Monday, April 29, 2013

In Chapter One of The Scarlet Letter, what legend accounts for the existence of the rose bush by the prison door?

The rose bush in this
novel is another example of a symbol, just like the character of , that defies easy
interpretation and eschews classification. The narrator remains deliberately vague about how
this important symbol can be interpreted, but what I think your question refers to is one
possible legend that is cited as a potential explanation for the existence of the rose bush at
the prison door, which is a rather incongruous place for a such a beautiful flower to grow. Note
what the text tells us about this:

This rosebush, by a
strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the
stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that orgiinally
overshadowed it--or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under
the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison door--we shall not take
upon us to determine.

Thus we can see that one potential
story that explains the existence of the rose bush is that it sprang up beneath the saint Ann
Hutchinson as she entered the prison door, but the truth of this rumour is never
given.

No comments:

Post a Comment

How is Joe McCarthy related to the play The Crucible?

When we read its important to know about Senator Joseph McCarthy. Even though he is not a character in the play, his role in histor...