Writing Style Scarlet Letter Essay Example

Writing Style Scarlet Letter Essay Perhaps the foremost purpose of The Scarlet Letter is to illustrate the difference between shaming someone in public and allowing him or her to suffer the consequences of an unjust act privately. According to the legal statutes at the time and the prevailing sentiment of keeping in accordance with a strict interpretation of the Bible, adultery was a capital sin that required the execution of both adulterer and adulteressor at the very least, severe public corporal punishment.Indeed, even if the husband wanted to keep his wife alive after she committed adultery, the law insisted that she would have to die for it. It is in this environment that Hester commits adultery with Dimmesdale, but we come to see that the public shaming cannot begin to account for all the complexities of the illicit relationshipor the context of it. What Hawthorne sets out to portray, then, is how the private thoughts, the private torture and guilt and emotional destruction of the people involved in the affair, are more than enough punishment for the crime.We wonder whether the state or society has any right to impose law in private matters between citizens. Does adultery really have no impact upon the lives of others? If not, it should not be seen as a crime against the village. A more charitable reading of the Bible would come later in reflections on the New Testament interpretation of adultery law, namely, that the public need not step in to punish a crime when we ourselves have our own sins to be judged. Each person suffers enough already for his or her own sins. The Scarlet Letter has an incredibly unique style.Hawthorne uses key writing styles to get the main themes across in his novel: natural law vs. conventional law. Hester broke a conventional law, but she did not brake a natural law. Hawthornes style is Vague at best. There are many passages in the novel that are left open to interpretation, making the Scarlet Letter romantic. Hawthorne asks many rhetorical questions throughout the passages, incorporating readers even more into the novel. Also, he has exceptional grammar usage, carefully placing multiple commas, elongating his already complex sentences.Hawthorne incorporated various sentence structures into his novel, like the parallel construction with correlative conjunctions. He places contradictory phrases throughout his sentences, creating a sense of mystery. He has an accelerated vocabulary usage, at times stopping the reader in his or her tracks to define the word. Hawthorne wrote this novel around 100 years after the time period that the novel takes place in, so readers would need some explanation on the culture.Hawthorne incorporates a unique narrator position, randomly having statements in the passage. Hawthorne also displays a strong use of symbols. In order to show the importance of such symbols, it is necessary to use many figures of speech. There are passages where Hawthorne will use personification to make nature come alive and heed to Pearl , Hesters daughter. Hawthornes unique language makes him capable to pursue unique routes to enter the readers and capture their minds.