Scarlet Letter Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The understanding of varied historical and cultural meanings associated with ‘walks’ aid the 21st century reader in interpreting how Nathaniel Hawthorne purposefully characterizes Hester and Dimmesdale to unify a thematic concern for The Scarlet Letter. Solnit’s diction develops important imagery (specifically metaphors) to guide the reader’s understanding of ‘walking’. “Walking becomes testifying” (Wanderlust: A History of Walking) The denotation of the word ‘testifying’ means to serve as evidence or proof of something’s existing or being the case. Testifying is used as a neutral connotation, which gives the readers the feel that the character is endorsing something. For example, at a festival, the people are a part of the festivity and at
“Preceded by the beadle, and attended by an irregular procession of stern-browed men and unkindly-visaged women, Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment.” (Chapter 2, The Market-Place) The action of Hester standing on the scaffold and having the ability to confess relates to how punished politicians have the ability to say something that won’t change the people’s mind, but to get off his/her chest before potential death/ punishment. “On ordinary days, we each walk alone,” (Wanderlust: A History of Walking) The idea of walking alone is represented throughout the novel with Hester walking alone to the scaffold in Chapter 2, The Market-Place and repeated when she was taking care of Pearl alone in a distant area from the community in Chapter 5, Hester At Her Needle. In addition this idea applies to Dimmesdale refuses to have Chillingworth give him medicine and DImmesdale suffers from guilt, which is the product of an internalized self-disapproval by himself in Chapter 10, The Leech And His