Mankind has looked to the natural world for the answers to life since the beginning. From the days of the cavemen, to the transcendentalist movement of the Second Great Awakening, to modern day, mankind is finding comfort and closure in nature. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, nature is extremely significant in the development of the plot, characters, themes, and main idea. Nature plays a very significant role in the plot development of the Scarlet Letter. In the opening scene of the novel, Hawthorne describes the setting of the prison where Hester Prynne was held for her crime. In a way, the natural setting of the prison showed the contrast between the utopian Puritan society and the evil, dark place where the audience meets Hester Prynne. But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him. (56) This passage shows how Hawthorne uses the setting to portray how Hester is an outcast in the Puritan society, which aids in the character development of Hester. Also, another important factor that affects the plot is when Chillingworth goes to gather herbs to heal Dimmesdale from the graveyard. Hawthorne describes the graveyard in detail to show Chillingworths evil heart, and also to foreshadow the death of Dimmesdale. They grew out of the heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime" (129). By using the eerie setting of the graveyard, Hawthorne strengthens the plot development by foreshadowing death and evil in the relationship between Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. Nathaniel Hawthorne expertly uses nature to affect the plot development.
