While Hester lives in the prison of alienation, Dimmesdale lives in the prison of his secret sin, and Chillingworth imprisons himself by his revenge. The prison is a foreshadowing about the life that Hester and the others involved with this sin will live even after she leaves the prison. This causes them to put Hester in prison and also they make her wear the scarlet letter.
The Puritans have a strict code and they do not allow adultery to be unpunished. The prison is a representation of a punishment for sin. The prison is a symbol of isolation and alienation. This is true for Pearl also for throughout her whole life she has been unwillingly placed into the evil and sorrow that her mother deals with and just as the brook, she keeps on going. Another similarity between the two is that the brook travels through a dark and often evil forest, yet it never stops traveling. This means that most people do not know where the brook or Pearl came from. The brook has an unknown source, and Pearl also has an unknown source. To Dimmesdale the brook becomes a boundary between two worlds, a world of peace and freedom and a world of lies and guilt.Īcross the brook lies freedom from his sin. As soon as Hester puts the letter back on, Pearl crosses the brook. Pearl is not recognizing her mother without the letter. Pearl exclaims that she will not cross the brook because Hester is not wearing her letter. The brook that runs through the forest is a symbol for many things. Another important symbol in the forest is the brook. This means that Dimmesdale would not confess his sin, and confessing his sin is the only thing that can save him. This is an important event in this setting because it would mean that Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl could live a normal happy life in England away from their sin. Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest and devise a plan to escape the town and move to England. The forest is a place where the people do as they pleased.
The strict codes of the Puritans is not allowing the people to do what they want, so instead of breaking the law in public they go to the forest and be free from all laws. The forest is a sense of freedom that the people could not find in the town. In Puritan times, the forest is evil and nothing good can come from it. The forest is a symbol of darkness and despair where evil is. The forest is a representation of how deception and secrecy can be destructive. By using the scaffold as a place where Hester is sentenced to stand for punishment and a place for repentance the author symbolizes the importance of this setting. Hester’s punishment for her sin of adultery is to wear the letter A on the outside of her dress and stand on the scaffold in front of the whole town to see her and her baby. The scaffold is a platform used for redemption and a symbol of the harsh Puritan code. She is having flashbacks to earlier times and feeling guilty for what she had done. When Hester was standing on the scaffold she is not thinking about being punished. The scaffold shows how the punishment imposed on us by others may not be as destructive as the guilt we impose on ourselves. The scaffold, the forest, the prison, and Hester’s cottage are settings that show sin and its consequences result in shame and suffering. The settings in this novel are almost characters, for they are an important part in developing the story.
Settings of Scarlet Letter The settings in The Scarlet Letter are very important in displaying the themes of the novel.