Scarlet Letter

A large crowd of Puritans stands outside of the prison, waiting for the door to open. The prison is described as a, "wooden jail...already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front." The iron on the prison is rusting and creates an overall appearance of decay.
Outside of the building, next to the door, a rosebush stands in full bloom. Hawthorne remarks that it is possible, "this rosebush...had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison door." He then plucks one of the roses and offers it to the reader as a "moral blossom" to be found later in the story.
Analysis
This opening chapter introduces several of the images and themes within the story to follow. These images will recur in several settings and serve as metaphors for the underlying conflict.
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