Hawthorne's True Feelings

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All families have the stereotypical embarrassing family member that no one wants to be associated with. But, imagine having an ancestor that was responsible for the irrational condemnation of nearly twenty innocent people. One of America’s greatest authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne, did not have the luxury of imagining such a dilemma. This hypothetical situation was his reality. His great-great grandfather was a judge for the infamous Salem Witch trials. Nathaniel was so reluctant to be associated with Judge John Hathorne, he added the letter “w” to his name. But, he did not stop there. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne expresses his strong disapproval of the morally extreme Puritans through the use of characterization, allusions, and tone.

The development of every character in The Scarlet Letter was deliberate, especially that of Hester Prynne. Hawthorne made her beautiful to allow the reader to sympathize with her. He says, “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam…” If Hawthorne had made her ugly, or even average, the semi-Puritan reader of his era would have developed strong feelings against Hester. Hawthorne also makes her a woman of strength and courage. Once Hester was branded with her mark of shame, she could have left Boston with her illegitimate daughter and lived a normal life elsewhere. However, if she chose to leave, it would have only served the purpose of conceding defeat to Puritan society. Instead, she chose to live a life of ignominy in Boston in the hopes that Dimmesdale would return to her.

Another strong indicator of Hawthorne’s true feelings is his use of allusions. When Hester is on the s...

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...ould not accept anyone or anything that was different than them. The parents would teach their children, who would later teach their children, and so on. It was a vicious cycle of hate. However, the Bible says that one should love thy neighbor as thyself. Hawthorne wants the reader to see that when the Puritans taught hate and discrimination against people with whom they did not agree, they were being just as, if not more sacrilegious than Hester and Dimmesdale were when they committed their sin.

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses characterization, allusions, and tone to suggest his brazenly obvious disapproval of the Puritans. His ideas were incredibly revolutionary for a man that lived in 1850. He accurately predicted the mentality of a society almost two hundred years ahead of his. Wouldn’t his great-great grandfather be proud?

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