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Figurative Language In Scarlet Letter

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Ariana Malloy Mr.Nellis English 10 4/2/18 Beautiful Sin Everyone has been judged by society. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester has been judged by society since she had a child with a man she was not married to and for that society has punished her by making her wear this symbol of an A. This symbol was the scarlet letter. In the novel the scarlet letter, the scarlet letter is shown through the use of imagery and figurative language to demonstrate that judgment through society as well as sin is bad while the scarlet is a symbol of sin wrapped in good and beauty. Hester is able to take something that was meant to be a punishment for a crime she committed and turn it into something absolutely stunning. Hawthorne portrayed Pearl …show more content…

Pearl did not make it last very long due to her fit. When Hester tries to get Pearl over the brook Hester, ¨ took up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom... drowning it in the deep sea… inevitable doom upon her... deadly symbol from the hand of fate. She had flung it into infinite space!—she had drawn an hour's free breath!—and here again was the scarlet misery... As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth, and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her¨(185). Hester is out of the light. Hawthorne seems to be contradicting himself when he has Pearl closely associated with the light, but then also Hester. When Pearl forces her mother to put back on the scarlet letter, she also causes the disappearance of the light. For the few brief moments Hester had with Dimmesdale without the letter she became a woman. She felt love and warmth. Pearl's insistence that she replace the letter. When Hester does this action it removes Hester's womanhood once again it makes her feel invisible. Hester's agreement with Dimmesdale and their desire to move away and start over again as a family has given her hope of freedom and a normal life again. The dream is quickly destroyed by pearls desire to keep Hester to

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