Imagine the scene of a violent storm at sea. Your boat shakes and turns and nearly capsizes with the impact of each wave. It seems like it might never end until you wake up the next morning and the sea is calm again, and someone who has experienced something so terrible, might tell you that this is the most beautiful thing they've ever seen. This could easily be compared to the image of the rose in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The rose shows beauty and deep symbolism in the way it parallels the image of the prison in a contrasting and picturesque manor, and in the way it connects to the pearl and its development. At the beginning of the story, we are presented with the contrasting image of the rose in front of the prison. But on one side of the doorway, and rooted almost to the threshold, was a bush of wild roses, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate buds, which might be imagined offering their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner while he entered, and to the condemned criminal as he went out to his doom, testifying that Nature's deep heart could pity and be kind to him (Hawthorne 43). The dilapidated prison, in front of which the rose sits, is in ruins and acts as a foil to the rose. It allows you to emphasize the beauty and symbolism of the rose. The rose is a symbol of passion. Its red color represents the shedding of blood in times of trouble, and its thorns represent the pain we sometimes have to endure, however, from the most passionate experiences comes beauty. As already mentioned, the rose offers its fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he enters the prison. This is metaphorical of the loss of freedom and purity. The rose reminds you of the beauty of free spaces... the center of the paper... oil elements of the plot of Hawthorne's novel. It added a deeper look at some of their characters and their portrayal of traits found in human nature. Hawthorne's inclusion of this element in his novel was well thought out and executed, which can be said for the novel as a whole. This novel hardly seems to be missing except for the fact that Hawthorne leaves a gap in the novel when it comes to Chillingsworth. The reader may wonder what happened to Chillingworth considering he simply "disappeared." Whether this was intentional or not, it leaves the reader with the feeling that something is missing. This flaw aside, The Scarlet Letter is a well-written novel and an American classic that will stand the test of time. Work cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. Reprint. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003.Print.