The rose bush in this novel is another example of a
symbol, just like the character of Hester Prynne, 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.
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