Puritan’s harsh beliefs represented the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in the newly colonized America. Their community ruled with an iron fist: unforgiving, pitiless, stern. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses his disagreement with puritan priorities by revealing the hypocrisy widely practiced throughout their community. Hawthorne’s utilization of dim diction aids in the establishment of his scornful tone, while inclusion of symbols and intricate juxtaposition all serve to accentuate the Puritan’s duplicity. All these factors combine to develop a critical tone which rebukes puritan society.
“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
Edward C. Sampson’s article, “Motivation in The Scarlet Letter” is a rebuttal against a past articles about the motivation behind Dimmesdale’s confession in the final scenes of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Other critics- one of which includes Anne McNamara argue that Pearl is the sole cause of Dimmesdale 's confession of sins, which Sampson highly disagrees with. He strongly believes that it is Dimmesdale himself who causes his own confession and if any outside force is at fault it would be Hester, certainly not Pearl. Rather than Peals actions, it was Dimmesdale’s “sense of what is right and his feelings of guilt,” says Sampson, that provided a powerful motivation for confession.
Eliza. Eliza Danvers. Eliza Danvers was going to be at their apartment in less than 5 minutes. Kara stood within just within reach of Alex, listening intently for any signs of her foster mother’s footsteps creeping closer to the door of Alex and Maggie’s apartment.
Throughout Hawthorne’s novel, a direct connection can be made through narration and the events that supposedly a “pure” man has to encounter. Hawthorne encourages you to take a deeper look in the nature of sin and the corruption surrounding religion. To add ingratiate his plot and to distance himself from the narrator, Hawthorne uses a story-in-story approach to further insure his credibility, increasing the author’s ethos. Regarding his position on the nature of sin and corruption of religion, Hawthorne is not for the Puritan Church of Salem because of the corruption within the system. During chapter three, with the prior knowledge of Hester Prynne’s sin, Hawthorne exposes Minister Dimmesdale as the father and lover of Hester.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, an esteemed and well respected author, has an interesting family background and life story. Born in the city of Salem in Massachusetts, his family and ancestors were involved in the witch trials. His family’s name was Hathorne, but do to the history and shame he felt from what his family had done, Nathaniel changed it by adding a single letter to espérate himself from their past involvement (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography”). With the help of his wealthy uncles after his father’s passing at sea, Nathaniel was able to attend college to become a writer. His most notable works include: The House of the Seven Gables, Young Goodman Brown, Roger Malvin’s Burial, and The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, conveys many objects and characters that are used as a symbol of a trait or deed, this, in literary terms, is called symbolism. Symbolism allows writers and authors to explicate their works in a more complex way. An example of an object that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses as a symbol in The Scarlet Letter, is simply the scarlet letter A. This letter A was sewn onto one of the characters’ clothing as a symbol of her past. This character’s name was Hester Prynne.
The exploration of societal pressures. Life can be separated into two equal parts totally independent from one another. The inner self, being the innermost thoughts and feelings of the individual, and the outer self, how the individual decides to conduct itself around the others in society. Often times one of these parts takes control of the other, suppressing its partner. The suppression is often not of equal frequency because of the obligation humans feel to be liked and to fit in causes the outermost self to be given the most thought and worry.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most studied and influential writers in history. His many works use symbolism and allegory to portray their purpose, filling them with deep meaning and offering a wide variety of interpretation. Hawthorne was not particularly proud of his family history; he disagreed with some of his ancestors positions in the salem witch trials. He distanced himself with that part of his family and added a “w” to his name to further do so. Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts, which gave him a prevalent theme of puritanism in many of his stories.
In the novel Scarlet letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne gives his open opinion quite often. In fact the Scarlet Letter is written in a third person omniscient point of view. This mean that Hawthorne is able to tell the reader certain things that the reader could not figure out with just literary analysis alone. Hawthorne first demonstrates this third person omniscient point of view when he writes “With all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline, there could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and
In 1692, Massachusetts was churning with accusations of witchcraft and sorcery under the pointing fingers of its puritan occupants. Among those unsettling personages was John Hathorne, great great grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne and impenitent prosecutor of sorceresses. Nathaniel was haunted by his ancestor’s presence on his tree and added a “w” to his surname to avoid any awkward associations to the passionately misguided puritan. His aversion to puritan sentiments is also reflected in the pool of his literary works-- notably The Scarlet Letter --by his equation of the ideal puritan woman to death (as in of the individual). He likewise condemns the puritan’s use of regret to mold a vulnerable human being into something drearily unnatural.
Hawthorne is in relation to the Puritan society through his ancestors in addition to a long line of judges preceding him; whom were known for cruel sentencing during the salem witch trials. 20 or more witches were convicted of a crime under the judgement of Hawthorne's grandfather. Considering the correlation between the Puritans and Hawthorne himself- being more open minded- many see why he chose to separate himself with them. (The Scarlet Letter) Among all the Hawthorns were known for judging people and deciding their fate, similar to the Puritan people.
Literary Devices in The Scarlet Letter Literary devices are often used to capture a reader’s attention in a text. Nathaniel Hawthorne used many different types of literary devices in his book The Scarlet Letter. He uses symbolism to give hidden meaning to elements in the story, conflict to make the story interesting, and allusion to make references to historical events (ex. biblical references). While reading The Scarlet Letter, the literary devices did not jump out at me, but now as I reflect upon them they help me understand the book well. Literary devices can make a passage have a whole different meaning.
In the beginning of the book there is a long chapter giving background on the narrator and story. If it was not for his family he would not be in the position of where he is at today. This gives him a reason to be where he feels most connected and motivated. There was no negative tone toward his old job and workers, but neutral because he was not out there with his writing yet. In this story Nathaniel Hawthorne directly address the readers which can create a bond and connection with the readers throughout the book.
Due to Hawthorne’s ability to play with emotion, once reading The Scarlet Letter in its entirety, readers are unsure what to feel. It is difficult to explain the tone and mood of the novel mostly because that it makes readers become connected with all their different kinds of emotions. It is possible for readers to react to certain situations in their own ways, but for the most part, readers to undergo a rollercoaster of feeling. In having scenes of suffering, anger, rejoice, romance, and relief all confined into a relatively small paperback book, the tone tends to change quite constantly. Though there are individualized moods depending on what is occurring in the novel, there is an overlying tone of hope.
