Nathaniel Hawthorne's Writing Style in The Scarlet Letter

Writing Style in The Scarlet Letter

 The style of The Scarlet Letter is clean, precise, and effective. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing
style is distinctly put into the Romantic styled writing category for many reasons. Hawthorne
demonstrates his style by using many romantic elements throughout the novel. Characters and
romantic elements are used to represent the ongoing battle between good and evil. Characters
like Hester Prynne represent the side of good (although she has committed adultery) and
Dimmesdale and Chillingworth represent the evil. By using the romantic elements of fate and
supreme beings will be significant to the thought that good will be rewarded and evil will be
punished.
 Hester and Dimmesdale have both committed adultery. They both suffer and take their
punishment in different ways. Hester is publically humiliated, and therefore suffers. Despite her
sinning, she continued to do her job, which was needlework. She did charity work by making
clothing for the poor, and even though they did not return the compassion she continued her
work regardless of her treatment. Dimmesdale suffers internally with his guilt, but is not
punished publically like Hester is. He is still viewed as a good minister and the puritan society
continues to listen and worship with him.
 Writing Style in The Scarlet Letter
 Eventually, Hawthorne developed a style of romance fiction
representative of his own beliefs. Although Nathaniel
Hawthorne's writing style was often viewed as outdated when
compared to modern literature, Hawthorne conveyed modern
themes of psychology and human nature through his crafty use of
allegory and symbolism.
 Hawthorne frequently focused more on a character’s inner
struggle or a central theme than on heated encounters between
characters. In the novel he utilizes all his writing skills. In doing
this he includes a heroine. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is
a victim and a heroine that is admired because of her strong will,
and disregard for other's views of her.
Point of View in The Scarlet Letter
• In The Scarlet Letter, Third person omniscient point of view is used by
Hawthorne in telling the story of the novel. The plot of the novel is almost
entirely a construct of an unnamed narrator's imagination. He pieces
together Hester and Dimmesdale's story from bits of evidence he finds in
the Custom House archives: snippets of faded legal documents, fragments
of witness testimony transcripts, and, most significant, a tattered remnant
of the scarlet letter A. That’s why, the story is told from the perspective of
an unnamed man.
• There are two reasons why the third person omniscient is used in The
Scarlet Letter: so the all-knowing narrator can act as God in a moral tale
and so the narrator can know the thoughts, feelings, and actions of all the
characters. Let's take a deeper look at these two reasons.
The Narrator as Moral Judge
 In The Scarlet Letter, the narrator has an opinion on the events that happen in the
story; he is not impartial or unbiased. Not only does the narrator discuss the events
of the moral tale, but comments on and gives opinions about them; in this way, he is
also a subjective narrator.

 In the first chapter of The Scarlet Letter, the narrator describes the novel's Puritan
setting by giving details about a prison door and a nearby rosebush: 'It may serve,
let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the
track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.' As the
omniscient narrator already knows Hester's story, he can call our attention to the
rosebush as a symbol for the moral blossom to be found in this dark tale.
 The subjective and omniscient narrator also comments on the character of
Reverend Dimmesdale and provides us with a little piece of moral wisdom when
he says: 'No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself
and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may
be the true.‘

 In Hawthorne's novel, the use of the third person omniscient point of view also
reveals the thoughts, feelings, and actions of all the characters. This is
important in a story that is as emotionally charged and as full of people holding
secrets as The Scarlet Letter.
• Also, From beginning to end, Hawthorne's use of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
is his most intriguing literary technique. From this use of symbol and its
enigmatic meaning, Hawthorne weaves a narrative of great depth and
implications.

• With the ambiguity of meaning created by the scarlet letter that rests upon the
exterior of Hester Prynne's clothing, the interior of Arthur Dimmesdale's clothing,
and the incarnation of the letter in their child Pearl, Hawthorne forces the
absolutes of Puritanism and sin and guilt into question as various interpretations
of Hester's letter emerge with the narrative along with the three appearances of
the letter. Clearly, Hawthorne's technique of symbolism provides the capacity to
convey impressions and meanings that extend beyond mere narrative.
• In a nutshell, the narrative techniques used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the
novel include omniscient narration, gothic elements and deep analyses of the
unique characteristics of each person.

• The omniscient narrator allows us to get to know each character internally and
externally, as well as their motifs and emotions. Additionally, Hawthorne opens a
window into the internal world of each character, and shows the effects of the
interaction between the main characters and the villagers. This gives us a depth of
understanding of how exactly change affects everyone equally in a place where time
seems to pass quite slowly.