Scarlet Letter Critique
Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most well remembered romantic novels in history. Although written in 1850, its influence and literary greatness still force themselves onto English teachers’ syllabuses every year. A strong question brought forth by this action is: “How and why does this novel manage to survive the change in society and taste over the years?” The answer to this is quite simple. It is Hawthorne’s ability to project his main themes throughout the story. The themes have been able to somehow fit into every different society, even up to our time. The major themes seem to be: first, a law vs. nature idea, one that poses the laws of society against the nature of human beings. The next major theme fits into the first. It is an individual vs. society idea; Hester and her lover, Dimmesdale, become fugitives of the law of Puritan society. The next is the effect of sin, whether good or bad, on the novel’s major characters. The final major theme is the public vs. private self. It shows that people are much, much different in the public than they are privately. These themes, as the reader acknowledges, are apparent just as much in today’s society as they were in the 17th-century society that Hawthorne wri
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Scarlet Letter, Hester Dimmesdale, Puritan England, Dimmesdale Chillingworth, scarlet letter, Dimmesdale Hester, major theme, human nature, major characters, todays society, hester dimmesdale, individual vs society, law vs nature, vs private self, kept scarlet letter, public vs, vs private, sense sin, law vs, public vs private,
Approximate Word count = 1154
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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