Tension And Innotation In The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthorne utilizes patterning word choice with varying connotations as a tool to create an atmosphere that couples the tension and irony of Hester’s situation with criticisms of society, revealing that although society has legitimate moral influence over people, everyone has a point where they are honest to themselves. Hester is introduced at the top of the passage as a “young woman” to show the contrast between her physical and mental states. As opposed to calling her a girl, Hawthorne says “young woman”, using “young” to show how Hester still retains some childhood innocence, and “woman” to contrast that and show how she is forced to grow up and face society. She then stands before the crowd, said to be “fully revealed”, implying through the denotation of the …show more content…
This hints at an important critique: society forces people to hide parts of themselves. This contrast of societal suppression and forced transparency is continued as it “seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely”. By saying, “seemed to be”, Hawthorne suggests that Hester’s impulse was not truly what it was seen as by the crowd, “not so much by an impulse of motherly affection”. This shows that although the crowd thinks that they have Hester exposed and transparent, she is still pretending in a way. Her actual reason for clasping the infant is to “conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress”. Hester was first “revealed”, which signifies why the token was “wrought” into her. Wrought means made, and has an aggressive connotation, symbolizing how society forces certain