Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a story full of symbolism and themes. One of the most important symbols in this classic tale is the forest.
Perhaps one of the most obvious meanings associated with the forest is freedom. When Hester Prynne flees from society to live in this wild place, she feels liberated from judgment and shame. This is a place where she can be herself without fear or worry about how others will perceive her.
In addition to symbolizing freedom, Hawthorne also uses the forest to represent mystery. In this untamed wilderness, anything can happen — from unspeakable acts of revenge to forbidden romance. Since it stands outside civilization, it contains secrets that no one else knows about — even if those secrets are eventually revealed by Chillingworth at a later point in the book.
Finally, there’s another aspect of symbolism related to the forest that readers cannot ignore — darkness. While some may interpret this darkness figuratively as despair or suffering, others may interpret it literally since so much of Hawthorne’s descriptions paint an image of shadows and gloom rather than sunshine and lightness. What’s more is that these shadows come not only from nature but also from human beings since some individuals seem almost evil while others appear almost angelic in comparison amongst all these trees and shrubs.
