Heaven and hell are two places that are the same yet different. They are the same because they are both "places" in which one will go after they die. However, whilst heaven is for those who do not sin and are good people, hell is for those you sin, and just overall bad people. In "The Scarlet Letter," heaven and hell can be seen as the city and forest. Both are which are two separate worlds in the novel. Also, there is somebody who is stuck between heaven and hell, Hester Prynne, the main character, who lives in the middle of the city and the forest. In "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne creates three worlds, all which can relate to heaven and hell; one being the forest, the city, and Hester's cottage. One of the mini worlds that Hawthorne creates is within the forest. The world that is created within the forest is a place for which the outcast reside. One of the ways in which you can earn a spot in the forest is to do something against what the Puritans believe. Hester, the main character, gets out casted, after serving time in prison, by the city, by committing adultery and obtains herself a scarlet letter. It can be seen that the forest is its own world because, after getting the scarlet letter nobody wants to be around her, so she goes to the forest where no one really cares because they have all been exiled from the world of the city. The same goes with anybody else who gets exiled from the city, the end up going to the forest where they will not have to deal with the persecutions of the city folk. This is showing that this is its own world because it's showing that people go to the forest, because it is separate from the city. Also, they both abide by separate rules, considering that the people in the city are strict puritans. And the people in the forest might not stick with being a strict puritan anymore. .
What the forest can be seen as is hell. That is so because in order for somebody to go to hell you would sin, thus getting kicked out of heaven.