The Scarlett Letter Essay

The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic, the Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important role. Nathaniel uses nature to create the mood for the setting, describe characters, and to put together natural elements with human nature. Throughout the book, nature is assimilated into the plot of the story. The use of nature in this book brings a lot of symbolism and that helps the reader understand the emotions of the characters thoroughly. Hester and her daughter Pearl show a relationship with nature that expresses purity and freedom. Pearl has a special relationship with nature because of her uniqueness compared to all of the other characters. In The Scarlet Letter Pearl exemplifies the sin of her mother. Known by the entire society as the daughter of the adulteress Hester Prynne , Pearl unsurprisingly seeks escape from the discomfort of society through nature. Throughout the novel Pearl is seen to associate with nature and in fact identify herself better with nature than society. “Pearl set forth at a great pace and as Hester smiled to perceive did actually catch the sunshine and stood laughing in the midst of it all brightened by its splendor and scintillating with the vivacity excited by rapid motion. The light lingered around the lonely child as if glad of such a playmate.” If society was unappreciative to Pearl’s existence, and if parents told their children to stay away from Pearl, she went unbothered. Pearl’s greatest friends were the sun, grass, rivers, and trees. Pearl’s friendship with nature was so strong that she would even partake in conversation with the brook in the forest. “O brook! O foolish and tiresome little brook! Cried Pearl, Why art thou so sad? Unlike the little stream she danced and sparkled, and prattled airily along her course.” Of course it would be easy for her to cry, sob, and moan about her mother’s wrongdoings and her wrongful existence but nature aids Pearl in overcoming these thoughts. With the aid of nature Pearl becomes her own individual with her own goals free of society’s burdensome judgments. For Hester and Pearl, nature represented freedom from a society that was unaccepting of both of them. Nature however, was the direct opposite. Hawthorne successfully reminds us that with the help of nature, it helps us to escape society’s pressure. Hawthorne's moods or prevailing feelings during certain scenes are revealed to the reader through nature.  For example, one of the first scenes in the book he describes Hester Prynne and her child being released from the local prison into the light of day. She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day, because its experience had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome part of the prison. The sunlight gives the reader a feeling of exposure.  This feeling is later revealed to the reader by Hawthorne, her prison door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine, to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast. It is also gives the feeling of a release into a harsh environment, which Hester and Pearl are not used to.  The symbolic use of sunlight helps when trying to get an overall feel for the scene. Another example of Hawthorne's use of nature to set the mood for a scene is shown when he describes the weather and conditions when Hester and Pearl secretly meets with Arthur Dimesdale deep within the forest. The day was chill and somber.  Overhead was a gray expanse of cloud, slightly stirred, however, by a breeze; so that a gleam of flickering sunshine might now and then be seen a its solitary play along the path. Hawthorne describes a cold and gray day. This description gives the reader a sense of isolation as well as In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic, the Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important role. Nathaniel uses nature to create the mood for the setting, describe characters, and to put together natural elements with human nature. Throughout the book, nature is assimilated into the plot of the story. The use of nature in this book brings a lot of symbolism and that helps the reader understand the emotions of the characters thoroughly. Hester and her daughter Pearl show a relationship with nature that expresses purity and freedom. Pearl has a special relationship with nature because of her uniqueness compared to all of the other characters. In The Scarlet Letter Pearl exemplifies the sin of her mother. Known by the entire society as the daughter of the adulteress Hester Prynne , Pearl unsurprisingly seeks escape from the discomfort of society through nature. Throughout the novel Pearl is seen to associate with nature and in fact identify herself better with nature than society. “Pearl set forth at a great pace and as Hester smiled to perceive did actually catch the sunshine and stood laughing in