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Examples Of Pathos In The Scarlet Letter

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Hawthorne uses many forms of rhetoric to portray his characters, but relies heavily on pathos in the instance of Hester Prynne. She’s a member of an inherently misogynistic society, and because she’s a woman, her every act is scrutinized. As punishment for her act of adultery, Hester is ordered to adorn her chest with a permanent scarlet letter. Although the audience is well aware of the atrocity of the sin she’s committed, Hawthorne’s writing sparks a feeling of empathy within the reader. Throughout the novel, the reader is exposed to several clear uses of pathos. The scene detailing Hester and Pearl’s time in the Governor's house is just one of Hawthorne’s many appeals to emotion. After entering the home, Pearl notices a polished suit of armor, and calls Hester over to see it. …show more content…

“The scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it.” (120) Hawthorne’s description of the distorted scarlet letter illustrates the townspeople’s prejudiced view of

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Quotes From The Scarlet Letter Chapters 6-11

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Within this quote, Hester is begging for Dimmesdale’s aid in maintaining custody of Pearl. The scene takes place within Governor Bellingham’s house, as Hester and Pearl came to deliver the embroidered gloves he ordered, only to get intertwined in a verbal quarrel over her custody of Pearl with Bellingham. Hawthorne crafts her pleas into exclamatory sentences, depicting Hester’s urgency for Dimmesdale’s aid, that he “knowest [her] better than these men” hinting towards a secret relationship between the two. He even had charge of her

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Many tend to focus on either the consequences of sins, or the causes of them. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne is widely considered as the most controversial character in the piece. D.H. Lawrence’s criticism “On the Scarlet Letter” displays his views of how Hester Prynne is depicted, as well as how she should have been depicted, in the novel. Lawrence utilizes the literary devices of choppy syntax, biblical allusions, and satirical tone to emphasize his opinions on the characterization of Hester Prynne.

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Hester Prynne Sacrifice In Scarlet Letter

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This shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.

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Throughout Easy A, criticisms of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter can be easily identified. In both plots, the main female character is overwhelmed by self-destructive reputations that their societies cling to. Once both women make a mistake that their respective societies find despicable, their reputations seem to be irreversible. Hester’s sin of adultery is something her Puritan community cannot bear to tolerate, and Olive’s lie about losing her virginity immediately becomes the talk of the school.

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Hester proves that she has a higher understanding for people and life, also a sense of honor based on her own principles not society’s. This perfectly fits the mold for a romantic hero. Towards the end of the novel, we learn that Pearl became a great women and Hester could have lived a great life with her wealthy daughter, yet she chose to return to Boston and live out her punishment. Now the book describes Hester’s final resting place, “It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so somber is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:—"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”(Hawthorne 259).

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