Melusina Peirce's Response To The Scarlet Letter Analysis

There are many ways in which writers are able to delineate their own thoughts of the world and share them with those willing to listen. Often, however, it is a daunting task that requires the support of “the most sympathetic of companions”. In Marian E. Lewes’ response to Melusina Peirce’s letter, Lewes encourages Peirce by utilizing a familiar tone which deepens their connection, numerous personal examples which serve to provide evidence and bolster her position and applications of metaphors in describing the blossoming writer. Her writing conveys her compassionate character and delivers her message of support.
Lewes molds an amicable tone of effusive generosity and candor that emanates throughout the piece. Complimenting Peirce on her “words …show more content…
She consoles Peirce through acknowledging her own “young struggles … to get knowledge” and urges Peirce to continue to pursue her path despite the lack “bodily strength” due to her engagements in housework and other womanly duties. She writes with a style of such comprehension and sympathy that it can only be characterized as generous empathy and honest support. Lewes readily admits that she was “too proud and ambitious” to write, but now realizes that the developing writer, and in reality a novice of any profession, must not be afraid of doing “anything of that mediocre sort”. She recognizes that one often does not “gratify [one’s] ambition” in the beginning stages of writing but through steady persistence and having an exulted “dream”, such levels of excellence that was once desired would be achieved. Her support for Pierce and other developing writers is further developed through her effective usage of metaphors and …show more content…
She believes that the work, “like offspring, develop[s] and grow[s]” by some force that is not wholly under the control of the writer. The piece of writing utilizes the writer “as a vehicle” just as the child is birthed by the mother. This extended metaphor serves to both familiarize herself with Peirce through shared feminine gift of life and to convey her own understanding of the process of writing. She then goes on to warn that for some, writing is a psychologically draining process that may result in being left with only a “poor husk” that requires the support of those who care. Through this, she hints that she is supportive of Peirce and also that she herself is well bolstered and thus is able to continue writing. Subsequently, alluding again to the cycle of life, she dispels Peirce’s fears of being “old because [she is] thirty” by pointing out that young writers can only produce “trashy, unripe fruit” even though they might have high aspirations. She believes that a worthy burgeoning writer must have the experience gained only through the passage of time in addition to ambition, which Peirce is well qualified