Allusions In The Scarlet Letter Essay

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As one of the most observed parts in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, he describes the forest as “a moral wilderness” (167). As a moral wilderness gives the impression to readers that a lot occurs in the forest and some of which could allude to the Bible, such as the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a paradise for Adam and Eve which also presented a moral decision that cost them their place there. Alluding to the Garden of Eden, Hawthorne illustrates the setting of the forest in chapters sixteen and seventeen to create a solitary and isolated mood for the novel that developed the more biblical meaning to the book.

Hawthorne illustrates a image of the forest scene in chapters sixteen and seventeen to create a solitary …show more content…
He dives further into the allusion of the Garden of Eden by bringing the two characters together and therefore enforcing that appearance of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Just like how Adam and Eve discussed sin and what God had directed them to do, Hawthorne writes most of Hester and Dimmesdale's discussion on their very public sin and all of the judgement from they receive from the public and how the the minister feels as though God is judging them as well. Hawthorne writes “ The judgement of God is on me.. It is too mighty for me to struggle with” (180). This passage alludes to the second part of the story of the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree that God specifically told them not to eat from. This is Hester and Dimmesdale receiving the same supposed judgement from God that Adam and Eve had in the Bible. This scene fully embodies the story of the Garden of Eden; the solitary area, the sin, and the male and female roles that commit the sin and receive the criticism. When Hawthorne brings Hester and Dimmesdale fully into their supposed paradise and discusses their sin, the Biblical meaning of the story becomes even deeper because of the similarity in the two stories, the Garden and the
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