Many figurative language devices are used throughout The Scarlet Letter. The
eloquent writing of Nathaniel Hawthorne is shown through his use of rhetoric devices and
figurative language which create imagery of the scene, setting, and idea of the time period for the
reader. For example, the use of a simile, a comparison using as or like, appears in chapter three
when the narrator states, “Hester Prynne had immediately become as still as death...”
(Hawthorne 86) Hester had just seen her long-lost husband, who is now being referred to as
Robert Chillingworth and she is in total shock. The comparison is being made between the literal
stillness of death and the state of distress and stillness Hester had just gone into, giving the
reader an
…show more content…
For example, “the rank luxuriance of a guilty
passion.”(Hawthorne 79) The irony in this statement is that the “guilty passion” is not commonly
used with the word luxury. The idea of guilty passion is usually associated with words like
shame and regret. Also, another figure of speech commonly used in The Scarlett Letter is
metaphors. An example of this is, “was admirably adapted to Pearl’s beauty, and made her the
very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced on the earth.”(Hawthorne 90) A metaphor in
basic understanding is a comparison, not using as or like. In this example, Pearl’s beauty is being
compared to a bright jet of flame. The metaphor also contains symbolism when Hawthorne uses
the “bright jet of flame” to indicate that pearl is bright and radiant in her beauty. Another the use
of figurative language in The Scarlett Letter is personification. For example, :...but that of
addressing the whole human brotherhood of the heart’s native language.”(Hawthorne 124)
Another example of the use of figurative language found in the novel is metonymy, which is
substituting a part of a term for a whole or a whole for a part. An example of the use
2-3 Specific elements of figurative language the author uses to convey this theme are: Alliteration, Metaphor.
“…it was nevertheless to potent to be resisted,—she felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense.” (72) The fact that Hawthorne gives Hester a new
“All the world’s a stage”—have you ever wondered why people remember and quote lines from Shakespeare so much? One of the reasons is because he used figurative language very effectively in his writings. You may have heard the term “figurative language” before, and perhaps when you heard it you were in a class analyzing novels or poetry. But figurative language is not just used in literature: you can employ it in your essay writing to great effect. Figurative language adds color to your writing by taking your words and applying them to other, often unexpected,
Hawthorne uses imagery and symbolism to create an allegory that communicates to the reader the idea that you can never go back. First Dr. Heidegger invites his friends over, who are all older, and secondly as a test lets them go back to their days back to their younger selves with the help of some water from the Fountain of Youth. Third they become obsessed with being young that they end up fighting and then then they become old again as the youth is drained from them. They finally don’t learn their lessons and travel down to Florida in search of the Fountain of Youth. The friends names were Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Gascoigne, and Widow Wycherly all of whom were past their old ripe age. Mr. Medbourne represents greed and the evidence
Hester spends a large amount of the story disappearing into the forest. She goes to the forest almost every day. In the forest, she was free of all of her problems. Hawthorne describes Hester’s freedom as, “ . . . if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the effluence of these
Hawthorne describes darkness by using a complex sentence not only to describe how the people “would discerned no face about the platform” but also but depict the character psychology of Dimmesdale. He deeply wants to trust and believe that he is proclaiming his actions and owning the right that Pearl is in fact his in front of an immense crowd, but instead he is speaking out to fog, mildew, and blank space. Two simple sentences are used to describe the simplistic, blank, and plain scenery as “The town was all asleep. There was no peril of discovery.” Nothing would bother or interrupt Mr. Dimmesdale’s proclamation. Standing there for hours upon hours, “until morning should redden in the east, without other risk than that the dank and chill night-air would creep into his fame”. The language has become sullen, eerie, and chilling. The personification of “redden” utilizes guilt, and shame. His hypocrisy exposes him, and makes him stand out like a sore thumb, incapable of hiding from his extremities. The night air would no longer be crisp but instead ooze through his and “creep” into his sinful self. The night air is personified and would enter him and “stiffen his joints”
imagery, dialogue, and figurative language. Not only do these authors use this devices, they use
In the stories “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers, “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan shows the mood of the story by using figurative language in many different ways. A common theme in the stories is “you won’t be rewarded for having a brain, but for using it.” In the book “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” at the part when the people tried to attack them he used his brain and took them out one by one and they got away. In the book “Two Kinds” she used her brain at the end with the piano and she got a reward. These stories showed alot of examples of figurative language and there even
In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne narrates the story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress living in Boston during the seventeenth century. His purpose in this passage is to detail the change that overcame Hester after she had been subjected to her punishment of constant ignominy. Hawthorne adopts a sympathetic tone towards Hester, revealing that he believes women need to be delicate and tender in order to retain their feminine appeal.
