In The Scarlet Letter, there are many symbols and themes. One of these themes is good vs. evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses plant imagery to illustrate his theme of good vs. evil. The Scarlet Letter contains evil elements such as betrayal and deceit, but it also contains good elements such as free spirit and positivity. Hawthorne uses weeds to illustrate the betrayal and deceit found in The Scarlet Letter. When Chillingworth finds black weeds on an unmarked grave, he says that they must have grown from a sinful heart. Chillingworth also “dug up roots and plucked away twigs from the forest trees” (Hawthorne 111). This symbolizes how Dimmesdale’s happiness was being plucked away by Chillingworth. Chillingworth has been taken over by the
