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The scarlet letter critical interpretation
Literary analysis the scarlet letter
Critical analysis over the scarlet letter
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Throughout the passage, Hawthorne uses clear, distinct diction to create a sense of firmness to assert Hester’s views regarding her outlook on her own existence and that of women in general. Diction, a facet of writing comprised of mood and word choice, in a passage is very influential in sustaining a particular message or theme as it creates a framework for explanation. As a result, the author can “push” a certain message, per se, to the reader by developing a distinct mood in writing. In the case of the Scarlet Letter, as mentioned, Hawthorne developed a negative mood to assert Hester’s negative view. For example in the lines, “She discerns, it may be, such a hopeless task before her. As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down and …show more content…
built up anew. Then the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position,” Hawthorn creates a negative mood that establishes the implied impossibility of the task for women to achieve equality with men. Accordingly, Hawthorne notes that society would have to fundamentally change before women would have a suitable position in society.
By utilizing words like hopeless and torn down and habit, Hawthorne indirectly suggested, through the establishment of a negative/hopeless mood, the seeming impossibility of the task. Another example is when Hawthorne uses the metaphor of a great chasm that Hester found herself in regarding the issue. In this, he used great imagery through his word choice, another essential element of diction, that displays to the reader the great frustration she feels over the issue, “Thus, Hester Prynne…wandered without a clew in the dark labyrinth of mind: now turned aside by an insurmountable precipice; now starting from a deep chasm. There was a wild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere.” The text clearly displays Hester's clear disturbance over the topic through its use of stark and vivid word choice. Hawthorne uses clear, distinctive words to impress upon the reader the evidence of Hester’s negative outlook. Furthermore, words and phrases like insurmountable, dark labyrinth of mind and ghastly all evoke a dark response from the reader and represent the negative
view. In essence, the word choice and employment of mood make it clear to the reader that Hester has a negative view in regard to her outlook on herself and that of women.
In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne efficiently conveys his purpose to the audience through the use of numerous rhetorical devices in his novel. Two such rhetorical strategies Hawthorne establishes to convey his purpose of informing the audience of valuable life lessons in The Scarlet Letter are characterization and the theme of duality.
Pearl is an example of the innocent result of sin. All the kids make fun of Pearl and they disclude her from everything. She never did anything wrong, but everyone treats her like she committed the sin also. Pearl acts out against the children that make fun of her and acts like a crazy child. She cannot control the sins that her parents committed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, has an extremely elaborate, and well-depicted vocabulary. Many of his sentences and paragraphs tend to be very verbose, but at the same time very helpful in giving the reader an accurate representation of the exactly how Chillingworth reacts when he first sees Hester. Within the passage on page sixty-seven Hawthorne is giving an intricate description of Chillingworth’s reaction when he first sees Hester after she is released from prison. With his usage of both syntax and imagery throughout this passage, he most effectively illustrates his vision of Chillingworth. Hawthorne gives us quite a bit of description within this passage, which allows us to see an intellectual side of Chillingworth. Generally people are intellectual or religious, the big bang vs. Genesis. Chillingworth is portrayed as intellectual, which conflicts with the Puritan views of religion.
