Scarlet Letter - Part I

Although the novel itself is relatively difficult to understand completely, given the time period it was written in, I appreciate the Scarlet Letter for what it is so far. The beginning seemed rather intriguing with the imagery of the rose bush near the prison door. It may not seem like much at first, but it basically foreshadows much of the dominant story symbols. The rose bush itself seems to be representative of the idea of sin growing inside a "good" person; in this instance it's representative of Hester and her sin of bearing a child in adultery. Typically, a rose is also scarlet, which represents the scarlet letter (hence the title) that she wears for a number of years. It's interesting to note how much more fascinating a simple idea become the further one reads into a story.