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 passion and freedom of nature, can be found outside the prison door, a representation of the strict nature of society, to show the lack of Puritan control over the untamed wilderness. Pearl, Hester Prynne's daughter also symbolizes wild passion like the rosebush. Pearl is always referred to as a flower or part of nature, and is pure at heart. 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. She looks out a window overlooking the garden, "Pearl, seeing the rose-bushes, began to cry for a red rose, and would not be pacified" (99). Pure-hearted Pearl, fee...