Free College Essays - Tone, Allusions and Diction in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

The Scarlet Letter - Use of Tone, Allusions and Diction Puritans are closely known for their morality in discipline, religious intolerance, and harsh punishments for those defying their beliefs. These Puritan influences had a great impact on early American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne provides an illustrated font into the Puritans and their association in his classic The Scarlet Letter. Through Hawthornes use of tone, allusions with Hester and Dimmesdale, and the verbiage that is utilise to describe how the village be declares during the multiple scaffold scenes he provides a reprehension for these rigid moralists extreme way of life. Hawthornes use of tone has revealed his feelings regarding the Puritans. He starts bulge relatively early in the book describing these people as cosmos of the most intolerant brood (86) unveiling at at once the deficiency of understanding they had. Finding out about Hester and Pearl, the village at once scorned them in their hearts, and... reviled them with their tongues (86) exposing to us the discriminating disposition that the Puritans have for those who were not exactly like them or followed their rules. The tone that is inferred from the harsh words allows us to see the negative attitude that the narrator feels for these Protestants. Along with the tone of utter that we can almost hear speak to us with Nathaniel Hawthornes rich only somewhat chilling vocabulary is the allusion among the Puritans and their influence. As the Puritans could see that the same sear stigma was on them both (225), Nathaniel Hawthorne alluded to the same marks on the crucified Christ, disclosing how disrespectful the convictions by the Puritans were. As he discusses the timess to come of puritanical influence, Hawthorne sees them wearing the blackest justness of Puritanism (211). This allusion allows us to see the perniciousness that flourished inside of the Puritans and how it was carried on from one generation to other. The all usions displaying the authors feelings of the religious intolerance of the Puritans are further developed with his choice of diction during the scaffold scenes. The Puritans feelings were so lacking of compassion that they were stern enough to look upon her deathwithout a murmur but had none of the heartlessness of another social state. (53). This implied that when faced with death of a betrayer they would not have a reaction because their commiseration was completely devoted towards social applications.