Literary Analysis of The Scarlet Letter
             An author uses symbolism to inform his or her readers about his or her viewpoints. A symbol gives deeper meaning and sometimes hidden insight to the situation that it is being described. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, a novel that informs the reader about Hester Prynne being condemned to wear a scarlet "A" on her bosom for committing adultery, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbols are used repeatedly to give meaning to usually overlooked subjects. Vance Cordell has critiqued the forest mentioned in The Scarlet Letter as a symbol of redemption and freedom. His interpretation of the forest in this novel is inaccurate because in reality, the forest symbolizes isolation, evil, and the untamed.
             In certain parts of the novel, the forest represents isolation. When Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear the "A" on her boson, meaning adultery, she must reside in a cabin far from the village, near the forest. The Puritans are frightened by Hester because she behaves differently from the rest of population by committing adultery, an act that violates their religious and state law. In order to avoid her, they reason that she should not be in contact with Puritan society. Here, Hawthorne describes the cabin, "It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned because of the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere or that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants" (74-75). Since the cabin is vacated near the forest, Hester must live there to keep her from corrupting the village with herself, and her illegitimate child. Here the forest represents isolation because it maintains distance between Hester and the village. Another example that demonstrates how the forest symbolizes isolation is its narrow pathways. When Hester is about to enter the forest, the pathways are depic...