Essay on The Scarlet Letter
Essay on The Scarlet LetterThe Road of a Religion
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne continuously uses the
image of a road or path as a metaphor for the limited individual freedom within the Puritan
religion. The road, an entity that demands adherence to a dictated direction, is similar to
the structure of Puritanism, which defines a set of strict moral laws that must be followed.
On pages 159-160, the passage that begins with “The road” and ends with “…find them
bright,” is an ideal example of Hawthorne’s use of the road as a metaphor. Hawthorne’s
diction in this passage also suggests that the physical and therefore metaphoric Puritan
road is constructed in such a way that makes deviancy almost inevitable. In this passage
Hester and Pearl walk on a physical road whose qualities make it difficult to follow. In the
same way, Puritans must traverse a religion that is inherently flawed and often leads the
individual astray from it’s path.
Hawthorne employs the symbolic connotations of a road or path in order to
demonstrate the strict religious beliefs of the Puritan life. Roads are traditionally used to
symbolize something that is planed out, easy to follow, or hard to stray off from. In this
passage, Hawthorne wisely uses a road to portray the Puritan lifestyle that both Hester
and Pearl are a part of. The idea of uniformity was practiced throughout the Puritan
community. Puritans were required to follow a strict set of religious laws and ideals to
stay pure. To deviate from these laws and ideals broke the uniformity, and therefore was
sinful and was punished to a great extent. The idea of uniformity is identical to the
connotations of a road or path. A road, just like the Puritan society, is uniform; it’s
distinguishable, planed out, paved, easy to follow, and it doesn’t change. Another main
idea within the Puritan community was the disallowance of toleration. They did not
tolerate any behavior outside their ideals and laws because it broke the uniformity of the
religion. Again, Hawthorne uses the metaphor of a road to portray this idea within the
Puritan society. He suggests the idea that everything outside the path is evil and should
not be tolerated. For a road is meant to be followed, and whatever lies outside the
established boundaries of a road is irrelevant to one’s destination. This road that
Hawthorne creates effectively demonstrates the idea of a strict Puritan society.
The passage on page 159-160 demonstrates not only the path the Puritans are
made to follow, but also what is forbidden to them while they are restricted to the path.
Traditionally, a forest or woods are used to symbolize the wild and untamed, and the
inhabitants are usually depicted as savages or outlaws. Hawthorne uses the forest to
depict the things that Puritans are meant to avoid and that are forbidden; things that will
make them sinful or turn them into savages or outlaws. In the beginning of the passage,
Hawthorne describes the “mystery of the primeval forest.”(159) He states...
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