The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism
For symbolism we used this illustration as a way to show the connection between all the symbols and their relation to sin. The path of sin starts at the prison door. The break in the door shows that a person cannot run from their past and sins, they will come out eventually. Notice how the river expands to include more and more symbols. We chose that to show how the longer these confessions are repressed the larger and more difficult to deal with they become. The symbol closest to the prison door is the rose. The rose is a direct parallel to Pearl as they both serve as a stark contrast to the surrounding environment. The rose bush’s main function was to symbolize a moral blossom in the story as it shows that justice will eventually prevail. The rose bush also reflects the moral values in proportion to the nature. Because within the bonds of the nature everything acts in a way than what it is really like and what it should do by its nature without resisting to its essential needs. But civilized man especially puritans rejected the mostly part of human needs like enjoys and spices of the life especially sexuality. But to deny means nothing because you can change nothing by denying it or covering the truth. So the roses symbolized normally passions and desires thus we can deduce that here it symbolizes how the freedom of the human nature is imprisoned by the conventional wisdom. Under this circumstance the nature will resist to the later doctrines and this resistance will manifest itself with dogged determination whoHester Prynne keeps in her heart. Nothing could be more explicit than this presentation. Because there is no place for repressed feelings within the nature so it will be wise to remember the human behaviors is formed by these same rules. The river dominating the scene represents sorrow as in the novel it can be seen as a tear running through the forest. In the illustration the river acts as the body that connects all the symbols as they flow through the novel interacting with each other to move the plot forward. Take notice of how the river takes the shape of a crude letter “A” with the bridge crossing over the river to take the place of the grass near the prison to separate nature from society which is represented by the dock at the bottom of the river. The pearl illuminated by sunlight is two different symbols, Peral and Sunlight. Pearl is a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter. She is the physical consequence of sexual sin and the indicator of a transgression. Yet, even as a reminder of Hester’s “sin,” Pearl is more than a mere punishment to her mother: she is also a blessing. She represents not only “sin” but also the vital spirit and passion that engendered that sin. Thus, Pearl’s existence gives her mother reason to live, bolstering her spirits when she is tempted to give up. It is only after Dimmesdale is revealed to be Pearl’s father that Pearl can become fully “human.” Until then, she functions in a symbolic capacity as the reminder of an unsolved mystery. The sunlight represents acceptance by nature. Pearl is able the step into the sunlight while Hester is unable to. This brings a supernatural aspect to the story as if nature can sense that Pearl, although wild and passionate, is pure, while Hester is un-pure and tainted by sin.
As Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl in Chapter 12, a meteor traces out an “A” in the night sky. To Dimmesdale, the meteor implies that he should wear a mark of shame just as Hester does. The meteor is interpreted differently by the rest of the community, which thinks that it stands for “Angel” and marks Governor Winthrop’s entry into heaven. But “Angel” is an awkward reading of the symbol. The Puritans commonly looked to symbols to confirm divine sentiments. In this narrative, however, symbols are taken to mean what the beholder wants them to mean. The incident with the meteor obviously highlights and exemplifies two different uses of symbols: Puritan and literary.
The pentagram that is drawn near the bottom of the river is used in our illustration as a substitute for the Black Man of the Forest.The Black Man and the pentagram are euphemisms for Satan. Hester considers the scarlet letter A to be the Black Man’s mark, and Pearl wonders aloud if the Black Man left his brand on Dimmesdale’s heart. Our narrator loves to compare Chillingworth to Satan as well. By invoking Satan, our narrator raises the question of whether humans are innately good or evil. A favorite pastime of the Black Man is to hang out in the woods and lure the locals to come hang out with him and sign their names in his book (with their own blood). Mistress Hibbons knows the Black Man well, apparently.
The meteor in The Scarlet Letter exposes both a communal and an individual reaction. The community interprets the meteor-in-the-shape-of-an-A to be a message from God commemorating the life of the recently deceased Governor and proclaiming him to be an angel (“A” for “angel”). Dimmesdale, on the other hand, sees this meteor as symbol of his own sin, as though God were trying to expose his secret to the entire world. He thinks solely about what the meteor means to him and him alone. To us, this crazy occurrence suggests that there’s more than one way to interpret anything. The forest and wilderness are seen as the home or dwelling place of evil by the townspeople. It’s the unknown. Such a wilderness is compared to the moral wilderness in which Hester has been lost for years: "She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest." The forest contrasts sharply with the town, or "civilization," the former representing a place where passion and emotion reign, and the latter, a place where law and religion prevail. Interestingly, Hester lives on the edge of town, on the border between wilderness and civilization. She straddles both worlds.

We associate Nature with kindness and love from the very beginning of this story, for our narrator tells us that the wild rosebush reminds all that “the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.” As much as we want to root for Nature in this book, it isn’t always a place of comfort and peace. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the woods, the brook and the trees seem to listen, talk, and to have secrets of their own. After a few hours in the woods with Hester, Dimmesdale becomes incredibly mischievous and unrestrained. The woods seem to affect people in interesting ways. The creepy Chillingworth harvests his medicine and remedies from the woods and from the seashore – remedies that help keep Dimmesdale alive and, therefore, tortured. The dock at the end of the river is something we added to represent the redemption or freedom that is found in one way or another by each character in the novel.