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Figurative Language In Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, reveals many aspects of human nature. One of Hawthorne’s prevalent themes is the way in which hidden sin affects the human soul. Through the progression of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hawthorne explores the dynamic way in which hidden sin ultimately induces more suffering than open ignominy, using figurative language and contrast to convey his message. Immediately before Dimmesdale gives an impassioned plea for Hester to reveal her partner in sin, Hawthorne indicates through imagery and contrast that Dimmesdale’s sin does not yet have a great impact on his livelihood. Hawthorne notes that Dimmesdale’s “eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence (46).” Dimmesdale has a high standing in the …show more content…

Although Dimmesdale achieves great popularity as a preacher, Hawthorne reveals that Dimmesdale is constantly being “gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul” (97). Hawthorne’s specific word choice helps to emphasize the nature of Dimmesdale’s suffering. “Gnawing” suggests a persistent and steady breakdown, while “torture” carries connotations of extreme pain. Hawthorne carefully chooses these words to illustrate that Dimmesdale’s soul is continuously disintegrating because of his hidden sin, causing him great pain. In fact, Dimmesdale’s whole being is so false that “the only truth… was the anguish in his inmost soul” (100). Once again, Hawthorne emphasizes Dimmesdale’s great suffering with the word “anguish,” which denotes severe mental and physical pain. Also, by narrating the falsehoods in Dimmesdale’s life, Hawthorne reveals the hypocrisy that plagues Dimmesdale’s soul. Through his eloquent usage of figurative language and word choice, Hawthorne illustrates the utter deterioration and disintegration of Dimmesdale’s

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In the book The scarlet letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne questions the reader by questioning whether it is okay to punish sinners since we all have committed sins. Scarlet letter takes place in massachustes in new england in the time of colonization of the new world.at the time massachustes is very religious and the church has alot of power over the people, they control almost evry aspect of their life and punish thoose who commit sins. Dimmesdale is the head of the church in salem massachusetts and he is defined by how people admired him and how people liked him, this traits affect the theme and other characters in the story because it makes dimmesdale look pure and sin free making people make wrong assumption and decisions when it come to dimmesdale. At the beginning of the book Dimmesdale is liked by his community and is well respected.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne values pathos many times in which to describe the agony and the aching that Dimmesdale goes through throughout the story.

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits a mortal sin by having an affair with a married woman, Hester Prynne. As a man of the cloth in Puritan society, Dimmesdale is expected to be the embodiment of the town’s values. He becomes captive to a self-imposed guilt that manifests from affair and his fear that he won’t meet the town’s high expectations of him. In an attempt to mitigate this guilt, Dimmesdale acts “piously” and accepts Chillingworth’s torture, causing him to suffer privately, unlike Hester who repented in the eyes of the townspeople. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the townspeople, he is able to free himself from his guilt.

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Such dreary diction stirs up emotion of desolation and misery as Hawthorne’s word choice connects and reminds his audience of dark thoughts. By opening his novel with such a grim subject, Hawthorne creates a contemptuous tone as he indirectly scorns the austere Puritans for their unforgiving and harsh manners. With the demonstrated disdain, Hawthorne criticizes puritan society and prepares his audience for further

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First, Dimmesdale’s sin getting revealed was foreshadowed and it sounded as if it had to be revealed in a certain way. While Dimmesdale was with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold, Pearl asked if he would stand with them the next day. To this he said, “Nay, not so, my little Pearl, not so my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee one other day, but not to-morrow” (Hawthorne 99). If Dimmesdale was not worried about what the public would think once he revealed his sin, then he would have just stood their the next day and revealed it then.

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One spontaneous but significant mistake made by Arther Dimmesdale caused him to live the rest of his life crawling with guilt. Arthur Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, had an affair with a married woman, and that crime ruined the lives of almost everyone in the novel. The Scarlet Letter remains a classic to this day because it emphasizes harsh penance which highlights the difference between the treatment of sinners today and those during the 17th century. The way Puritans view sin and guilt cause Dimmesdale’s life to come to an unfortunate end.

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Oftentimes, an event that seems and feels negligible can have an immense impact on a person’s psyche and physical actions. A passage from chapter 20 of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne presents this phenomenon through Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The passage shows Dimmesdale’s change from a weak, broken man to one with boundless energy as well as his change of view on life through symbolism. The change in Dimmesdale is seen immediately after he exits the forest, for he is described as having “unaccustomed physical energy” (Hawthorne, 188).

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The process of growing in a character can be treacherous process. This process was demonstrated well by Reverend Dimmesdale in the novel, The Scarlett Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s style sets up Dimmesdale demise impeccably, giving the reader a deep and insightful look at Dimmesdale. Hawthorne explains the destruction of Dimmesdale, which is due to committing adultery with Hester, with his continued exacerbating health and the letter A throughout the novel. Hawthorne continuously comments about Reverend Dimmesdale’s ailing health, leading the reader to assume that the sin is eating him up from inside.

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The book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a complex novel that has underlying themes of sin and the responsibility for sin. The novel takes place in a Puritanical society, but two people, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, fornicate with each other, even though Hester is married to someone else. Only Hester is punished, so Dimmesdale keeps his guilt inside, not revealing it to anyone. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, then proceeds to ruin Hester’s partner in crime, corrupting his soul and being the ultimate cause for his death. Hester, on the other hand, leads a relatively happy life after she had repented for her sin.

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes a distinct style in his writing to influence his readers’ impressions of his characters and attempts to provoke an emotional connection from reader to character. Hawthorne uses many types of literary styles in his writing to get the emotional connection he wants from the reader, including figurative language, high diction, and hedging, or the use of equivocal language. Hawthorne uses figurative language in attempt to compare his characters to something that is more relatable. On page 134 he says, “The aged members of his flock, beholding Mr. Dimmesdale’s frame…” Here Hawthorne uses a metaphor to compare Mr. Dimmesdale’s parishioners to a sheppard and his flock.

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While coming to terms with one’s past, the individual's mental and physical state can take a toll, but ultimate acceptance results in a rise out of this decline and a new found inner strength. Hawthorne portrays this process through Dimmesdale’s struggle to accept his sin. As Dimmesdale drowns in guilt, his mental and physical state decay to the extent that the townspeople compare him to a walking skeleton. He becomes pale, weak, and enrapt in emotions of self hatred believing self inflicted torture how he must repent for his sins. Dimmesdale does not believe that forgiveness from God, others, and/or himself is in his future.

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Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” the puritan society emphasizes their strict morals and religious beliefs that sinning of any kind is not tolerated and should be confessed as the result of punishment. Hester Prynn and Arthur Dimmesdale commit the sin of adultery and only Hester confesses her partaking in the sin and receives her punishments. By Hester confessing her sin, she is able to gain forgiveness from God and feel guilt free. Meanwhile, Dimmesdale is consumed by his overpowering guilt of not confessing and enduring the punishments with Hester. Through the experiences of Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne suggests that revealing sin leads to growth while concealing sin leads to guilt and self-destruction.

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However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.

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Dimmesdale had achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office. He won it, indeed, in great part by his sorrows. (Hawthorne 128) The guilt of his sin has eaten him alive, so much that his visage and demeanor are almost cadaverous. Dimmesdale does not confess his sin until the end of the novel because he does not want to disappoint his congregation.

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When encountered with a woman charged with adultery, Jesus proclaimed, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7). As no man is truly without sin, humans cannot justly punish them for sins without holy guidance. They can, however, worsen their own sin to the point of being irredeemable. in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin was the most unholy and dangerous of all those presented in the novel.

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