Literary Devices

Literary Devices The Scarlett Letter

Irony • Quote: This woman has brought shame upon us all, and deserves to die” (36) • Purpose: This quote is important because it shows the attitude of the other characters in the town. The people who are supposed to be good and religious, can really have evil thoughts. • Contribution: Irony contributes to the book as a whole because it shows how the other characters treated Hester. They were supposed to be religious Puritan people, but all they really thought about was how to punish others. • Elizabeth

Imagery • Quote: “Was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had an effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity” • Purpose: It was putting emphasis on the letter to let the reader know the effect it had on Hester and the towns people. • Contribution: Imagery contributes to the book as a whole because it gave the reader an idea on how the scarlet letter punishment worked. It made the reader feel what both Hester and the townspeople did toward the letter. • Elizabeth

Motif:a recurring subject, theme or idea. • “It was only the darkened house that could contain her. When the sunshine came again, she was not there. Her shadow had faded across the threshold.” pg 111 • Night Vs. Day:The day represents what is socially accepted hence everything that is done in the light is either accepted or punishable. However the night is everything that would not be accepted and the only time people can get away with it. • Dimmesdale’s encounter with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold. • Aubri

Simile • Quote:“Pearl… seemed to be borne upward, like a floating sea-bird , on the long heaves and swells of sound(162).” • Purpose: They compare Pearl to a bird in order to express how much of a free spirit she was. Throughout the novel it was present that she was an odd child that did as she pleased in order to satisfy her own curiosity. This helps the reader to see her as a very fascinating creature that's unbelievable because of the knowledge she possessed . It also allows the reader to satisfy their own curiosity as they continue to learn about her and her beliefs. • Vicky

Allusion • “With the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity… the world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne (39).” • Hester is standing on the scaffold as a beautiful woman like the Virgin Mary. However, Hester represents as a sinful woman who committed adultery as opposed to the Virgin Mary who is immaculate and sinless. • Jesus is Mary's savior as Pearl saves Hester from joining a witch cult and is able to live with her. • Jackie

Tone • “A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple crowned hats, intermixed with woman…were assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron pikes” (33) • Purpose: Even in the beginning, the story starts off with a feeling of mysteriousness. There is a sense of tension among the townspeople which the reader begins to question. • Contribution: The tone is dark and mysterious which creates the sensation of a secret being spilled out. The feeling of darkness will continue throughout the book because of the sin (adultery) Hester has made. • Jennifer

Metaphor • “We have yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of guilty passion.” pg 61 • The quote above refers to Pearl as both a creature and an immortal flower. This is to show the importance of pearl to the story. That she is lovely and therefore the light in the novel. • Aubri

Metaphor Quote: • “The pine-trees, aged, black, and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figures as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully”(65) Purpose: • Pearl uses the decaying trees and plants around her house to release her anger towards the society that she lives in, where she and her mother are treated unfairly because of Hester’s past actions. Contribution: • Hawthorne’s use of metaphors in his novel emphasizes how Hester and Pearl’s situation is inconvenient for them and how it affects them emotionally, especially for Pearl, a growing girl. It also highlights how Puritan beliefs can become quite gruesome towards those they believe to be “heathens”

Personification • Quote: “Least of all now, when the heavy footstep of their approaching Fate might be heard, nearer, nearer, nearer!”(164) • Purpose: This quote helps bring in the tension and the need to know when the truth will be exposed. Their fate will be changed tremendously having both of their lives forever since the town will now know their huge secret. • Vicky

Allegory • “I have allowed myself, as to such points, nearly or altogether as much license as if the acts had been entirely of my own invention” (22). – The Custom House • It is parallelism between the narrator and Hester as he lived in seclusion like her. • The narrator connects to his own life telling a story within the overall story of Hester. • He makes a prediction that he will be degraded to a custom stamp like Hester was degraded in papers and cloths. • Jackie

Literary Devices