Hawthorne's Tone In The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne’s Tone
Phillip Vernon Hawthorne’s tone towards the Puritans is critical while his tone towards Hester is admiring. His criticism is apparent when he points out the Puritan’s hypocrisy, as well as when he shows respect for people and ideas that seem oppositional to Puritan beliefs. Hawthorne’s admiration for Hester becomes clear both when he describes her physical beauty, and her independence. The Puritans are, at times, extremely hypocritical. They strive to create a Utopia in which all of their perfect citizens will live. As one of their leaders described it, a “city upon a hill”. Hawthorne points out that despite their goal of reaching a Utopia, the Puritans definitely expect crime in their city, “The founders of a new …show more content…
The first physical explanation of any kind of Hester Prynne’s appearance is very impressive: “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, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.” Hawthorne clearly creates Hester to be an attractive young lady whose beauty he admires himself. The greatest reason that Hawthorne holds Hester in such high esteem however is her self-reliance and rebellion. At her heart, Hester is a true Puritan rebel, “Yet, had little Pearl not come to her from the spiritual world, it might have been far otherwise. Then, she might have come down to us in history, hand in hand with Anne Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious sect. She might, in one of her phases, been a prophetess. She might, and not improbably would, have suffered death from the stern tribunals of the period, for trying to undermine the foundations of the Puritan establishment.” Clearly, if not for the welfare of her child, Hester Prynne would have been very oppositional to her Puritan neighbors. We know that Hawthorne admires this because of his disrespect for Puritans. For these reasons, Hawthorne’s tone
Phillip Vernon Hawthorne’s tone towards the Puritans is critical while his tone towards Hester is admiring. His criticism is apparent when he points out the Puritan’s hypocrisy, as well as when he shows respect for people and ideas that seem oppositional to Puritan beliefs. Hawthorne’s admiration for Hester becomes clear both when he describes her physical beauty, and her independence. The Puritans are, at times, extremely hypocritical. They strive to create a Utopia in which all of their perfect citizens will live. As one of their leaders described it, a “city upon a hill”. Hawthorne points out that despite their goal of reaching a Utopia, the Puritans definitely expect crime in their city, “The founders of a new …show more content…
The first physical explanation of any kind of Hester Prynne’s appearance is very impressive: “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, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.” Hawthorne clearly creates Hester to be an attractive young lady whose beauty he admires himself. The greatest reason that Hawthorne holds Hester in such high esteem however is her self-reliance and rebellion. At her heart, Hester is a true Puritan rebel, “Yet, had little Pearl not come to her from the spiritual world, it might have been far otherwise. Then, she might have come down to us in history, hand in hand with Anne Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious sect. She might, in one of her phases, been a prophetess. She might, and not improbably would, have suffered death from the stern tribunals of the period, for trying to undermine the foundations of the Puritan establishment.” Clearly, if not for the welfare of her child, Hester Prynne would have been very oppositional to her Puritan neighbors. We know that Hawthorne admires this because of his disrespect for Puritans. For these reasons, Hawthorne’s tone