In the first scene of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the reader is shown a prison surrounded by the people of the community. Hawthorne's heavy use of imagery paints a clear picture and molds the reader into a specific mood.
The prison itself is described as heavy, made of wood and metal, and dark. The people around the prison mirror its presentation, darkly attired in gray and pointed "steeple-crowned hats". The correlation between the prison, the people, and the dark, heavy images produces a foreboding tone that immediately sets the reader against this setting.
In contrast to all of this is the rose-bush, meticulously detailed by Hawthorne as light and beautiful. Hawthorne goes out of his way to paint the contrast here, bluntly telling the reader the figurative meaning of this wild and delicate juxtaposition, which symbolizes a "sweet moral blossom".
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