Chapter 15- After Chillingworth left the meeting with Hester, Hester for the first time realized that she hated him. This change occurred very rapidly as she went from pity to hatred after realizing all the pain that he has caused not only her but everyone that he has been in contact with. We also get another example of a juxtaposition that Hawthorne has created between the relationship Hester has with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale respectively. Hester’s relationship with Chillingworth is a hate filled one with no love, while her relationship with Dimmesdale is a forbidden one that is filled with love. Hawthorne has an obvious motive in writing this chapter, and that is to demonstrate to reader the effects of being consumed into something. Chillingworth
The narrator of the Scarlet Letter uses devices such as hyperbole, paradox, satire, and allusion to describe Dimmesdale’s internal conflicts as they begin to reveal themselves within chapter eleven. To illustrate the narrator uses hyperbole in lines twenty-two to twenty-five using the town's people's belief of Dimmesdale being a pure, humble, and godly young man that is incapable of sin. The usage of hyperbole in one townsperson claimed, "The saint on earth! Alas, if he discerns such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!” Emphasizes the strong, naive belief of the townsperson towards the sin Dimmesdale had committed. For they believed that it could not have been as bad as their own if not
Hawthorne shows what actually happens behind closed doors. To the people of the town Hester Prynne was just a harlot with a bastard child, but to the readers she was a strong woman who was going to be more than just a harlot. Hawthorne showed that Hester Prynne, and her were actual people with thoughts and feelings and not just a sinner and the product of the sin as the town saw them. The people of the town saw Hester as a disgrace, but with all the torture they gave her was she really the one who was in the
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, contains many profound characters. The townspeople intrigue the reader because they gradually evolve throughout the book, as would any solitary character. In the beginning of the novel, they are generally rigid and judgmental towards Hester, because she has committed adultery. Throughout the novel, they slowly allow Hester and her daughter into their community, but still look at them with suspicion and doubt. Finally, in the end of The Scarlet Letter, the town forgives her of her sin, and she cautiously finds her place in society. Hawthorne uses the strict Puritan townspeople as a criterion by which all societies can be measured. The townspeople, as with any individual character, possess a certain depth that develops with knowledge.
The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel. Hawthorne's moods or prevailing feelings during certain scenes are revealed to the reader through nature. For example, one of the first scenes in the book demonstrates this unique writing talent that Hawthorne uses to enrich his writing. He describes Hester Prynne and her child being released from the local prison into the light of day. She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the vivid light of day; because its experience, heretofore, had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison (49).
It seems as if Hawthorne wrote this scene for the purposes of exhibiting the harshness of Puritan society, and to allow the reader some insight into Hester's thoughts. Hawthorne places the focus onto Hester at this moment. The reader observes her before the full effect of the scarlet letter has had a chance to take hold of her. The reader is also able to see the cruel and judgmental behavior of the crowd through their language, such as when they call her a hussy. "This women has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it?"
In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne introduces the community by way of the prison house and the women of the community "being of mature age and church members in good repute." In the conversation that the women have about Hester their jealous hearts and vengeful attitudes are revealed. In this way he shows us that this community, although it was designed to be the perfect Christian community, interprets itself as something else. We can assume that Hawthorne shows us the bitchy ways of the women of the church, the ones who supposedly care for the sick and tend to the elderly, nurturing and comforting in a Christian-like manner, and the prison house to inform us that Puritan society has problems, the same problems that any society might have. We can begin to read Hawthorne from the romantic perspective and see society as the guilty party. Indeed, the author sets us up to see Hester as a heroine, a rose, even though a wild rose.
Hawthorne was a talented and skilled writer, who was greatly influenced by the the community in which he lived. Instead of giving in to society dashing his hopes of becoming a successful writer, he wrote about Hester to express himself and explain his conflicts with the crooked, oppressive society and beliefs of the time. He discusses the problems in a way that every reader can relate to and sympathize with the characters. He skillfully transforms a symbol of shame and sin into a symbol of maternity and nurturance. The Scarlet Letter is truly a symbol of believing in people's capabilities. It is a symbol of resistance to society if all it causes people to do is reject their identities and who they really are.
Within the first few Chapters of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne expresses the foundations of the ideology that leads to Hester’s imprisonment and subsequent ignominy. Hawthorne puts maximum amount of effort in showing the readers that Hester is the victim of the strict ethos of Boston. To express these elements, he uses his personal attitude toward the puritans. By the use of satiric diction, comparing and contrasting and imagery he expresses his critical attitude towards the puritans.
With a strong female protagonist and two mentally weak males, it is hard to consider Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter anything but a feminist treatise. He obviously intended to put down not only Puritanism, which is an obvious aspect of the novel, but to establish a powerful, secure female in American literature. Hester proves, although she has sinned in the past, she can confront her mistakes, take care of herself and her child, and help others at the same time. She can withhold a position in society that many can respect because of her character something the males of the story obviously could not succeed at doing.
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...