COHFA | Contemporary Perspectives on Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
English Ed/ TESOL (P-12)
Minor
Spanish
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Gina Claywell, PhD
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Ambiguous narration in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter creates a reader that is simultaneously an insider privy to uncertain narrative report and an outsider sympathetic to Hester’s ignominy. While current reader response criticism explores narrative techniques of ambiguity and sympathy in isolation, this paper analyzes how these techniques are used in conjunction to establish a relationship between narrator and reader. The narrator’s role as storyteller and gossip, accepting explanations of a rational contemporary audience and superstitious Puritans, both defies Puritan inflexibility and creates intimacy that includes readers in this community. At the same time, a sympathetic relationship with Hester distances readers from a Puritan community without sympathetic capabilities. Hawthorne resolves this tension through Reverend Dimmesdale’s Election Sermon which becomes the rhetorical device that joins narrator, reader, and Puritans in one voice of sympathetic unity.
Location
Classroom 211, Waterfield Library
Start Date
November 2016
End Date
November 2016
Affiliations
Contemporary Perspectives on Hawthorne
"One Accord of Sympathy": The Relationship Between Narrator, Reader, and Puritans
Classroom 211, Waterfield Library
Ambiguous narration in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter creates a reader that is simultaneously an insider privy to uncertain narrative report and an outsider sympathetic to Hester’s ignominy. While current reader response criticism explores narrative techniques of ambiguity and sympathy in isolation, this paper analyzes how these techniques are used in conjunction to establish a relationship between narrator and reader. The narrator’s role as storyteller and gossip, accepting explanations of a rational contemporary audience and superstitious Puritans, both defies Puritan inflexibility and creates intimacy that includes readers in this community. At the same time, a sympathetic relationship with Hester distances readers from a Puritan community without sympathetic capabilities. Hawthorne resolves this tension through Reverend Dimmesdale’s Election Sermon which becomes the rhetorical device that joins narrator, reader, and Puritans in one voice of sympathetic unity.