Imagers - Scarlet Letter

The first example of nature imagery in the Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a description of the plants growing outside of the jail. This description is of “unsightly vegetation” which is a symbol for the problematic Puritan society and of a “wild rose-bush” which is symbolic for Hester (45).

The “unsightly vegetation” represents the Puritan society and its tribulations. The vegetation is described as having “something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison” (45). The Puritans, in their attempt to establish a model ‘city on a hill’, have found the New World as a “congenial” or friendly place to establish a society. But one of the first buildings they built, “the black flower” was a prison, which shows they have low expectations and they anticipate sinning (45). The vegetation is also representative of the Puritan society because like how the vegetation is damaging to the rose bush, the town is detrimental to Hester. The vegetation takes away nutrients and sunshine from the rose bush so that the rose bush can’t flourish. The Puritans try to stop Hester from ‘flourishing’ too, but it spite of them she still manages to do so. The rosebush and Hester remain good and beautiful