D. H. Lawrence's The Scarlet Letter

The Truth Behind Hawthorne D.H Lawrence was known as a novelist, poet, painter and a literary critic. Lawrence criticized several works, one of his major criticisms was written on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter. Lawrence greatly disfavored the whole book, the critique is all written in a very sarcastic and sardonic tone, as he mentions that the greatest triumph of American women is to seduce all pure men. Lawrence uses three literary devices to demonstrate how the two most purest sinners of the book are not so pure as Hawthorne wants his readers to depict them. Lawrence uses allusions, tone, and repetition to give an insight on why he greatly dislikes the book. A literary device Lawrence uses is allusion. Allusion is a figure of speech whereby the author refers to a place, event, or literary work by making a reference. Lawrence mentions the Magna Mater, he said “Put her upon the scaffold and worship her there. Worship her there. The woman, the Magna Mater.” The Magna Mater stands for
“Abell Abell Abell Admirable” is this quote Lawrence refers to Abell, Adam and Eve’s youngest son who was murdered by Cain. Abell is remembered as the first person to be murdered, Lawrence compares Abell’s remembrance to Hester’s. Hester, even though she did sin, she is put on the scaffold to be publicly humiliated, Lawrence views it as not “public humiliation” but attention that Hester craved. Lawrence also constantly repeats the letter “A” he states “Adulteress, alpha, Abell, Adam, America.” Lawrence finds a correlation between all of these words beginning with the letter “A” and says that there is no coincidence that they all start with the same letter as adulteress. Lawrence uses repetition to prove that Hester is not a hero, nor an innocent women who just wanted to fall in love