Juxtaposition In Scarlet Letter

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Stemming from the latin root, purity, the Puritans express everything except. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne intertwines juxtaposition and irony throughout the book; he emphasizes his prevailing hatred of the Puritans while also exposing their hypocrisy.
Hawthorne beautifully juxtaposes his main character, Hester, with the common Puritan women. While anticipating the sinner’s release, the “broad shouldered” (59) and “man-like” (59) Puritan women are bombarded by Hawthorne’s pessimistic diction. Promptly described as “hard featured dames” (59), these women display “boldness and rotundity.”(59) However, their harsh and masculine physical features are immediately counteracted as the sinner emerges from her prison. Hawthorne …show more content…

Hawthorne explains that “the founders of the new [Massachusetts Bay] colony” (55) had thrived to create a “utopia of human virtue and happiness.” (55) With the creation of a jail and cemetery, the Puritans disregarded their previous ideals and build the town upon a foundation of hypocrisy. As the Puritans damned the “virgin soil” (55) with “ugly edifice[s]” (56), they drove away the purity and blessings of nature. According to Hawthorne, the prison personifies “the black flower of a civilized society” (56). Immediately after, Hawthorne describes another rose, a “wild rose, covered in … delicate gems, …. [a] fragile beauty” (56) growing in front of the deformed building. The positive diction accompanying the rose allows the reader to understand the necessity of nature in society seeking purity. With the disdain surrounding the “gloomy front”(55) of the prison and cemetery, Hawthorne accuses the Puritans of replacing good with physical structures of sin and ultimately disregarding the aspect of a utopia. With a literal juxtaposing placement of the buildings and the rose bush, the mass of sin enclosed in the buildings are overcome by the beauty of the