scarlet
Puritans, or "the pure ones," were English Protestants in the 16th century who enforced strict laws, principles, discipline, and religion. They strongly believed in leading simple, ordinary, religious lives. Therefore, a Puritanistic society would not tolerate any complex matters of self- expression or allow any violations of laws that would upset their "pure" way of living. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses nature as a shelter from the strict mandates of the Puritan lifestyle. Flowers, particularly roses, are used to symbolize wild passion and freedom in the novel. One can see the majesty of nature through the beauty of flowers. The novel first starts off by describing the ugly, "weather-stained" prison door and flows into an eloquent description of an out of place rosebush growing alongside the prison. The rosebush is described as, "delicate gems, 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" (43). This passage illustrates nature as a glimmer of hope for the prisoners who enter the door. The rosebush, a symbol of pa
Prynne can remove her scarlet letter, take down her hair, and be her own self again. Pure-hearted Pearl, feeling entrapped by the secret of deceit in the house, yearns to be out by the rosebush, where she belongs with the shelter of freedom that nature bestows. One example of this is when someone observed that, "he gathered herbs, and the blossoms of wild-flowers and dug up roots and plucked off twigs from the forest-trees, like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was valueless to common eyes" (113). This quotation proves that Chillingworth, a respectable Puritan scholar, uses the wild herbs of the savages instead of the average physician's medicine. Chillingworth is found running off to the sheltered forest, where he can be himself, and not what society expects him to be. The jailer, Master Backett, first introduces Roger Chillingworth in the book. It is here that Hester and Dimmesdale can openly engage in conversation without worrying about the restrictions of Puritan society. He does not have to think about holding his hand over his heart when he is for a few moments cradled in an umbrella of security. Hawthorne creates the forest to give the characters a place to escape and express their true emotions. The herbs and roots that grow in the forest can also be used to show a longing for liberty. When inside the governor's house, Pearl can only look at a reflection of herself, because everything else in the house seems polluted and fake. Pearl, Hester Prynne's daughter also symbolizes wild passion like the rosebush. The physician is described as, "A man of skill in all Christian modes of physical science, and likewise familiar with whatever the savage people could teach, in respect to medicinal herbs and roots that grew in the forest" (65). Here stories of sin are whispered to a babbling brook, and passions as wild as a rosebush by a prison door are ignited. The word, "hidden," even implies what he does in the forest is secretive and peculiar, and not what the common Puritan eyes would expect.
Common topics in this essay:
Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Roger Chillingworth,
Dimmesdale Prynne,
Hester Prynne's,
English Protestants,
Pure-hearted Pearl,
Hester Dimmesdale,
Arthur Dimmesdale,
,
Master Backett,
wild herbs,
prison door,
lack puritan control,
freedom nature,
babbling brook,
self- expression,
scarlet letter,
nature shelter,
puritan society,
puritan lifestyle,
hawthorne illustrates,
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Acceptance Essays
