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What Is Hawthorne's Purpose Of The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter: A romance published in 1850, a book of fiction in a historical setting, written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hawthorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. He includes tone, mood, and style into this story. While reading I questioned Nathaniel’s purpose for writing such a tragic tale of shame, deceit, and redemption. Hawthorne's purpose for writing The Scarlet Letter was so he could reveal the life and hypocrisy of the Puritan communities back in those days. The Scarlet Letter is written in 3rd person omniscient, because he analyzes the characters and tells the story in a way that shows that he knows more about the characters than they know about themselves. He is also a subjective narrator, because he voices his own analyzations and opinions of things. He is clearly sympathetic to Hester and Dimmesdale. Hawthorne’s work takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to the greatest effect. The Puritans were …show more content…

The book was romantic literature that rebelled against the formalism of the 18th century. For Hester, to remove the scarlet letter would be to acknowledge the power it has in determining who she is. The letter would prove to have successfully restricted her if she were to become a different person in its absence. If I could have potentially changed anything about this book I would’ve liked for it to get to the point faster, instead of dragging on. I was drawn away from the book just after reading the prologue. Overall, the ending gave me knowledge of what living in a Puritan society may have been

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