Hawthorne uses the forest to symbolize a free, lawless world where no Puritan governing exists, supporting the story’s overall idea... (!!!) Throughout the story, the forest stands a place where one can go to free themselves from the views of society. Hester’s journey to meet Dimmesdale in the forest is depicted, as the road she walked on “straggled onward in the mystery of the primeval forest… [the forest] stood so black and dense on either side, and disclosed such imperfect glimpses of the sky above, that, to Hester’s mind it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in which she had so long been wandering” (179). In her mind, Hester compares the “moral wilderness”, the state of outcast she is living in, to the actual forest. Both share a shadow of rights and wrongs, and contain secrets that are otherwise hidden from society.
…show more content…
The enclosure of the forest provides a place of seclusion from the community. Additionally, as Hester throws off her scarlet A , the forest is described as a place that is “never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits” (citation). In this instance, the forest is being describe a wholly truthful, not affected (separate) from outside views or tainted from community’s (puritans) beliefs. Individuals may do as they wish without worrying about facing the repercussions of harsh Puritan
The enclosure of the forest provides a place of seclusion from the community. Additionally, as Hester throws off her scarlet A , the forest is described as a place that is “never subjugated by human law, nor illumined by higher truth—with the bliss of these two spirits” (citation). In this instance, the forest is being describe a wholly truthful, not affected (separate) from outside views or tainted from community’s (puritans) beliefs. Individuals may do as they wish without worrying about facing the repercussions of harsh Puritan