The Scarlet Letter Theme Symbols

Nathaniel Hawthorne chose the market place and the forest as settings used to symbolically develop his portrait of society and the characters in The Scarlet Letter. In this novel a story unfolds of three people who are torn apart by sin, revenge, and guilt. The market place reveals to the reader a place of restraint and severe Puritan laws. The setting of the forest yields the impressions of wild unrestraint and passion. The market place …

…village. In closing, the two settings of choice in Hawthorne’s novels give way to keen development of the stories and a cornucopia of symbolism. The market place restrains a person, a vision planted in our minds with the use of Hawthorn’s most prominent symbol and setting, the scaffold. The forest, another setting that clearly conveys an image, is used as a place of abundant unrestraint where the reader can learn about the heart.