Scarlet Letter Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Puritan communities are extremely stiff and strict. Their belief system was built upon the fear of sin. They attempted to oust sin from their societies entirely which is nearly impossible. This resulted in a society obsessed with punishing sinners and filled with hypocrisy. In the novel’s The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the authors express their opinions on the faults in this belief system.

There are many Puritans stories out there, but only so many are popular. Most of the stories are about sin or about events that were unjustful. Injustice has been around for hundreds of years. It has torn families, friendships, and even towns. The theme of injustice is illustrated in Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Margaret Atwood’s “Half-Hanged Mary,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” through the cruel ways people were being treated by others and themselves.

In the beginning, Hawthorne sets the story up by establishing the new colony and the “throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and other bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes” (Hawthorne). He then points a sarcastic finger at the fact that “The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison” (Hawthorne). The transition from the colony’s beginning to its ugly blemish conveys the town’s natural progression into not a “Utopia,” but an overbearing and judgemental society. Hawthorne takes a great portion of the passage to criticize their vision of a perfect community culminating in the crowds of people standing before the prison as if entranced in a catatonic stupor. Hawthorne ends the passage with a hopeful outlook: “But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be

A popular example of romanticism, The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s critically acclaimed portrayal of Puritan society and its emphasis on sin (and punishment of said sin) during colonial America’s formative years. This portrayal consists of an exploration of isolation, as well as the effects thereof, through Hawthorne’s rich characters and their complex inner psychological turmoil. Growing up, Nathaniel Hawthorne had deep, unbreakable ties with his home in Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne’s ancestors consisted of Puritan magnates, judges and seamen, most of whom had been involved in religious persecution, starting with their first ancestor, William Hathorne, who pronounced sentence on the early Quakers. William’s son, John Hathorne,

In the second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the narrator employs a critical yet interested attitude toward the Puritans. This, combined with imagery and diction, has enabled the narrator to effectively describe the practices and beliefs of a traditional Puritan society. In the first part of this passage, one can see the use of imagery is very prominent. By describing the community gathered around with “their eyes intently fastened” on the prison door, the reader can infer that the narrator takes an interest in the doings of the Puritans in Boston. This is probably because the author was born in Salem, a major Puritan settlement in the early 1600s.

In the first paragraph, he begins by talking about men with “sad-colored garments”. This sets a gloomy tone because the word “sad” is blatantly used to describe the characters. Later on in the paragraph, Hawthorne begins to describe the prison door. He says that the door consists of

Throughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans had a prominent effect upon American culture. Hawthorne incorporates the Puritans cultural and political aspects within the story by setting up a realistic problem that the audience can relate to. In order to capture the meaning behind the story, the author exercises characteristics that early American Puritans posses. During the late sixteenth century, the Puritans came to America from Europe to escape persecution; this movement became known as Puritanism.

New Historicism Literary Analysis Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was influenced heavily by the time era it was written in. To achieve a fuller understanding of the work as a whole it would be best to start by analyzing the time era in which it was written. There are many historical facets that can be explored to help determine some of the underlying meaning in The Scarlet Letter .

Hawthorne’s inspiration came from his ancestors and his hometown Salem (Brooks). What is interesting is that even in his own time period his writing was considered “Old Fashioned” (Brooks). Due to this many critics titled his writings to be “Pre-Modern” (Brooks). His writing has been said to have rhythms that can be easily measured along with being extremely deliberate and known to have a formal stance (Brooks). His writing was also considered as dark and gloomy; this is because he often spoke of guilt and sin (Brooks).

In The Scarlet letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a surplus amount of details such as the setting of the prison, language such as the juxtaposition of mildest and the severest acts, and tone of disinterest for the overall passage, in order to develop an attitude of disgust toward the puritans and their community. Hawthorne imbeds a descriptive detail in the beginning of chapter 2 like the of the setting of the prison in the first paragraph by explaining the surroundings that lead to the jail “The grass-plot before the jail, in Prison Lane, on a certain summer morning, not less than 2 centuries ago, was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston, all with their eyes intently fastened on the iron-clamped oaken door” (chapter 2, paragraph 1). In this quote Hawthorne is basically saying that even though the puritans are very religious people, the first thing they build in their town is a jail. This relates to the purpose of presenting his attitude because, through this quote Hawthorne is

"Nature adorn the human ruin with blossoms of new beauty that have their roots and proper nutriment only in the chinks and crevices of decay..." Hawthorne calls humans out as the broken people we are and that we can only be fixed by natural grace. Puritanism held the belief that everyone was broken, torn, lost and drowning in their sin doomed to a

Inside the World of Hawthorne During the time period of the 1800’s, Puritans obeyed their censorious moral beliefs, focusing on worship of one’s God. Honor, honesty, and virtue were heavy traits that Puritans could be defined as. Within the seventeenth century, it was unlikely for Puritans to break the laws, and commit severe crimes; one of the most disapproving being adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American author during the 1800’s published one of the most impactful novels describing Puritan society and the downfall of characters who have committed the sin, adultery. His work takes readers on a journey through a different time period, style of living, and laws that people in today’s society do not have a connection with.

They felt very strongly about people getting what they so deserved in return of their sins. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses his background knowledge and familiarity with the Puritan

One of the most straightforward examples of Hawthorne’s thoughts on Puritan behavior can be found in “Maypole of Merry Mount.” In it, Hawthorne describes the Puritans as a cruel and ruthless bunch that actively oppresses the Merrymakers by cutting down their prized maypole, shooting the dancing bear, and punishing the settlers. This suggests a feeling of discontent in Hawthorne’s mind with Puritan ways in the past. Furthermore, Hawthorne contemplates the topic of sin in his works, many times in the form of symbol or allegory, as “symbols play important roles in all of his important short stories,” (Canada). In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” for example, Hawthorne describes a reverend shunned by the townspeople because of a simple veil, showing how shallow and hypocritical they are, and who themselves are shrouded by a symbolic veil, blinded to their own sins while speculating the sin of the minister.

Point #1: Hawthorne effectively establishes a dark and gloomy atmosphere that adopts the conventions pertaining to the gothic genre by highlighting the oppressive nature of the Puritan society. • Use of dark imagery, and prison as a symbol of sin. • Juxtaposition