... Pearl to find happiness. Hester, on the other hand, cannot escape the forest's darkness (gloom in her life) to reach sunlight (happiness). The darkness in the forest disappears when Hester and Dimmesdale meet and talk about their plans. Hester then takes off her scarlet letter and takes down her hair as a symbol of her freedom. As she does this, beams of sunlight light up the forest. The scarlet letter is a symbol of ... shame and punishment for Hester. The letter is originally ... ...

• Word Count: 361
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 the forest and she throws the scarlet letter off of her bosom. When she throws it on the ground, "forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest" (152). This represents how light accepts Hester only after she throws away her sin. Pearl is ... described as being drawn to the sun, and the sun is drawn to her. When she is ... playing at the governor's mansion ... ...

• Word Count: 1017
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... by the rules of the town makes the townspeople uncomfortable with the thought of spending extensive time in the forest. Because the townspeople refuse to enter the forest due to their fear, it becomes the perfect meeting area for Hester and Dimmesdale. The segment "Had the forest still kept its gloom, it would have been bright in Hester's eyes, and bright in Arthur Dimmesdale's" means that even if the forest was not alive with color and light ... , it still would have been a refuge for Hester and Dimmesdale because it was not under the judgmental eye of their peers and church. The peace ...

• Word Count: 1003
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... is truly human. She always has a certain amount of light on her. She represents to goodness in life. The forest is symbolic in many ways, such as the fact that Hester and Dimmesdale can profess their love for each other. In the forest sin tempts them. It is also the place of the "black man." The forest is supposedly where the witches meet. Mistress Hibbins says its were people go to ... do Satan's work. The forest is the symbol of man's temptation, specifically when ... Dimmesdale came back and tried to teach foul language to children and sin various other times. Another symbol of the ...

• Word Count: 371
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... , because when you are in the forest, you are with the Indians, who are "possessed by the devil." The forest was viewed that way because in the early days, Indians used to roam and practice their "magic" there. That view is not very different from Nathaniel Hawthorne's view on the forest in The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter does not see the forest in such a grim light as does The Crucible, but it does see the forest as a place where you ... express your true self, outside the boundaries of society. The forest is the first place that Hester and Dimmesdale hold hands in public. So, th...

• Word Count: 656
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... turning to light, suggesting darkness as a state of hiding where the person will not accept life's experiences and holds back. Pearl's eyes are called a "small black mirror," meaning they are empty and filled with sin as they reflect Hester's sin. Hawthorne explains black weeds growing from a sinner's grave as evil coming out and dying. The Puritan's describe Satan as the Black Man in the forest. Black ... is used to symbolize the worst and most evil part of an object or person. Hawthorne employs white and light to oppose darkness as a state of self-containment. White most clearly symbol...

• Word Count: 1044
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... all that is sacred to Dimmesdale and destroy it, murdering him from the inside out. After a period of time, the evil within Chillingworth can be seen through his appearance as well. As Hester stares into the eyes of Chillingworth, "There came a glare of red light out of his Vevoda 2 eyes; as if the old man's soul were on fire, and kept on smouldering duskily within ... his breast, until, by some casual puff of passion, it was blown into a momentary flame" (55). In attempt to set afire any life in Dimmesdale that guilt may have spared, Chillingworth allows the evil flame to spread throug...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and wild ones, - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss" (136). Hester Prynne, who is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, is the subject of this quote. She is sent ahead by her husband in England to settle in the colonies. He fails to arrive and following a few years of his absence, Hester falls into an adulterous relationship and conceives ... . She has no hope of happiness for herself or her child. She is right to a certain extent. Her life following her sin is a hard one, and the difficulty takes its toll on her. "All the light and graceful...

• Word Count: 1186
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... commit adultery and continue to meet in the dark forest. Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold during the darkness of midnight, thus concealing his crime. He and Hester's graves are always in shadow. Chillingworth is always associated with darkness. It is at night in the forest where Mistress Hibbens holds her witchcraft meetings, where she expects to meet theDark Man? (Ch.8). Light is associated with openness and truth ... . When Hester steps out of the dark jail into the blinding sunlight at the beginning of the novel, her crime and her shame ... become public for all to see. Similarly, at...

• Word Count: 1015
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... their community and from God. He shows us this by symbols in nature around the town, natural symbols in the heavens, and nature in the forest. First we see two symbols in the town that show how sin isolates people. In the first chapter we see a plant which stands out, "But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered with its delicate gems" (Hawthorne). This ... weeds that grew out of the blackness of the person's heart. The final resting place of the wrongdoer has now been separated from other graves as the sins are manifested by natural p...

• Word Count: 1118
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... , snatching up stones to fling at them- Because of Pearl's seclusion from society nature seemingly sympathizes with Pearl, which is evident by eerie role of the sunshine in the forest. "The light lingered about the lonely child, as if glad of such a playmate," . The sunshine seams almost grateful for Pearl presence, accepting her as an equal, and illuminating her beauty. Perhaps Hawthorn meant this as a biblical illusion to ... the light of Gods saving grace, and it's welcoming of even the most sinful person. Hawthorne describes another sign of acceptance as the "Great black forest becam...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... burrs from a tall burdock." She then began to "arrange them along the lines of the scarlet letter." After Dimmesdale's comment about her behavior, Pearl "threw one of the burrs at Mr. Dimmesdale." Dimmesdale "shrunk, with nervous dead, from the light missile." When Pearl saw how she effected him she "clapped her hands in the most extravagant ecstasy." Hawthorne is obviously showing how Pearl is there to remind ... Hester and Dimmesdale of their horrible sin, and to further escalate their pain and suffering. The next scene that supplements my opinion is when Pear wipes Dimmesdale ... 's ...

• Word Count: 421
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... died peacefully. Hester and Pearl was relieved from their guilt. The theme within the story is unconfessed sins leads to the destroying of the soul. Hester who was dubbed with the guilt, openly admits it thus her soul was not destroyed, instead she gathers strength and courage to stimulate her soul which radiant with more light. In the other hand, Dimmesdale hid his secret from others which slowly ... corroded his soul, leading to sickness and guilt. Later when he confesses, he was released from the painful and died peacefully. Important Passage: "Mother," said little Pearl, "the sunshin...

• Word Count: 720
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... in her heart." Hawthorne uses light imagery to describe Hester's hair as she walks out of the prison: She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam She was lady-like, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity. The narrator says, "Never had Hester Prynne never looked more lady-like, in the ... antique interpretation of the ... suggests that Hester is somewhat innocent. After she moves into the forest with Pearl and starts a new life, the scarlet letter on her chest has a new signifi...

• Word Count: 904
• Approx Pages: 4