I felt no love, nor feigned any.? She kept her word in carrying her husband's secret identity, and she tells the minister the truth only after she is released from her pledge. This life of public repentance and honesty, although bitter and difficult, helps her to retain her sanity while Dimmesdale, mired in deception, loses his. .
Symbols.
Wild Rose Bush: Located just outside the prison door, it is the only sign of life near the prison, and has a single red blossom on it.The rose may serve, let us hope, to symbolise some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow?.p.46.
The Scarlet Letter: A small piece of red cloth, with a capital A embroidered in gold on it. Made by Hester Prynne while in the jail cell where she went to give birth to her bastard child. This item was worn by Hester Prynne, as punishment for her crime of adultery for the rest of her life. It is highly ornate and a contrast to the somber dress of the Puritan settlement. The scarlet letter is imposed on Hester as an act of punishment. Its purpose is to publicly shame and humiliate her.? But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer-so that both men and women who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time-was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom.?p.51.
The Forest:The forest has two main symbolic functions. It is the home of the Black Man but also a place of freedom. First, the forest can symbolize darkness and evil. It is a place where witches gather, and souls are signed away to the devil, and Dimmesdale canyield himself with deliberate choice.to what he knew was deadly sin.? It is where Mistress Hibbens goes to meet the Black Man. Hester feels that the forest symbolizes themoral wilderness? through which she has wandered for seven years.