Example Of Rhetorical Analysis In Scarlet Letter

If you believe in God, you must also believe in the devil. Just as God speaks through his prophets and disciples, the devil can possess and influence those born out of the darkest sins. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, there is more than enough sin to go around. Pearl, born out of the adultery of her mother Hester Prynne, personifies the sin of the novel, and is described as such. Hawthorne uses abstract descriptions, demonic imagery, and wild, animalistic diction to convey his negative tone towards Pearl as a creation of sin. From the very first description of Pearl, Hawthorne makes it clear that she does not have the characteristics of an ordinary child. He writes that “Pearl’s aspect was imbued with a spell of infinite variety… There was a trait of passion, a certain depth of hue, which she never lost” (Hawthorne 82). Hawthorne describes her personality with abstract words, never landing on a single concrete idea that can be fully grasped at. Pearl eludes any attempt at an exhaustive explanation, described simply as “a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder.” Through avoiding concrete language, Hawthorne’s ethereal …show more content…
When Pearl is just a baby, it is already predicted that “later in the day of earthly existence [she] might be prolific of the storm and whirlwind” (83). This shows that even as an infant, Pearl is prophesied to be a destructive force. Additionally, Hawthorne takes every opportunity to destroy the idea that Pearl’s mind works the way a normal human’s might. He writes of her as having “sprite-like intelligence” and “wild eyes,” behaving insensitively, “like a thing incapable of human sorrow” (85, 89). Hawthorne even chooses to bluntly state that “Hester could not help questioning… whether pearl were a human child” at all