Example Of Rhetorical Analysis In Scarlet Letter

Chapter 10 is called “The Leech and His Patient.” This title is a perfect symbol for what happens in the chapter. Roger Chillingsworth continues to work on his patient, Dimmesdale, to try to figure out what is wrong with him. At the same time though Chillingsworth, the leech, is growing obsessed with his patient. Chillingworth has connected Dimmesdale's spiritual sickness to his physical sickness. At the end of the chapter, he finds something on Dimmesdale’s chest while he is sleeping, which he is overjoyed by. This mark is a permanent mark, Dimmesdale’s own scarlet letter, except it is part of his skin, not a detachable letter. While leech can be used to represent physicians as physicians commonly used leeches, the idea of the leech

One simile I found in this passage is " But methinks, dear Sir, you look pale; as if the ravel through the wilderness had been too sore for you."

To depict Hester Prynne’s inner turmoil, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many different types of rhetorical devices, such as pathos, simile, and metaphor. He also uses an abundance amount of syntax, irony and tone. Hawthorne uses metaphors and similes often in chapter five, to exaggerate Hester’s chaos inside. The arrangement of words and phrases Hawthorne uses makes the reader think and try to understand Hester’s tension.

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was first published in 1850. It was set in a harsh Puritan community in Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. Hawthorne was of Puritan descent and researched the community. The focus of his novel is based on the adulteress act of Hester Prynne and how she was treated by her community. The novel is known for it’s abundance of rhetorical and literary devices, and was one of the first novels to effectively use them. Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices to portray his views and thoughts about the community. One device Hawthorne uses is irony. Specifically, dramatic, situational, and verbal irony. Hawthorne's use of irony is employed to show the true characteristics and emotions of the characters,

In spite of that, what makes her the protagonist of the story is how she is able to overcome her punishment that was meant to give her shame. Throughout Chapter 13 of the book, Hawthorne shows how Hester’s confidence has developed in herself and in view of the town, most noticeably when considering the meaning of the scarlet letter, “Such helpfulness was found in her ... that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength,” (Hawthorne 107). Instead of subjecting to the shame that was forced upon her, she grew above it, conveying a different aspect of the theme of guilt, which is redemption. This is not to say that Hester did not care about the sin she committed, as she is very much reminded of it every day of her life while living with the child of that sin. In fact, the author addresses this by saying, “In giving her existence a great law had been broken; and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder,” (Hawthorne 60). Hawthorne is implying how Pearl represents the outcome of a sin and arranged it so that Hester is always living with that sin, therefore, always being reminded of the shame she is supposed to

Children accept who they are with no influence from society or feelings of guilt. As Hawthorne describes Pearl’s carefree attitude, he writes, “Her final employment was to gather sea-weed… and thus assume the aspect of a little mermaid… Pearl took some eel-grass, and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s… the letter A” (Nathaniel Hawthorne 115). As little Pearl plays, the scarlet letter does not symbolize shame for her. Pearl accepts the scarlet letter as nothing out of the ordinary, and even envies its beauty. Through Pearl’s actions, Hawthorne reveals how children view shame and societal pressure. Although the scarlet letter embodies the entirety of Hester’s sin and shame, Pearl does not run from it or feel ashamed because of it. Hawthorne uses Pearl as an example of how adults should view symbols of sin in their society instead of running from the sin, they should forgive readily and accept the reality of their present situation. Furthermore, in his literary criticism, The Obliquity of Signs, Millicent Bell reveals how out of Hester’s societally constructed sin and shame came this perfect example of Pearl. He writes, “Hester’s sin is not only unutterable but involves a name, that of her partner, which she refuses to utter. Her sexual history is so private that it cannot be imagined when we gaze at her in the chaste aftermath of Hawthorne’s novel. And yet that privacy has its public manifestation, the child Pearl” (Millicent Bell 23). Bell reveals how even out of Hester’s most taboo and secret sin came Pearl, whose manifestation publicly

In the beginning of the novel, the scarlet letter is seen as a symbol of Hester great sin of adultery and the child she has thence bared. Hester has always seen the scarlet letter as a shameful symbol of her sins she has made. Yet Pearl, Hester’s daughter, matures only knowing her mother with the scarlet letter and loving her for it. Pearl grows to love the A so much that she her self tries to duplicate it, “As the last touch to her mermaid’s garb, Pearl took some eelgrass, and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s A letter- the letter A- but freshly green, instead of scarlet” (Hawthorne 155). The scarlet letter has become a significant symbol in Pearl’s life and she cannot bare the thought of not having it. This deep attachment to the A leads Pearl to desiring one for herself. In one instance she had a fit about it by, “Stamping

