Significance of Vegetation as Symbols in The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne used the vegetation in The Scarlet Letter as a symbolic tool to express the
characters’ development.. The seaweed shown with Pearl represents normality; the weeds
represent sin; and the rose bush represents hope. Each type of plant Hawthorne included in The
Scarlet Letter has a specific design and purpose.
When Pearl plays with the seaweed on the sand, it shows how accustomed to the letter
Pearl has become. The elvish child gathers it and designs an outfit that includes a green letter
“A.” As she is doing so, Pearl asks her mother: “... But in good earnest now, mother dear, what
does this scarlet letter mean?—and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?—and why does the
minister keep his hand over his heart?” [Hawthorne 119]After being questioned by Hester, Pearl
explains that she knows the letter represents something that includes Mr. Dimmesdale. Later on
in the book, she also says she knows she will receive hers when she is grown. This seaweed Pearl
finds is a comparison to Hester’s letter on her chest. Pearl has grown up with the letter, unlike the
townsfolk who have not become familiar to it . The seaweed shows the normalcy of the letter in
Pearl’s life.
Weeds are ugly. Weeds strangle. Weeds kill happiness. In The Scarlet Letter , Roger
Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale look out of a window and see weeds growing from a dead
man’s grave. These weeds represent sin, not ordinary sin, but sin kept secret until death.
“Maybe,” said Mr. Dimmesdale, “he truly wanted to confess but could not.”[Hawthorne 119]
According to Chillingworth, it does not matter if the man could not confess, for nature did it for him.
Sin is ugly. Sin is unwanted. Sin is like weeds. Just like the weeds, the secret Dimmesdale keeps is
slowly killing him as it strangles his happiness and life.
The final vegetation symbol is the rose bush outside the prison walls. “This rose-bush, by
astrange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the
stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally
overshadowed it…” [Hawthorne 1] Against all odds, it grew and blossomed, just like Hester.
Without the proper sunlight, the flowers should have withered and died. This is the same for the
adulteress. She lived in a secluded house beyond the woods. If not for Pearl and Arthur, she
would have gone insane. The rose bush in the first chapter of The Scarlet Letter represents
Hester, by showing hope.
Hawthorne utilized vegetation in The Scarlet Letter as a symbol to display the characters’
development. Hawthorne makes the reader think through the importance of each scene. The
seaweed shows how familiar Pearl is the “A.” The weeds represent sin and how no one can
escape it, even after death. The pure rose bush shows the reader that throughout the hardships,
anything is possible. The vegetation in The Scarlet Letter may be subtle, but from the seaweed to
the rose bush, these symbols demonstrate see that details are important.
