of the prison represents the crime and punishment, which are the aspects of early Boston's civilized life. In the Custom House, Hawthorne writes, "Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison"(Hawthorne, 1331). Hawthorne shows the reader that the prison is a very unorthodox place and full of darkness. This scene shows the sin in hester's heart, dark and ugly. There is a rosebush and some weeds that grow beside the prison. The wild rosebush is another symbol but a very positive one. Still at the prison door, Hawthorne quotes, "It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty
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