the scarlett letter

Often throughout The Scarlet Letter there are symbolic references made.
The story deals with a Puritan woman who commits adultery and raises an illegitimate child named Pearl. The author, Nathanial Hawthorne, seems
to be rather fond of using religious and natural images to symbolize
different points, possibly because of his own Puritan background. One
of the purposes of this symbolism is to show that Puritanism is
hypocritical and that their religious viewpoints are against the
natural order, which is done by using contrasting natural and religious
symbols in the descriptions of Pearl.
First, Hawthorne uses the backdrop of the natural world to show
not only that Pearl is anonymous to the Puritan culture, but
also above it. This is done by using positive natural images
and metaphors to the natural world. Describing Pearl as a
"...lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a
guilty passion" (pg. 81), begins this image. This "rank
luxuriance" is based on the s...