Pearl, Hester’s child out of wedlock, then emphasizes on the idea of darkness following Hester when she declares to Hester, “the sunshine does not love you. It turns away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom” (Hawthorne 167). The letter on Hester’s bosom not only repel the townspeople, it drives off the sunshine and light that used to follow her wherever she went. She is considered as a social outcast among her peers and even the children of the community. However, still in the forest, when Hester rips the Scarlet Letter from her chest and throws it into the nearby brook, “all at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst the sunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the gray trunks of the solemn trees” (Hawthorne 186). Once the letter is no longer attached to Hester, she is set free from her guilt and grief that she has endured for so many years. She is no longer controlled by the “iron-framework” (Hawthorne 111) of the puritan society and is able to be with Dimmesdale, her true lover, without the guilt that was brought upon her by the Scarlet Letter.

The man asks a fellow member of the community “Who is this woman? - and wherefore is she here set up to public shame” (Hawthorne 55)? He responds to him and says this woman has committed the worst sin in the Puritan belief and she will be publicly shamed until she has a letter A carved upon her tombstone. This man is shocked by how the townspeople treat sin and their punishment for the sinners. The scarlet letter causes many problems for Hester as the readers see throughout the chapters. “I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this” (Hawthorne 99)!

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Pearl's character not to be a daughter but to be a symbol that manifests Hester's guilt from her sin of adultery. When Pearl is first introduced, she is only a few months old, but already, she seems to have an understanding of her mother’s sin. As Hester holds Pearl to her chest, where the letter is, Pearl winks at the sun as if letting it know that she understands that her God-given duty is to never let her mother forget her sin. It is almost like she is saying ‘do not worry I’ll take care of it’. After all, the most obvious symbol of Hester’s sin, is the offspring it created.

Hawthorne uses light and imagery to demonstrate the sin of Hester’s crime and his disapproval. Throughout the text, the narrator has a very biased opinion which is in line with Hester’s opinions, and views Hester herself in a very positive light. However, Hawthorne truly views the letter as a vile object, as shown through Pearl. One day, while Pearl is still a child, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale watch as she places burrs on to the scarlet letter. Pearl first dances on a grave and when she is reprimanded by her mother, she finds burrs and “[arranges] them along the lines of the scarlet letter that decorated the maternal bosom” (Hawthorne 75).

“Throughout the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the effects of sin on the mind, body, and soul of Hester”(Smith). As Hester commits these sins she thinks that what she did was not a very big deal, but when society finds out she gets put in prison and gets in very big trouble. Hester was fighting her own identity by her trying to keep the Puritan society from finding out about that sins that she had committed but once her religion find out they view her in a whole different way. The Puritan religion viewed her as a very sinful person, and they also viewed her as a promiscuous person. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the letter “A” changes from adultery, to ability, to angel, and to the living persona of Pearl.

Part of her conflicts come from the punishment of having the scarlet letter, a constant reminder of her sins. Permanently blazoned on her bosom, it forces Hester into a mental state of sustained repentance that causes her to associate with evil. Even naive Pearl notices this connection as she comments that the sunlight does not love Hester, as it “runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on [her] bosom” (180). This absence of light reinforces the notion that her society does not approve of the truth behind Hester’s act of adultery. Her physical appearances depict this judgement as “her beauty... departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her” (160).

However, Hester does not see Pearl as a burden, but yet a blessing. She cares for Pearl with all the love in her heart. “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. The child's attire, on the other hand, was distinguished by a fanciful, or, we may rather say, a fantastic ingenuity, which served, indeed, to heighten the airy charm that early began to develop itself in the little girl.”(Hawthorne 57). Hester’s wardrobe is downgraded so that Pearls can prosper, human nature enables Hester to become selfless for Pearl. Hester was seen as the antagonist during the opening chapters of the book, but as more light is shown on the character, it is seen that Hawthorne’s view of the natural good emulates through Hester.

“It is good for this poor, sinful woman that she hath an infant immortality…confined to her care… to remind her… of her fall… but yet to teach her, as it were by the Creator’s sacred pledge, that, if she bring the child to heaven, the child will also bring its parent hither!” (Hawthorne 105). The plot of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, revolves around a woman named Hester, who, in 17th Century Puritan America, sins, and, as a result, is left with a child named Pearl, which the previous quote talks about. Pearl is viewed as both good and bad by the reader and the author. In this way, Pearl represents both light and dark attributes, as do many of the characters of this novel, and she helps to bring out those attributes in each individual. Light and dark imagery, alluding to the larger conflict between good and bad, is present throughout the novel in the characters of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.