.When the author says Delicate gems it means the good part of the rosebush. Hawthorne continues, “ this rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history… survived out of the stern old wilderness…” (Hawthrone 52). Why Hawthrone decides to make the rosebush wild and natural was to show that the balance of good and bad in a person. Why Hawthorne decided to start the novel with this symbol to tell his readers that the story is going to have a situation where it is good and bad. The rest of his story is going to show the good and bad in the characters to connect to the

Hester is a woman in a puritan town who has different views than Puritan. Hesters husband leaves her. He is gone for so long she thinks he’s dead. Hester wasn’t in love with her husband and because he was gone she found someone who she loved and had an affair with them. The town believed that even if her husband is dead she should still go on as shes married. So, they call what hester did adultery. The punish her by putting her in prison, make her stand on the scaffold and get publicly helmalated, and wear a red letter A for adultery. Hawthrone narrates, “on the breast of her grown in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fanstastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne 59). After time the scarlet letter started to become a symbol of good. The town people stated to forgive hester. The town first made the letter stand for adultery than the letter stood for able. Hester role in the town was to take care of people. Hester does charity work in the town. Hawthorne shows that from one bad thing, something good can come out of that bad