The Scarlet Definition of Ambiguity How can a mere letter epitomize the conealed truths of an entire family? In literature underlying messages in morality and principles like this are occasionally expressed through symbolism, such is the case in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne’s romantic novel of sin and hypocrisy utilizes several characters, scenes, and objects to convey its messages in numerous fashions, as Millicent Bell further explains in The Obliquity of Signs: The Scarlet Letter. Of all the symbols presented in The Scarlet Letter, the title letter is the most prominent as it represents different meanings for Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and their daughter Pearl.
D.H. Lawrence analyzed The Scarlet Letter in his essay, “On The Scarlet Letter,” finding the impurities and faults in Hawthorne’s heroine, Hester Prynne. The analysis of Hester and Arthur, the revered whom Hester committed adultery with, for example, is far more complex than the average reader may be aware. Lawrence reveals more than what is on the surface of their relationship and how they committed their infamous sin. By observing Hester’s actions, a different perspective of her seductiveness and corruptness is revealed. Adding on to insult, he calls the book a farce, which means the characters and story is crude and undeveloped, mocking Nathaniel Hawthorne in the process. D.H. Lawrence analyzes The Scarlet Letter by properly using short and choppy syntax, sardonic tone, and extreme hyperboles.
In many poems and stories, Figures of speech are a commonly used type of element. The two most common figures of speech are metaphors and similes. Metaphors simply make a comparison between two objects that are unlike in their nature. Similes make comparisons between two objects but use the words like or as. Figures of speech are used to bring the sentences of a story to life and gives it that extra "spark" to enhance a story's meaning. It is also mainly used to provide clarity or provide emphasis. The poems To a Wasp and The Writer, provide very good vivid and powerful examples of similes and metaphors and similes. In this
At the point when the group endeavors to rebuff Hester through different disciplines including a disgracing among the town platform, an implemented clothing regulation, and harsh hatred, Hester's interesting identity develops. Hester stands, youngster close by, on the discomforting town platform; in any case, she appears to be unaltered by the stubborn anger of the New Britain townspeople. Albeit, Encourage along in the part, plainly inside she is, to a certain extent, damaged. This point of view is presented to the peruser when Hawthorne clarifies Hester's contrite contemplations, and in addition portrays her troubling dreams. Hawthorne keeps in touch with "Her brain, and particularly her memory, was supernaturally dynamic, and kept raising different scenes than this generally slashed road," unmistakably demonstrating that Hester, truth be told, sees dreams (40). Albeit Later the peruser discovers that these repentant contemplations might not have been brought on by the segregation of the townspeople, yet by an increasingly an individual circumstance, the illegal love amongst Hester, and a town priest, Arthur Dimmesdale. By the by, obviously Hester's absence of an outer response tasks to be one of an insubordinate demonstration. Notwithstanding, this isn't the main time Hester is externalized, notwithstanding her time spent on the platform, Hester is additionally destined to
45. imagery- the use of descriptions and figurative language too help the reader visualize the
In the poem “To Coy His Mistress” by Andrew Marvell, there are a handful of different types of figurative language. Some include imagery and symbols, allusions, and personification. Putting together all of these literary devices is an effective way to strengthen his argument in the poem and help make it more understandable for the audience so that they know what he’s saying.