The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism in the Forest "The path strangled onward into the mystery of the primeval forest"(179). This sentence displays just one of the multiple personalities that the forest symbolizes in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorn. As seen in the epic story Wizard of OZ, the forest represents a place of evil and delight, but in the Scarlet Letter the forest symbolizes much more then that. Each character brings out a different side of the forest, however the forest also brings out a different side in each character. For some the forest may be a place of sinister thoughts and wrong doing, but for others it is a place of happiness and freed