In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, there are many different themes portrayed throughout the book. Hawthorne develops these themes through many different symbols in his novel. Besides the obvious symbol being the Scarlet Letter, you can find many other examples of Hawthorne's use of color. The colors that he repeats in the book besides red are gray, gold, green, and black. Gray represents the strict Puritan society. Gold represents passion. Green is shown as life, hope, and youth. Last, black, is shown as a symbol for evil and sin.
The beginning of the novel starts off in a gray setting. Hester is being held in prison with a crowd of Puritans waiting outside to see her humiliated. Many times during the book Hawthorne also describes the crowd as wearing gray colored clothes. He also illustrates Minister Dimmesdale at times as old and gray under his grizzled cap. The importance of this relation to Hawthorne's use of color is that Dimmesdale is associated with a gray quality and is upon the scaffold in the gold sunshine, into which Hester has brought him.
The color black came into play often describing Hester and Pearl. He quotes Hester as having "dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes." He described Pearl's eyes as "wild, brightly deep black eyes." Since both Pearl and Hester had characteristics of black hair and eyes, black is linked with sin because that is how the Puritan people thought of them.
.
To the townspeople the forest was not a lush, green, inviting place. Instead it was a gloomy home where the Devil supposedly lived. To Hester and Pearl, green meant new life and hope. To escape the taunts and guilt she felt from the town, Hester moved to the outskirts. This is where she could be free from the ridicules and just hide away in the green forest.