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Criticism of the Scarlet Letter

            The Scarlet Letter is a classic novel in American history. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes a short book that conveys his point. However The Scarlet Letter also has many problems. It lacks details, is too complicated, and has an unclear language.
             Throughout the story The Scarlet Letter it lacks 1 key thing that almost all books have and that is details. Everything in the Scarlet Letter is important and you must pay attention to every little detail or you may have missed out. A reader shouldn't have to do this when they are reading. Certain things should just happen because it adds to the fluff of the story. Throughout the story you are kept on edge and waiting for a point for just to relax. However, in the Scarlet Letter it does not climax until the very end. You are left with reading the rising action until almost the last chapter. This is not good for the reader to keep them on edge for this long.
             The Scarlet Letter is too complicated, nearly everything is allegorical symbolic, and ironic. The book is also extremely short if you exclude the custom house its even shorter. The book should be longer for all the details to digest. By the time you are able to clearly and precisely understand 1 symbolic/allegorical detail in the book you have missed out on other things. The Scarlet letter does not give you the time you need to digest what you read.
             Hawthorne writes the Scarlet Letter in a style that is too hard to understand. Since everything is so important you must be paying careful attention and thinking about what you are reading. Hawthorne interrupts this process by adding in words that could easily be simplified with other words more commonly known to others. The importance of shorter words can make the reader appreciate the Scarlet Letter more. Because of Hawthorne's complex language The Scarlet Letter cannot be read by the person. If the average person is able to read the Scarlet Letter they miss out on some of the key allegorical and symbolic concepts because of the language barrier.


Essays Related to Criticism of the Scarlet Letter

1. The Scarlet Letter: Ball and Chain or Pair of Wings?

... is an important modern value. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's work The Scarlet Letter the main character, Hester Prynne, is outcast from a puritan society and forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her chest. This punishment is intended to imprison Hester in cage of criticism and general bad feeling from the townspeople. Although this is accomplished for a short time, because of Hester's strength the scarlet letter she wears makes her more independent and eventually just as ... liked as the average person who shunned her in the first place, making her punishment very ironic. Hester's personal strengt...

  • Word Count: 513
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Scarlet Letter

... sympathy for Hester and favors her more than any other character in the novel. Nathiel Hawthorne criticized the way Puritans lived. As we see the narrator also has these thoughts. "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A." (The Scarlet Letter) The author describes the scarlet letter as elaborate and ornate, even though it's supposed to be punishment. Typically ... . This shows us again that the narrator favored Hester because she was described completely opposite. Another reason w...

  • Word Count: 673
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Hester's Heroinism in The Scarlet Letter

... 1, 2003. Matthiessen, F. O. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. London: Oxford University Press, 1941. "hero." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2002. http://www.merriam-webster.com. November 20, 2003. James, Henry. Hawthorne. London: Cornell University Press, 1879. Murfin, Ross, ed. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism: Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Scarlet Letter". Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1991. Person, Leland. Aesthetic Headahces: Women ... and a Masculine Poetics in Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1988. ...

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

4. Hawthorne's Portrayal Of Puritanical Hypocricy

... America to many readers. Along with his views on this culture, Hawthorne uses irony, tales of witchcraft, and the concepts of guilt, confession, and hypocrisy to show his feelings on the Puritanical society and the way they treat other people. He does this by using primary characters in the novels The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and many short stories who have a problem, like an inner secret, or who ... the plots of his works contain stories of the Puritans, descriptions of witchcraft, or thoughts on Salem, the setting is usually critical to Hawthorne's themes, especi...

  • Word Count: 3188
  • Approx Pages: 13
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  • Grade Level: High School

5. Scarlet Letter And Pearl

Scarlet Letter And Pearl One of the most complex and elaborate characters in The Scarlet Letter is Pearl, the misbegotten offspring of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the story Pearl, becomes quite the dynamic little individual, as well as an extremely important symbol- one who is constantly changing. Pearl's involvement in the complex history of her parents inadvertently forced her to be viewed as different and is shunned because of her mother's sin. Pearl ... York City: Penguin Books USA, Inc. 1986. Clendenning, John. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." The World Book Encyclopedia. 1989 ...

  • Word Count: 1158
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6. Scarlet Letter

... humiliated as a punishment for breaking a Puritan belief and one of the Ten Commandments; adultery. She is then forced to stand in front of the town for hours as the crowd tries to break her down with criticism and shaming words. After her release, "the scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as much always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame of a fellow creature" (63). They almost took a delight in ... were still not satisfied with this punishment and chose to pass their negativity on to their offspring. "Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet...

  • Word Count: 1521
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Truth In The Scarlet Letter

There are many images of truth shown in Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter." These images give the reader a look into the minds of the characters and a different perspective on the situations at hand. Many of these images show a turning point in the novel, as well. Dimmesdale, Pearl and Hester show the different instances where truth was brought out in society. In the beginning of the novel, there is a scene in which Hester was forced ... to stand on the scaffold and have everyone scorn her. She shows the scarlet A on her chest for all to see, and braves their criticism. Although Hester i...

  • Word Count: 623
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne

... where he worked as a surveyor at the Salem Custom House. He was not fond of the job and was relieved in 1848 when he was fired, giving him time to write his most famous work The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850 (Turner, 137). After The Scarlet Letter was published, Hawthorne who had never truly felt comfortable in Salem moved the family to Lenox. He was extremely ... productive during this year, publishing some of his most noted works such as: The House of the Seven Gables, Blithedale Romance and Tanglewood Tales ("Nathaniel Hawthorne - ... colonial New England and center around theme...

  • Word Count: 1129
  • Approx Pages: 5
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  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Scarlet Letter

... come to smooth the outward harshness and the cruel consequences of the radicals, it continues to enforce its standards through a mental oppression. Through the fear of rejection and derision, the people today continue to follow similar paths as the villagers in The Scarlet Letter. So how can we measure the amount of self-improvement humans have made through time? If self-improvement refers to the technological advances, the budgets of national governments, and the number of weapons mankind ... abandon leaders, then we welcome a anarchic world with disarray and chaos. Thus, the only flic...

  • Word Count: 748
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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