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Scarlet Letter Force Analysis Essay

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s planned structure of force in The Scarlet Letter directs the reader to infer correctly the meaning Hawthorne intends to convey. Hawthorne uses certain chapters let characters have force in the novel. With the force holder in the sections, there is always someone who has the force being acted upon then. Subordinate characters are also present in each of the groups where the characters that are not with the force or being acted upon by the force reside. In chapters one to eight, the force is being held by the Puritan community. The person being acted upon in this section is Hester Prynne. They hold the force when they are shouting at Hester upon the scaffold and when she is locked away in the prison with Pearl for her crimes. …show more content…

Midway through chapter fourteen, a dialogue between Chillingworth and Hester is occurring and Hester states, “Better he had died once” (Pg. 117) referring to Dimmesdale which forces Chillingworth to retaliate in the argument which leads to a great revelation in chillingworth’s mindset. He opens his eyes to a mirror and realizes the man this has turned him into. “... lifted his hands with a look of horror, as if he beheld some frightful shape.” (Pg. 118). Chillingworth sees the man he has become from the fact that Hester forced him to look back to see what he had done. In the final part of this planned structure, chapters twenty-one to the end of the novel, Reverend Dimmesdale holds the force and is acting upon the Puritan community. In chapter twenty-three Dimmesdale is upon the scaffold being supported by Hester and Pearl as he speaks to the crowd gathered around the scaffold, he addresses them as follows, “People of New England!” (Pg. 174) He begins to reveal the truth about his sin, “I should have stood; here… whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered” (Pg.174) Dimmesdale has the force over the Puritan Community to let them know about who he truly is, a wearer of the scarlet letter.
This planned structure that Hawthorne embeds in The Scarlet Letter directs the reader to a suggested theme. As a result of each characters holding a place of force

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