The Letter Made of Scarlett

The Letter Made of Scarlett The setting is a newly erected city, in which a jail and a cemetery are the center of. Darkness and sorrow seemingly loom around every corner. Only a single rosebush exists showing any sign of beauty in the unsightly town. In the story The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a dramatically dark and gloomy environment, which in turn predicts an inevitable downfall of the protagonist. Hawthorne utilizes a barrage …

…With its “gloomy front,” the jail plays an important symbolic role in creating the environment of the first chapter. Throughout the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses strong rhetorical strategies to bring to life the surrounding atmosphere. Making the setting evident in the readers mind helps in picturing something that will happen later on. Hawthorne’s gloomy, unsightly, and dark setting makes one believe that the story’s protagonist will have an unsatisfying ending.