Narrative Landscapes

Book Review # 113530

Literature > American

A discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne's use of the Puritan town setting and the forest setting in "The Scarlet Letter."

2,389 words () | 7 sources | MLA | 2000 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the Puritan town setting and the forest setting in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" enhance the themes of the novel through symbolism and character definition. The writer explains that the two environments create diametric worlds representing civilization and moral law versus a land of freedom and moral choice leading to sin or innocence. Both settings lead the reader to a deeper understanding of the main characters, and thereby the themes of the novel, such as Puritan hypocrisy, the role of nature as sympathetic to human emotion, and the philosophical debate of the inherent evil or innocence of humanity.

From the Paper:

"Hawthorne's use of the forest setting is ambiguous; it can represent an untamed land of moral depravity or it can represent an Eden-like region providing the freedom to enjoy life and to seek its sympathy and communion. According to Carpenter, "to the traditional moralists, the 'forest,' or 'wilderness,' or 'uncivilized Nature' was the symbolic abode of evil - the very negation of moral law. But to the romantics, wild nature had become the very symbol of freedom" (287). Hawthorne vacillates between the two interpretations to explore themes allowing the unbridled freedom and enjoyment of life in the midst of moral oppression versus the innate depravity of man that flourishes amidst such freedom."

Sample of Sources Used:

Carpenter, Frederic I. "Scarlet A Minus." College English 5.4 (1944): 173-80.
Daniel, Janice B. "'Apples of the Thoughts and Fancies:' Nature as Narrator in The Scarlet Letter." American Transcendental Quarterly 7.4 (1993): 307-319.
Fiedler, Leslie A. "Clarissa in America: Toward Marjorie Morningstar." Love and Death in the
American Novel. Stein and Day Publishers, 1966. 217-58.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.