What Does The Forest Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

The Black Man in the Forest

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne utilized two main symbols: the Black Man and the Forest. Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth were all influenced by the Black Man. The Black Man was a Puritan term for the devil. The forest is the main setting that was also a symbol in Hester and the Reverend’s life. Nathaniel Hawthorne used the symbolism of the Forest and the Black Man to influence his character’s lives.

The Puritans in The Scarlet Letter avoided the forest because they believed the Black Man dwelled there. However, Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale felt free in the forest. After seven years, Hester and the Reverend met to talk alone. The forest could be described as their

place for solace. Hester took off the Scarlet Letter and instantly felt relieved. Nature draws a parallel for the relief itself, “Such was the sympathy of nature--that wild, heathen Nature of the forest, never subjugated by human law…with the bliss of the two spirits!”(Hawthorne 192) Symbolically, the forest represents the sin that caused them to become morally and spiritually lost.
Throughout the book, Reverend Dimmesdale is morally confused.

The meeting with Hester and deciding to runaway helped with his confusion. Leaving the forest, he felt free; he knew that he was a sinner. The Reverend also felt healthier. He drew from his period of moral confusion to create and deliver his best sermon on Election Day.

The one character that was negatively affected by the forest was Roger Chillingworth. He collected herbs and plants for medicinal use. However, he was torturing his patient, Dimmesdale. Eventually, he is described becoming darker, more deformed, and turning into something evil, the Black Man. Hester Prynne was also affected by the Black Man directly. In the forest, Pearl and Hester were taking a break after a walk. Pearl asks questions about the Black Man. Hester responds, “Once in my life I met the Black Man! This scarlet letter is his mark!”(Hawthorne 174)

Nathaniel Hawthorne used the symbolism of the Forest and the Black Man to influence his character’s lives. Hester was directly influenced by both the forest and the Black Man, the scarlet letter was the mark he left. Reverend Dimmesdale’s moral confusion was lost after leaving the forest. Roger Chillingworth turned into something evil. The Black Man in the forest definitely played his part in The Scarlet

Letter.