... , 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

... 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