The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel that takes place in a historical setting during the years 1642-1649. The book is about a young woman, Hester Prynne, and her struggles to overcome the humiliation and guilt she feels for committing adultery. Without close analyzation of the book, it may just seem that many parts are insignificant and don’t have any meaning to the plot of the story. With that said, the beginning of the book is very significant and helps foreshadow what happens later on in the book. Given these points, the rose-bush in The Scarlet Letter symbolizes Hester’s passion and family and helps contrast the community with nature. The rose-bush in the beginning of the story helps represent Hester's passion …show more content…
The town that Hester lives in has a prison and a cemetery, which are usually associated with sad and dark thoughts. The people in the town try to control the lives of the people by creating laws they think are correct. Once someone breaks those laws, they cannot be forgiven and must be punished. The author states, “It may serve, let us hope, to symbolise some sweet moral blossom”(42). The rose-bush at the front of the jail suggests that nature will feel sympathetic towards people who are being punished. Even though the people in the community can be looked down upon for even the smallest of sins, nature will always be forgiving. Overall, the community and nature are two opposites in the book which help to make the plot of the story more intriguing. As seen, the rose-bush in The Scarlet Letter is a very important part to Hester’s life and helps to demonstrate the difference between the thoughts of the community and nature. Although The Scarlet Letter can be a difficult book to understand and read, most parts of the story have a bigger picture and must be analyzed to reveal the true meaning behind it. Just like the rose-bush could be seen as just a plant that has no significance, it obviously symbolizes something bigger in the