Symbolism Of The Rose Bush In The Scarlet Letter

Estella Schuetz

Vande Guchte

Honors English 10A

February 8, 2023 Imagine having to wear a symbol of your worst sin on your body for the rest of your life. In The Scarlet Letter, this is exactly what the main character Hester Prynne has to do. The Scarlet Letter is a novel that was written in 1850 by author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It tells the story of a woman named Hester Prynne, who is convicted of adultery and must sew a scarlet letter A on her dress every day as a reminder of her sin. The novel takes place during the 1600s, a time when Puritanism was at an all-time high. Hawthorne is also very talented at using symbolism, as many of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter need to be discovered through symbols. With his symbolism, Hawthorne wanted

The Scarlet Letter begins with a group of Puritans building a small town in Northeastern America. When colonizing the area, two things are built: a graveyard and a prison. On the door of the prison grows a wild rose bush. This wild rose bush has not been planted by anybody, nor has it been tended to by anyone, but it seems to grow lusciously. Our narrator, who is presumed to be Hawthorne, describes these roses as being "delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of nature could pity and be kind to them." (Hawthorne 46). By stating this, Hawthorne believes that the roses are delicate, compared to the criminals, who he sees as condemned. The bright gems of roses are contrasted with the doomed criminals. Moments later, Hawthorne hands you a rose and once again contrasts the balance of good and evil, when he states, "It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow" (Hawthorne 46). By using the words sweet and blossom and juxtaposing them with the words darkening and sorrow, Hawthorne is saying that this story will be like a rose. At times, the story will be dark and sorrowful, but it will eventually blossom into a moral story. Both the roses and the criminals and

Hester Prynne, the main character of The Scarlet Letter, is convicted of adultery before the events of this book. She ends up pregnant, despite her husband being presumed to be dead. It turns out that her husband, a skilled physician, and minister with an off-putting physique, is named Roger Chillingworth and he has been traveling in Native America this whole time. Once the Puritans catch onto this, she is put in prison for a year. When she exits the prison, she must endure her punishment. For Hester's punishment, she and her newborn daughter Pearl will be standing on a scaffold, letting people do what they want to them, and enduring this for several hours. After her punishment, Hester moves to a small cabin with her daughter. Hawthorne describes her cabin as living close to the town when he says, "On the outskirts of town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage." (Hawthorne 78). Previously, Nathaniel Hawthorne was described as an anti-transcendentalist. Among other traits, one of the primary beliefs of an anti-transcendentalist is that all humans are evil. Anti-transcendentalists also believe that an orderly society is necessary so that humans do not go insane. In the context of this story, the Puritan town would stand for that society. Hawthorne also describes Hester's cabin