... symbolism to prove their point and to add a deeper message to their writing. In each of their novels, Hawthorne and Melville show sin as a living, breathing being. Hawthorne's character Pearl truly exemplifies living sin. She is the ill legitimate daughter of Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. The child is ... the story is represented by the Pequod. There are many instances throughout the book in which the whale takes on the role of living sin. Melville writes of Moby Dick's viscous attacks, "But at length, such calamities did ensue in these assaults "not restricted to sprained wris...

• Word Count: 654
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... in numerous ways when the authors have previously converged with each other. Two men known as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville show an example of this coincidental action because of former jobs they occupied at the Salem Custom House. Hawthorne and Melville claim the credit for remarkable works such as the novels The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick. As any other literature ... . Each person of the town followed the others by keeping their sins disclosed, but in the end Hester was the one that was saved because she, just as Bartleby, another character of Melville's work, chose not to ...

• Word Count: 768
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... masculine virtue" (qtd. in Murfin, 275). People believed Hawthorne to be against feminism, but then he goes and creates "a powerful woman character, a character that feminist critics cannot help admiring" (Murfin, 275). So was Hawthorne a chauvinist? In reality it is hard to tell; some will ... 122). Whether or not Person is calling Hawthorne a chauvinist is left to opinion. Person is, however, pointing out that Hester is a female character that defies the constant thread of men controlling women. Therefore, despite Hawthorne's true feelings about women he was able to write a tale in wh...

• Word Count: 3565
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... respect to right or wrong in conduct," ("moral"). Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes characterization techniques of morality throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter. The qualities that Hester Prynne possesses shape her as a character. Hawthorne represents Hester Prynne as having moral flaws, but in the end she is a good person. (Bloom 22). As Orson Scott Card remarks in Characters and Viewpoints, "The ... character story emerges when some part of a character's role in life becomes unbearable." (53). This is apparent in The Scarlet Letter because Hester's life becomes unbearable through her tr...

• Word Count: 1429
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School