The Scarlet Letter

The gloomy portrayal, reflexive of the puritan society in chapter one of the Scarlet Letter, was formed by Nathaniel Hawthorne to not only foreshadow events in the novel, but to also unveil the thematic idea of social rejection and Hawthorne’s own spurn of social conformity and idealism. Through the usage of imagery, mood, tone, focality, and symbolism, the reader is able to firmly grasp the author’s purpose by the composition of these literary …

…the prison display the ideals of the Puritan society, where deviation is often punishable by imprisonment, and how socially unacceptable actions were weighted heavily upon the “do-er” of the deed. Apparently some time ago, a woman by the name of Anne Hutchinson was condemned to the prison for some unsaid reason. However, it is not Anne Hutchinson herself that is important; it is the principle in which she symbolizes that Hawthorne parallels to the story.