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Throughout The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne continuously uses the image of a road or path as a metaphor for the limited individual freedom within the Puritan religion. The road, an entity that demands adherence to a dictated direction, is similar to the structure of Puritanism, which defines a set of strict moral laws that must be followed. On pages 159-160, the passage that begins with “The road” and ends with “...find them bright,” is an ideal example of Hawthorne’s use of the road as a metaphor. Hawthorne’s diction in this passage also suggests that the physical and therefore metaphoric Puritan road is constructed in such a way that makes deviancy almost inevitable. In this passage Hester and Pearl walk on a physical road whose qualities make it difficult to follow. In the same way, Puritans must traverse a religion that is inherently flawed and often leads the individual astray from it’s path. Hawthorne employs the symbolic connotations of a road or path in order to demonstrate the strict religious beliefs of the Puritan life. Roads are traditionally used to symbolize something that is planed out, easy to follow, or hard to stray off from. In this passage, Hawthorne wisely uses a road to portray the Puritan lifestyle that both Hester and Pearl are a part of. The idea of uniformity was practiced throughout the Puritan community. Puritans were required to follow a strict set of religious laws and ideals to stay pure. To deviate from these laws and ideals broke the uniformity, and therefore was sinful and was punished to a great extent. The idea of uniformity is identical to the connotations of a road or path. A road, just like the Puritan society, is uniform; it’s distinguishable, planed out, paved, easy to follow, and it doesn’t change. Another main idea within the Puritan community was the disallowance of toleration.
Approximate Word count = 1235
Approximate Pages = 4.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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