Hawthorne uses symbols of light and dark to depict the battle of good and evil among the characters of Hester, Pearl, and Chillingworth. The sun is used as a symbol of good nature and purity. Because of her sin, Hester is no longer a pure human being; therefore, she is not touched by sunlight. The reader notices this when Pearl points out, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom” (138). This is evidence that the scarlet letter is the cause of Hester’s darkness. Later in the book, Hester is in th

withering and dead plant symbols help to describe the characters’ states throughout the novel.

The forest in The Scarlet Letter brings out a different side of each character. The forest is first seen in the book as a place of evil. Mistress Hibbins invites Hester and Pearl to a meeting of witches. Mistress Hibbins asks, “Wilt thou go with us tonight? (87). Hester, knowing she has sinned enough already, refuses to participate in the wickedness of the forest. Yet, when Hester and Dimmesdale are in the forest together, it is a symbol of shelter for them from the contempt of society and their guilt for breaking its rules. They both feel safe enough to share the truth with each other. Their meeting in the forest is described as a “first encounter, in the world beyond the grave, of two spirits who had been intimately connected” (142). The scarlet letter on both of their bodies doesn’t cause either of them pain when they are in the forest. To Pearl, the forest represents a home where she can be wild, elf-like. Hawthorne describes the woods as the “great black forest [that]…became the playmate of the lonely infant.” Since Pearl has been driven out of Puritan civilization, the forest is the embodiment of a comfortable friend for her. The main purpose of the forest in The Scarlet Letter is to be a place where the truth can exist.

to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that th

Some topics in this essay:
Pearl Chillingworth, Scarlet Letter, Hester Dimmesdale, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Puritan, Hester Hester, Mistress Hibbins, scarlet letter, Hester Pearl, forest scarlet letter, light darkness, character forest, characters hawthorne, help portray, “the sunshine, mistress hibbins, psychological moral, truth chillingworth, forest scarlet,