Scarlet Letter Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne uses well written language to reinforce the sad outlook that Hester Prynne has on her own existence as well as women in general. He uses certain aspects of writing to explain to the reader about how Hester is feeling that are imagery, parallelism and mood.
Hawthorne wants to portray to the reader how Hester is feeling about not having the same rights as men, so he uses imagery which paints a picture for the reader. When he says, “wandered without a clew in the dark labyrinth of mind”, he is showing how her mind was confused about what to do about her problem. Hester wants women to have to same respect and rights as men, but knows it would take a lot of work to get there which causes her mind to be confused about what to do. Another way that Hawthorne uses imagery to show the reader how Hester is feeling is when he says, “whose heart had lost its regular and healthy throb”. This phrase restates how Hester wants women to be the same as men, which causes her to not act like herself nor feel like herself.
He also uses parallelism about what is going on inside of Hester’s mind while she is thinking about this big problem. The passage from “Another View of Hester” that says,
“A woman never overcomes these problems by an exercise of thought.
They are not to be solved, or only in one way. If her heart chance to come uppermost, they vanish. Thus, Hester Prynne, whose heart had lost its regular and healthy throb, wandered without a clew in the dark labyrinth of mind: now turned aside by an insurmountable precipice; now starting back from a deep chasm. There was a wild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere. At times, a fearful doubt strove to possess her soul, whether it were better to send Pearl at once to heaven, and go herself to such futurity as Eternal Justice should
provide.”

Hawthorne is talking about what Hester wants to do with herself and Pearl because of this problem of women being suppressed by men. She goes through many different ideas of what to do that would make it better for them. The parallelism in this paragraph helps to keep up with the different ideas in Hester’s mind because each one is different then the next. Hawthorne uses mood to invoke sympathy from the reader for Hester and how she is feeling about her gender. The way he writes his words in the sentences causes the reader to feel sorry for Hester and want her to be able to get through this problem that is causing her mind to be confused. When he says, “There was a wild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere.” the reader starts to feel sorry for Hester, for her mind must not be at rest and she does not feel the comfort of home anywhere. By adding a certain mood to the story, Hawthorne is giving the reader a better idea of how Hester is feeling about this problem by letting them feel her sadness and have sympathy for her. While using these aspects of writing, Hawthorne lets the reader get to know Hester and what is going on inside her head. With imagery, parallelism and mood the reader understands how Hester feels, why she feels like that and how she thinks is best to fix it.