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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Use of the Forest as a Symbol in The Scarlet Letter Forests have always been an area beyond civilization, beyond the rules. Nothing is certain in the woods. They are wild places where man is not in charge of his surroundings and where the wanderer can lose himself, either for his redemption or his doom. The forest is the raw spirit of the wilderness, where man can also show his own rawest nature. Of the many symbols used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, the forest is one of the strongest because of its age-old use in myths and fables. In Hawthorne’s novel, the forest means different things to different characters. To the upstanding and pious members of the puritan settlement, the forest is a frightening place where witches meet and the devil prowls. But to Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale, who both aren’t able to be themselves within puritan society, the forest offers a refuge where they can be true with each other. Finally, to Hester and Dimmesdale’s daughter Pearl, the forest is a place where her elfin nature is most obvious. Hawthorne uses the forest as a symbol in the three main ways it has been used in the past, as a terrifying place of darkness and foreboding, as a sunlit e