The Scarlet Letter - The Forest as a Symbol of Freedom"Will you let me be at peace, if I told you once?" asked Hester. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, life centers on a strict Puritan society where one cannot indulge one's deepest thoughts. Puritan society does not allow human beings to show what they really feel. Therefore Hester had to seek refuge to explore her inner thoughts, such as the forest. In the forest Hester brings out many hidden emotions, Hester shows her love for Dimmsdale and the forest is a place where they can both have an open conversation without the constraints of Puritan society. The forest is a symbol of freedom. No one ever monitored the forest considering it a place of bad behavior, which is why people went there to do what they wanted. “Throw off the shackles of law and religion. What good did they do you anyway? Look at you, young and lively woman, aged before her time. And no wonder, surrounded, as you are, on all sides by prohibitions. You can hardly walk without stumbling upon one commandment or another. Come to me and be masterless. Hester crudely takes advantage of this when she meets Dimmsdale in the forest. She talks to him about things they could never imagine discussing anywhere else but in the forest. “What we did had its own consecration, we felt it that way, we told ourselves so”. Dimmsdale is shocked and tries to silence Hester, but realizes that she is safe in the forest and no one else can hear them. The mere thought of Hester speaking to Dimmsdale in their society is unmentionable. Yet in the forest they can feel free to do what they want and not have to worry about anyone else knowing. In Puritan society everyone is assumed to be self-sufficient. Puritans believe that you should depend on yourself emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Therefore Hester could never show her true emotions to Dimmsdale or ask them to comfort each other. In the forest all these worries are thrown away. “Be strong for me, advise me what to do.” This is Dimmsdale's cry for help to Hester, which they could never discuss in their Puritan village. When he asks her for help, he shows that he thinks of Hester as an equal and that he is in no way superior to her.