The Scarlet Letter, written by the famous Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many elements of mental and psychological events going on throughout the novel. These forms of events are found mostly in discoveries made by the main characters of the book, which are Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. These discoveries make the readers emotions flurry and bubble. By using literary techniques and romanticism, Hawthorne is able to give the characters' discoveries a sense of suspense, excitement, and climax.

The first important discovery, which is made by Hester Prynne, occurs when she first realizes that her husband, Roger Chillingworth, is present at the scaffold scene where she is being punished for her acts of adultery:

It was sufficiently evident to Hester Prynne that one of this man's shoulders rose higher than the other. Again, at first instant of perceiving that thin visage and the slight deformity of the figure, she pressed her infant to her bosom with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered another cry of pain [...] Very soon, however, his look became keen and penetrative. A writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly ov

The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprise and so perplexed as to the purport of what they saw-unable to receive the explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any other-that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder and supported by her arm around him, approach the scaffold and ascend its steps; while still the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. (236)

"Dost thou not see what I would say? That old man!-the physician!-he whom they call Roger Chillingworth!-he was my husband!" The minister looked at her, for an instant, with all that violence of passion, which-intermixed, in more shapes than one, with his higher, purer, softer qualities-was, in fact, the portion of him which the Devil claimed, and through which he sought to win the rest. Never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown than Hester now encountered. For the brief space that it lasted, it was a dark transfiguration. But his character had been so much enfeebled by suffering, that even its lower energies were incapable of more than a temporary struggle. He sank down on the ground, and buried his face in his hands. (184-185)

The townspeople are taken by surprise when they discover that the man Hester made love to was their own minister, the great Dimmesdale. Hawthorne makes this final discovery exciting and suspenseful by using words like, tumult, surprise, perplexed, and silent. Now, readers realize that this is Dimmesdale's great triumph over evil, "'Ha, tempter! Methinks thou art too late!' answered the min

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Chillingworth Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth-he, Furthermore Hawthorne, Dimmesdale Hawthorne, Dimmesdale Chillingworth, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chillingworth Finally, Letter Hawthorne, scarlet letter, roger chillingworth, chillingworth dimmesdale, hester prynne, suspense excitement, romanticism hawthorne able, techniques romanticism, hawthorne able, romanticism hawthorne, literary techniques, using words, literary techniques romanticism, hawthorne able characters', able characters' discoveries, characters' discoveries sense,
Approximate Word count = 1163
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)