Hawthorne's repugnant diction towards the puritan society in The Scarlet Letter along with Hester's Physical transformation in conjunction with the communities new perceptions reflects sarcasm, conveying a counterfeit attitude towards her transformation.
Hawthorne opens with describing “The rulers and wise learned men of the community”, who at the top of his hierarchy, “were longer in acknowledging the influence of hester's good qualities” characterized gruesomely as possessing “sour and rigid wrinkles”(Hawthorne, p.1). It's important to note that Hawthorne designates two words for describing the rules wrinkles, “sour” implying that there prejudice, so great towards hester, has cause this bitter look to be revealed upon their faces. The
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However the words ”might” and “almost” are the crucial diction that alters the sentence. (Hawthorne, p.1). The term“almost” is specifically used by Hawthorne to producing sarcasm (Hawthorne, p.1). This attitude indicates that the leader acceptance for hester is fraudulent. Even the wisest men would never be able to possess the power of forgiveness, due to their judgements being restricted by an “iron framework of reasoning”otherwise know as the puritan guidelines. (Hawthorne, p.1). While it may take more time for the puritan leaders to transform their opinion due to there position held as keeper of “public morals”, the people are more forgiving, because that's human nature (Hawthorne, p.1). Although they are “constrained” by the rulers “iron framework”, the individuals of the town are able to forgive Hester in there “private life”, hence publicly there is no acceptance. The puritan law forbids them from ever accepting Hester,the wicked sinner (Hawthorne, p.1). By Hawthorne allowing the leaders to sort of almost soften, it allows the community that's no so bounded to soften. Hawthorne characterizes the town with the descriptions of what they do to show how awful they really are,