Nathaniel Hawthorne"s The Scarlet Letter, a dark tale of sin and redemption, centers on the small Puritan community of Boston during the seventeenth century. In the center of this bustling community is the market place. With in it are all the central features of the town, the most symbolic of these is the scaffold. Many a soul is scarred upon this scaffold. It is a place of intense scrutiny and upon it, reality comes into a brutal light. In exceptional contrast to the scaffold is the forest beyond the town. Here, there is no judgement and reality waxes and wanes....
scaffold in the market place, is harsh and crippling to one"s inner self. Hawthorne created the forest to give the characters a place to escape and express their true thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. It was here that thoughts and ideas flowed endlessly, and emotion was as wild as the forest itself. There are no restraints in the natural world, because it is just that, natural, not imposed and superficial like Puritan society. No intrusion from people means no disturbance in the natural order, and therefore serves to bring its inhabitants away from their world, and into this older one.