Examples Of Pathos In The Scarlet Letter

When Pearl looks at her mother’s reflection in a convex mirror, she claims to exclusively see the A: “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” (95). Hawthorne clearly illustrates how Pearl and the public choose to see Hester merely as her sin. Even numerous years later, Hawthorne suggest that the townspeople still cannot view Hester

During the early 1600’s, Puritan groups migrated from Europe to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a settlement based around very strict religious beliefs. The Scarlet Letter is set in this time period and settlement where it was considered a horrendous sin to commit adultery. Hester Prynne engaged in sexual relations with the minister, Dimmesdale, which resulted in a child named Pearl. This novel highlights Hester’s struggle to raise her child and protect herself from the societal attacks thrown at her, while overcoming the label bestowed upon her by society. In, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses specific diction, repetition, and denotative diction in order to convey the purpose of overcoming labels and protecting one’s image.

Society has had a long history of belittling both people and their individuality, and also not allowing people to reach their full potential. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne is constantly talking about society in a negative way. Hawthorne himself is a transcendentalist who views society as a terrible institution and a way to stop people from reaching their true potential. Hawthorne's view of both puritan society and society during his time plays into his view and characterization of Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne is a fictional character who committed a sin and was publicly shamed and shunned from society because of it.

Many tend to focus on either the consequences of sins, or the causes of them. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne is widely considered as the most controversial character in the piece. D.H. Lawrence’s criticism “On the Scarlet Letter” displays his views of how Hester Prynne is depicted, as well as how she should have been depicted, in the novel. Lawrence utilizes the literary devices of choppy syntax, biblical allusions, and satirical tone to emphasize his opinions on the characterization of Hester Prynne.

The Justification of the Townswomen There are certain types of people, that everyone eventually meets, that tends to make matters worse. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, all of the townswomen that occupy Boston, Massachusetts, may believe that women should stick together, but, obviously, show differently. They constantly pester Hester and Pearl by forgetting their human nature and letting go of their morals. Little do they realize, the bullying they instigate, is just as bad as the adultery that Hester had committed. As if public humiliation, and being a single mother, is not already enough, she has fellow women antagonizing her in multiple different ways.

The public shame brought unto Hester by the townspeople was used by Hawthorne to acclimate the reader for the horrors to come. In the town square, Hester “sustained herself as best as a woman might, under the heavyweight of a thousand unrelenting eyes” (Hawthorne 54). To be able to stand this public scrutiny, Hester

In his essay, On The Scarlet Letter, critic D.H. Lawrence expresses his opinion about Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Because he sees her in a negative way, Lawrence focuses his essay on her sins and their effects on society. D.H. Lawrence effectively depicts Hester Prynne as an enemy to Puritan society through the use of thought-provoking biblical allusions, a choppy syntax, as well as critical diction and repetition in his essay, On The Scarlet Letter.

In the novel, ‘The Scarlet Letter’, Hawthorne writes chapter 5, “Hester and Her Needle”, to show the uses of Hester’s clothing to reveal Hester’s self-perception, releases the attitude of Hester’s neighbors, and explains the nature of her daughter’s conception in different rhetorical devices. In the 7th paragraph of chapter 5, it states that Hester didn’t wear the finest of clothing. She simply wears plain dresses and basic materials. Hawthorne describes Hester’s attire as “Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and the most somber hue; with only that one ornament,--the scarlet letter--which it was her doom to wear.”(86).

Throughout Easy A, criticisms of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter can be easily identified. In both plots, the main female character is overwhelmed by self-destructive reputations that their societies cling to. Once both women make a mistake that their respective societies find despicable, their reputations seem to be irreversible. Hester’s sin of adultery is something her Puritan community cannot bear to tolerate, and Olive’s lie about losing her virginity immediately becomes the talk of the school.

While Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter certainly tells a compelling story, the novel also acts as a psychological study of sorts; delving deep into the minds of complex and troubled individuals. Each main character; Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, is confronted with their own predicament to which they all react distinctively. Their responses to Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin are constructed by their own distorted perceptions of the world due to the mental illnesses they are all troubled by. Each character’s method of retaliating, coping, or succumbing indirectly reveals the illogical patterns within their mind. In Hawthorne’s

The Scarlet Letter is a perfect example of how one person in a society can defy the traditional social structure. Throughout the literature, Hawthorne presents numerous examples of feminist ideals through the character of Hester. After analyzing and interpreting the meaning of the novel, Hawthorne specifically targets gender roles in societies by making the protagonist of the story a woman. Hawthorne questions the expectation that men should retain all authority and purpose by creating a character that specifically rejects these traditional norms.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings and various themes throughout the novel as well as his psychology and the supernatural. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only adds to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day. A rosebush stands in front of a gloomy prison to symbolize frailty and sorrow, beauty and solitude.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most famous novels in history. Alongside Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and other similar stories, it is one of the most frequently studied novels. One of Hawthorne’s most prevalent themes is the issue of appearance vs reality. He explores this issue predominantly through his characterization, including the characterization of his heroine, Hester Prynne.

The book “The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne” is regarding to the strenuous life of a young woman by the name of Hester and her young daughter Pearl as they withstand the perils and suffer through a lifelong consequence of Hester committing the act of adultery. The initiation of the book came about due to the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, coming upon an article in a Customhouse’s attic in Salem, Massachusetts. After being relieved of his customs post Nathaniel Hawthorne then began to write his own fictional description of what happened in the narrative that was discovered with a gold-embroidered cloth in the shape of an “A.” From this narrative came what is now known as “The Scarlet Letter”. Hester Prynne is the main character and the

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a brilliant and groundbreaking example of the severity of the 17th century Puritan society. This compelling novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, a young mother, who is publicly disgraced for for her sinful act of adultery and as a result giving birth to a girl by the name of Pearl. As a consequence of her sinful behavior, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet “A”. Throughout the book Hawthorne makes great use of symbolism to describe the similarity between the Puritans and humanity in general with their strict rules. This is indeed an ingenious work of literature by Hawthorne in which he subtly incorporates his criticism of his society.