Literary fiction’s success and popularity can be designated to its capacity to comfort generations of readers conditioned to believe that uncertainty is synonymous to weakness. Stories that offer a sense of order, a substantial plot with an ending that allows closure, are commonly enjoyed for their stability. However, we see that the books that withhold relevance and constant observation decades after their creation typically offer audiences an experience completely unique from this assumed standard of literature. While this should normally be enough to deem a piece of writing, “classic,” some argue that if a novel’s purpose can be argued against, then perhaps the distinguished title should be more gingerly used. Norman Bryson, author of, “Hawthorne’s Illegible Letter,” critiques Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter by attacking the ambiguity of the story and the destruction of meaning he believes the vagueness creates. Bryson’s title in itself shrewdly criticizes the veil over legitimacy in Hawthorne’s piece by altering part of the original name. For a man with such clever word play, is it possible that even he fears the unknown at times? Although he doesn’t quite portray apprehension in his writing, it does seem as though he found solace in counter-acting previous judgments with much disregard for the possibility that the constant changes in the novel allow the reader infinite leg room for interpretation were written for a positive reason reason. Bryson’s claim that the overwhelming uncertainty of the fictional tale cloaks the novel’s supposed purpose is invalid for the likelihood that Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter to successfully portray his appreciation of the ambiguity that surrounded both the Puritan community and...
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...gible, understood image of a person known to embody a certain trait, Hawthorne’s vague description of his characters’ outward actions allow the reader to string together their own rope between the several inner and outer dimensions that in reality form an identity; alas, making indulging The Scarlet Letter a more active experience than it already is.
Bryson’s argument that Hawthorne’s ambiguity was destructive of meaning is countered by the possibility that demanding the reader’s presence to interpret a variety of themes in the novel was Hawthorne’s aim. Since ambiguity is a substantial part of humanity, whether it be modern day or Puritan Boston, an author can only try to tackle a concept that perpetual, yet constantly developing. The Scarlet Letter successfully dares to incorporate psychology into fiction, a barrier that had little been overcome before its time.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a truly outstanding author. His detailed descriptions and imagery will surely keep people interested in reading The Scarlet Letter for years to come. In writing this book he used themes evident throughout the entirety of the novel. These themes are illustrated in what happens to the characters and how they react. By examining how these themes affect the main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, one can obtain a better understanding of what Hawthorne was trying to impress upon his readers.
In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne efficiently conveys his purpose to the audience through the use of numerous rhetorical devices in his novel. Two such rhetorical strategies Hawthorne establishes to convey his purpose of informing the audience of valuable life lessons in The Scarlet Letter are characterization and the theme of duality.
Beginning with the very first words of The Scarlet Letter the reader is thrust into a bleak and unforgiving setting. “A thong of bearded men, in sad-colored garments,” that are said to be “intermixed with women,” come off as overpowering and all-encompassing; Hawthorne quickly and clearly establishes who will be holding the power in this story: the males (Hawthorne 45). And he goes even further with his use of imagery, painting an even more vivid picture in the reader’s mind. One imagines a sea of drab grays and browns, further reinforcing the unwelcoming feeling this atmosphere seems to inheren...
...h the use of some rhetorical devices. The passages reveal the differences in the author’s dual purposes through the use of diction, tone, and personas. The most interesting of these three rhetorical devices was persona. It’s really interesting when a writer like Shakespeare writes a story or play using other characters and at the same time is telling his own personal life. The same goes for Nathaniel Hawthorne. There were two personas in “The Scarlet Letter”, one telling the story of the scarlet letter and the other, making a satirical statement about the state of contemporary politics. To me, this is amazing and makes me relate to it, remembering of those times at school where I feel awkward and feel as a different person but as soon as I get home I feel like my own self once again and I realized that we can all have two different personas in ourselves.
Hyatt H. Waggoner in “Nathaniel Hawthorne” testifies that Hawthorne’s ambiguity has proven to be an asset in this contemporary era when readers like such a quality in fiction:
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter silhouettes the human experience as being intricately woven with equal parts loving bliss and guilty anguish. He describes, from different characters’ perspectives, that only through one does the other have meaning. That living is a sensation fully encountered exclusively from naked emotion which is tended toward, the liberty to articulate those truths, and solidarity. Pearl becomes the embodiment of the former, who is described from the very beginning as an unearthly “creature”, the second by Arthur Dimmesdale, slowly killed by his secret sin, and the latter by both as they discover the lawless triumph of pleasure and pain. Over the course of the novel’s
“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,--it is impalpable,--it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.” (Hawthorne 115) Throughout the hostile novel The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne used contrasting settings to represent opposed ideas that were central to the meaning of the work. Some have argued that when it came to the theme that secrets have a destructive effect on the secret-keeper and truth, by contrast, was natural, a character evaluation would best advocate these differences. However, two settings, Dimmesdale’s house and the secrets that lie within, and the scaffold representing the truth, better embody the adverse ideas posed by the point at issue.
Lang, H.J. “How Ambiguous is Hawthorne?” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
III. Comparable aspects of Hawthorne's characterization in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables
As a technician, Hawthorne’s style in literature was abundantly allegorical, using the characters and plot to acquire a connection and to show a moral lesson. His definition of romanticism was writing to show truths, which need not relate to history or reality. Human frailty and sorrow were the romantic topics, which Hawthorne focused on most, using them to finesse his characters and setting to exalt good and illustrate the horrors of immorality. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s experiences as a man, incite as a philosopher and skill as a technician can be seen when reading The Scarlet Letter.
These demonstrations of psychotic refusal rebuff and even execute off-the ladies and respect the male characters the completely discharge lives they appear to be all along to look for. This kind of cacophony has driven some effective researchers to a more distrustful perspective of the "woman 's rights" of Hawthorne 's work, and, to be sure, of its claim to liberator, or "subversive," or socially basic compel all the more to a great extent. The best of these contentions don 't preclude the legitimacy from securing Baym 's example, or the presence of an intensely thoughtful recognizable proof amongst Hawthorne and, say, Hester (The Scarlet Letter has a tendency to be the critical content here.) But these pursuers see not a submitted, women 's activist Hawthorne but rather an undecided, even a tormented man, attracted capably to contain the subversive conceivable outcomes unleashed by his own particular beset
...stions about the scarlet letter have a huge role I the reader's interpretation of its meaning.
Hyatt H. Waggoner in “Nathaniel Hawthorne” testifies that Hawthorne’s ambiguity has proven to be an asset in the contemporary era when readers like such a quality in fiction:
Gerber, John C. "Form and Content in The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter: A Norton Critical Edition. Eds. Seymour Gross, Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1988.
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...