“Nature could pity and be kind to him.” Outside the rusted prison door, a symbolism of death and contemn, lives a wild rose bush. Although the great pines and oaks have fallen, it has managed to preserve its beauty. One might say it preserves its beauty for the criminals walking by to face their punishments. Within Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, many symbols are used to disguise both the personal and religious beliefs during the 17th century; Among the various symbols, the scarlet rose bush is one of the most significant. The use of the color scarlet is noteworthy of being another symbol. Although one may think it was simply chosen to stand out, to Hester, the color may represent her passion but to the commonalty the use of this color may represent their fear, danger, and hate. Hawthorne intentionally uses this color to represent the …show more content…
While the prison door clearly symbolizes the jarring judgment of the puritans, the rose bush’s symbolism is not clarified. Whether the rose bush represents a final sign of hope within all of hester’s darkness or the raging hate the populace has for her, it is not known. However, because Hester composes the letter A in the same color as the rosebush, it can be said that the color symbolizes both the feelings of Hester and the populace. “ The scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passageway.” () The color Scarlet can both represent passion or hatred; Due to its gleam being vivid as Hester walks towards her punishment, one might say it gleams due to the audiences’ loathing. The color scarlet represents sin, lust, danger, and wrath; these are all emotions we see throughout the book. We see sin and lust within Hester’s beginnings, and we see danger and wrath within the