The setting is a newly erected city, in which a jail and a cemetery are the center of. Darkness and sorrow seemingly loom around every corner. Only a single rosebush exists showing any sign of beauty in the unsightly town. In the story The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a dramatically dark and gloomy environment, which in turn predicts an inevitable downfall of the protagonist.
             Hawthorne utilizes a barrage of deep, dark, almost eerie sounding words to give the setting a feeling of death and despair. Words such as "gloomy," "condemned," and "doom" make the reader imagine and picture an environment similar to a cemetery or a jail. Hawthorne seems to use these types of words to get the reader into the actual setting where the story starts out in. Tying in the surroundings with the usage of specific words that engulf the reader into the story assist Hawthorne in foreshadowing events to come.
             Imagery plays a key role in the first chapter of The Scarlet Letter. Allowing the reader to become a part of the atmosphere Hawthorne creates, one can begin to visualize and predict parts of the story they have not yet read. The presence of the door, described as being "heavily timbered" with a "wooden edifice" and "iron spikes" makes one picture a giant wooden door guarding something, or holding an underlying element waiting to be revealed. Also, the rosebush represents the "frailty" that is almost forgotten yet continues to live on within the "inauspicious" milieu.
             In creating a story with many levels of literary elements, one must choose their details carefully; Hawthorne does this very well. Titled "The Prison Door," the first chapter of The Scarlet Letter has three main subjects that get described in detail. The rosebush is the only item in the settings with any lavish color. Its vibrant red represents
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