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The Forest In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

488 Words2 Pages

In the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, the forest was negatively portrayed as an equivalent to hell. The townspeople never spoke of it, but it was a mutual understanding that it was filled with evil. The mysterious forest was the home of the Black Man, a symbol of Satan. In the Puritan mindset, the Black Man was evil and their pristine lifestyles struggled with allowing such darkness to be spoken in their lives. The geographic layout of the land had a deeper meaning than what meets the eye. Hester and Pearl lived outside of the city and outside of their home was the forest. Pearl struggled her entire life with never being able to fit in with the Puritans. She was a product of her mother’s sin, which made her evil in the eyes of the townspeople, yet she was not the one who committed the act. Much like the layout of the land, Hester and Pearl were stuck between the Puritans who criticized them and the mysterious forest. After Hester nearly loses custody of Pearl, Mistress Hibbins tries to convince Hester into going into the forest with her (Hawthorne 66). We later come to find that she is a witch, wanting to bring Hester into the dark and evil forest while she was in a vulnerable state. Hester and Pearl go into the forest in hopes to find Dimmesdale while he was on a walk like her normally does. While they are there, Pearl sees a glimpse of sunlight which she suggests to be running from Hester because of the scarlet letter on her …show more content…

Although the efforts of Dimmesdale and Hester to keep their secret under wraps, the truth came out eventually. The forest changed in Hester’s eyes throughout the story. In the beginning, it was frightening and evil, however in the end, she desired to be there so that should could get the chance to speak to her one true love. Work Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Lexington: n.p., 2016. Print
Hawthorne 66
Hawthorne 106
Hawthorne

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