Importance of the Forest in The Scarlet Letter

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Importance of the Forest in The Scarlet Letter

"The path strangled onward into the mystery of the primeval

forest"(179). This sentence displays just one of the multiple

personalities that the forest symbolizes in The Scarlet Letter written by

Nathaniel Hawthorn. In the Scarlet Letter the forest symbolizes much

more than one might imagine. Each character brings out a

different side of the forest, however the forest also brings out a

different side in each character. For some the forest may be a place of

sinister thoughts and wrong doing, but for others it is a place of

happiness and freedom.

The first encounter with the forest we have symbolizes just some of

the evil that lingers within the darkness of the forest. As Hester and

Pearl are leaving governor Bellinghams estate they are confronted by

mistress Hibbins who explains that the witches are meeting in the forest,

and she then invites Hester to become more deeply involved with her evil

ways. "Wilt thou go with us tonight"(113) asked mistress Hibbins, yet

Hester refused to sign her name in the black mans book on that night. She

explains that the only reason she does not sign is because Pearl is still

in her life. At this time the forest itself is a open door to another

world, a wicked world that would take her away from her present situation,

but that is not the only door that the forest holds.

The forest is an open door to love and freedom for both Hester and

Dimmesdale. It is a place where the letter on their bodies can no longer

have an effect on them if they choose. A world ruled by nature and

governed by natural law as opposed to the artificial strict community with

its man made puritan laws. Its as if the forest represents a key to the

shackles the Hester and Dimmesdale have been forced to wear, all that they

have to do is unlock it. Although if they choose not to unlock them, they

begin to dwell on the things that they have done to deserve the shackles.

In this the forest represents a thing of truth, weather it be good or bad.

In pearls eyes the forest has a totally different concept.

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