Ambiguity In The Scarlet Letter Essay

How people read and interpret books truly depends on their age. Readers start, in the premature stages, by reading children’s books; books written simply to tell a story rather than give a deep and meaningful message, sometimes not having one at all. They then move onto chapter books, not noticeably meaningful enough, but it does take more dedication and thought to understand it. Finally, in the mid to late teenage years, comes the more rigorous and intellectual literature. These are books and novels written to provoke a more profound thought and interpretation. Commonly, authors push to convey a broader message. This can be done in several ways. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the acclaimed author of The Scarlet Letter, provides his broader themes and

His main goal, as is for other authors, is to get the readers to find, understand, and learn from the messages, and he accomplishes this through ambiguity; leaving the problem solving and answering to the reader rather than blatantly telling them himself. Hawthorne’s use of ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter is justified through his unique and thoroughly thought out techniques of getting his audience to receive and understand his overall message and theme specifically through Hester’s personal perception of the scarlet letter, Pearl’s character, and the questions and ideas portrayed in the final chapter, “The Conclusion”. The novel is based around the scarlet letter and the story that goes along with it but a recurring question the readers continuously ask themselves is what Hester’s true feelings are towards the embroidered red letter implanted on her chest; a public symbol of her sin. From the very beginning of the novel, readers are given a chance to decipher and decide for themselves what the scarlet letter means to Hester. Hawthorne describes the

This can be done in hundreds of ways but it takes a clever mind and creative thinking to achieve the most powerful or successful release of information. Nathaniel Hawthorne was able, using ambiguity, to do just that. He left the readers questioning every step of the way, forcing them to both delve deeper into the story but also take a step back and analyze the work. These techniques include using contradictory words and phrases to partially confuse and partially clarify his writing. He pulled the reader out of the novel by reminding them that this was simply another story. Hawthorne used the main characters and concepts to show the shared struggle, perplexity, and uncertainty among both the characters themselves in the story and the audience, enforcing a personal relationship between the two. He sparked a moral uproar. Ultimately, Hawthorne was able to prove that ambiguity and clarity are synonymous