The Scarlet Letter as a Tragedy
Jill Runnels
Professor hall
American Literature
9 April 2014
‘The Scarlet Letter’ as a Tragedy
The Scarlet Letter is a literature monument of the American Romantic era. The intensely tragic drama, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has been analyzed by American literature analysts and critics alike. The aim of this paper is to specifically highlight the tragedy it narrates.
Tragedy, considered to be the highest poetic element by Aristotle, has elements and characteristics portrayed in the text of The Scarlet Letter, that the weave of the events in the novel brings the use of the three elements to their highest degree of fluidity. The tragedy of The Scarlet Letter is Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. It consists of the ill-fated love between a previously married woman and a religiously important man in times of strictly Puritanical social values, the contrast between her bravery with which she wears her guilt and his utter endless shame which swears his guilt into secrecy, the villainous character of her former husband, their search for and lack of peace and happiness, and finally, the out pouring of the truth. Nathaniel Hawthorne, by using his art of inculcating various literary devices in his novel, brings forward moral dilemmas of action and motive.
The elements that contribute to this tragedy of love are greatly varied, from the differing personalities of its main characters, this being the internal reason of the tragedy, to women’s low standing in the society, an example of the effect of environmental factors, and the influence of the author’s own life experiences on his writing. All these elements determine the inevitability of the story’s tragic end (Lanlan 78).
In The Scarlet Letter, the personalities of Hester and Dimmesdale are quite opposing to one another and, Chillingworth’s evil nature also plays an important role towards th tragedy (Lanlan 80). Although Hester is subjected to a lot of public humiliation and suffers the isolation of her
Professor hall
American Literature
9 April 2014
‘The Scarlet Letter’ as a Tragedy
The Scarlet Letter is a literature monument of the American Romantic era. The intensely tragic drama, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has been analyzed by American literature analysts and critics alike. The aim of this paper is to specifically highlight the tragedy it narrates.
Tragedy, considered to be the highest poetic element by Aristotle, has elements and characteristics portrayed in the text of The Scarlet Letter, that the weave of the events in the novel brings the use of the three elements to their highest degree of fluidity. The tragedy of The Scarlet Letter is Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. It consists of the ill-fated love between a previously married woman and a religiously important man in times of strictly Puritanical social values, the contrast between her bravery with which she wears her guilt and his utter endless shame which swears his guilt into secrecy, the villainous character of her former husband, their search for and lack of peace and happiness, and finally, the out pouring of the truth. Nathaniel Hawthorne, by using his art of inculcating various literary devices in his novel, brings forward moral dilemmas of action and motive.
The elements that contribute to this tragedy of love are greatly varied, from the differing personalities of its main characters, this being the internal reason of the tragedy, to women’s low standing in the society, an example of the effect of environmental factors, and the influence of the author’s own life experiences on his writing. All these elements determine the inevitability of the story’s tragic end (Lanlan 78).
In The Scarlet Letter, the personalities of Hester and Dimmesdale are quite opposing to one another and, Chillingworth’s evil nature also plays an important role towards th tragedy (Lanlan 80). Although Hester is subjected to a lot of public humiliation and suffers the isolation of her
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