In the book The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a series of important events take place, which are shaped by their settings. Such settings are the fundamental prophets and story-line guides within the book, symbolizing the characters and the paths that they will take. A premium example of such a setting is the brook in the forest. The brook within the of the forest carries symbol of both Pearl as the intended ‘moral blossom’, showing the reader each moral value of her Mother and Dimmesdale’s actions, and a metaphor for the limbo which Pearl and her ‘family’ are stranded in.
             The brook is a vast parallel to Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale’s situation, beginning with its very placement. As well connected as a verse in a poem is the association between Pearl and the Babbling brook. The brook was borne of the Forest, which in it self represented immorality and impurity, just as Pearl was borne of a society which saw her as a product of just that. And so, as the brook was condemned to its babble because it “had gone through so solemn an experience that it could not help talking about it, and seemed to have nothing else to say,” so was Pearl condemned to the currents of her own life, which “had flowed through scenes shadowed heavily with gloom” Pg. 171
             Interestingly, because of this connection, Hester and Pearl both seemed to have an inert draw to the forest and it’s brook. Within the forest both Pearl and Hester found a certain solace, yet Pearl lived on as a animated scarlet letter and the brook continued its sorrowful existence, as did Hester. The sadness of the brook’s babbled, though babble suggests a certain uplifting, implies the sadness of Pearl’s position in life as Hester’s relentless embodiment of her sin. Yet Pearl accepted her mother when she embraced her ignominy, as she rejected Dimmesdale for concealing his own guiltiness. As the ...