Thursday, February 19, 2015
A surprising narrator
My high school somehow forgot to teach The Scarlet Letter but it is nonetheless one of those novels so often alluded to and referenced that I felt like I had a sense of it. I expected many of the symbols, like Pearl and the rosebush and of course the letter itself. One thing that I did not expect, however, was the narrator's tone. His commentary and insights struck me as unexpectedly modern. The depiction of hypocritical male religious leaders belies the narrator's clear-sighted view of them, and of the unfairness of Puritan society.
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I think that's one of the great things about "The Scarlet Letter". Hawthorne depicts Hester as a sinner, Pearl as a strange demon child, and so on but his use of symbolism and commentary make his stance on these matters very clear so that you know these Puritan ideals are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked by his tone as well- it actually took me reading it twice to fully understand the narrator. We know he's an omniscient narrator, but he also expresses a lot of understanding of Hester's feelings about the situation she was in. I found myself agreeing with the narrator when he expressed such empathy, which may be something Hawthorne intended for. I was definitely more intrigued to read on, even though I already knew the plot, due to my liking of the narrator. I also think that my agreement with him stems from his modern ideas.
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