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Examples of nature in the scarlet letter
What does the forest have to do with the Scarlet Letter
Nature symbolism in the scarlet letter
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Nature’s Impact Looking around at adolescents today, do they even notice nature? Do they recognize the beauty? Probably not—they are too busy with television, social media, and the internet. Copious amounts of literature use the breathtaking and mysterious occurrences of nature to portray the mood and various ideas. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne displays his mastery of making the setting a key part of the plot. Hawthorne manipulates various natural scenes and feelings associated with nature to aid in the reader’s further understanding of the mood in the passage. Primarily through his use of the woods and sunlight, Hawthorne both skims and plunges deep into the novel’s core to create an atmosphere that makes the reader aware of how and what the characters are seeing and feeling in the book. Hawthorne flirts with many forms of symbolism through nature, including the innocence and joy sunlight brings, to the fear and guilt of the graveyard weed. Throughout the book, Hawthorne associates Pearl’s childlike wonder with bright scenes and dancing sunlight. A passage with reference to sunlight seldom exists in the absence of Pearl. The reason for this must be that sunlight represents a child’s unadulterated soul and …show more content…
He involves nature because people find it relatable, as most have seen it or had the feelings he descends upon it using his writing. Hawthorne uses the forest to create two different major themes, as well as show that the amount of lighting in a scene absolutely matters. If there were no reference to nature in The Scarlet Letter, then it would hardly be cherished as a classic in the same way it is today. Hawthorne makes nature into a crucial part of his novel by creating scenes packed with undertones of joy, fear, innocence, and guilt, which is why The Scarlet Letter, among some of Hawthorne’s other works, are important to the history of American
Pearl is an example of the innocent result of sin. All the kids make fun of Pearl and they disclude her from everything. She never did anything wrong, but everyone treats her like she committed the sin also. Pearl acts out against the children that make fun of her and acts like a crazy child. She cannot control the sins that her parents committed.
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
Clearly, during the forest scene, Hawthorne is giving the reader a sense of how unnatural this family that came from a single adulterous act is. It sheds light on Hawthorne’s romantic views because it shows how an unnatural family is detestable. In a much more broad sense, it gives the reader a glimpse of Hawthorne’s own personal theology. He firmly believes in severe consequences for sin and it shows in his novel.
In the early pages of the first chapter of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is already using personification involving nature. “But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush…which might be imagined 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 the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him” (Hawthorne 41). This personification of the rosebush serves as a
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important and symbolic role. Hawthorne uses nature to convey the mood of a scene, to describe characters, and to link the natural elements with human nature. Many of the passages that have to do with nature accomplish more than one of these ideas. All throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.
During the romanticism period, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the novel, The Scarlet Letter, which used the romanticist idea of deep intuition and inner feelings, allowing the characters to have insight of the plots and secrets hidden in the strict Puritan community that they lived in. Throughout the novel many of the characters have this intuition, making the book more alluring to readers when trying to figure out what each character really knows.
Hawthorne manages to create many metaphors within his novel The Scarlet Letter. The rose bush outside the prison door, the black man, and the scaffold are three metaphors. Perhaps the most important metaphor would be the scaffold, which plays a great role throughout the entire story. The three scaffold scenes which Hawthorne incorporated into The Scarlet Letter contain a great deal of significance and importance the plot. Each scene brings a different aspect of the main characters, the crowd or more minor characters, and what truth or punishment is being brought forth.
The forest is generally sought out as a place where no good happens in many stories such as Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. It is no different in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. It is where many mysterious things reside in the wilderness. The town in the book can contrast the forest as a sanction where people are are immune from the darkness. They differ, but they also aid in conveying the bigger themes of the story. Some people might see the forest as a “happy place” for Hester and Pearl, but it should really be looked upon as a place of sin when comparing it to its foil, the town, which in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter contrasts to aid in the themes of the nature of evi, civilization versus wilderness, and identity
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is a very famous accredited author, mostly known for his famous piece, The Scarlet Letter. He uses a variety of strategies to convey symbolism throughout a novel. Hawthorne’s style can be distinguished and is completely different from other authors of his time period. When Nathaniel Hawthorne displayed symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, he would use physical objects more than often to make his point, although they were physical objects, they had symbolically profound meanings.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's work, The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very symbolic role. Throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. One example of this is with the character of Pearl. Pearl is very different than all the other characters due to her special relationship with Nature. Hawthorne personifies Nature as sympathetic towards sins against the puritan way of life. Hester's sin causes Nature to accept Pearl.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, nature and Pearl are depicted as innocence and evil. Hester brings her daughter, Pearl, to live in the forest because they are not accepted by society due to the Scarlet letter. The relationship between these two is Pearl creates a bond with nature mentally since society rejects her as a product of sin. Nature is viewed in the eyes of a Puritan as a place where witches live to perform witchcraft and where darkness inhabits. However, the relationship between nature and Pearl gives her freedom and growth.
The story setting is the impetus in The Scarlet Letter because New England during the mid- 17th century had unique customs and values that impelled conflicts and character transformations. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne accentuates certain settings within New England to portray the strictness and hardships in the town, while he counters with the forest and the isolated cottage settings. Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter portrays a strict, rigid Puritan town through utilizing both the physical and historical settings of the time period.
A symbol is an object used to stand for something else. Symbolism has a hidden meaning lying within it; these meanings unite to form a more detailed theme. Symbolism is widely used in The Scarlet Letter to help the reader better understand the deep meanings Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays throughout his novel. He shows that sin, known or unknown to the community, isolates a person from their community and from God. Hawthorne also shows this by symbols in nature around the town, natural symbols in the heavens, and nature in the forest.
“She had wandered, without rules or guidance, in a moral wilderness: as vas, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest” (180). Nature plays an essential part in this American Romance novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter. The forest is a prominent factor symbolizing many ideas about nature’s relationship with man, as an individual and a society. The narrator does so by simply narrating about events and characters before, during and after the forest scenes. The narrator also displays the people’s feelings towards the forest and nature in general. The forest as a symbol helps the book develop the literary devices of theme, mood, and irony in The Scarlet Letter.