In The Scarlet letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a surplus amount of details such as the setting of the prison, language such as the juxtaposition of mildest and the severest acts, and tone of disinterest for the overall passage, in order to develop an attitude of disgust toward the puritans and their community. Hawthorne imbeds a descriptive detail in the beginning of chapter 2 like the of the setting of the prison in the first paragraph by explaining the surroundings that lead to the jail “The grass-plot before the jail, in Prison Lane, on a certain summer morning, not less than 2 centuries ago, was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston, all with their eyes intently fastened on the iron-clamped oaken door” (chapter 2, paragraph 1). In this quote Hawthorne is basically saying that even though the puritans are very religious people, the first thing they build in their town is a jail. This relates to the purpose of presenting his attitude because, through this quote Hawthorne is …show more content…
Hawthorne uses the element of language in the sentence “…in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused, that mildest and the severest acts…” (Chapter 2, Paragraph 1), in this quote Hawthorne shows the language of juxtaposition through the combination of words such as “mildest” and “severest” because, the words mildest and severest are the complete opposites in definition. This Juxtaposition is used to convey Hawthorne’s attitude of disgust because it shows that although the mistakes expressed by these two words are the same, they show a similarity through the punishment given to the people living in a puritan community because even if a person did a mild mistake or even if a person did a severest mistake the punishment given to both of them is equal and that shows a sense of cruelty of the puritan society, thus conveying Hawthorne’s attitude of