Literary devices found in The Scarlet Letter?

Answer 1

1. "But on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner…" (46)

a. contrast

2. "Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of the Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent…"(53).

a. allusion

3. "'Of a truth, friend, that matter remaineth a riddle; and the Daniel who shall expound it is yet a-waiting,' answered the townsman" (58).

a. Allusion and foreshadowing

4. "So the child flew away like a bird, and making bare her small white feet, went pattering along the moist margin of the sea" (152).

a. Simile

Answer 2

"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains several literary devices, including symbolism (the scarlet letter itself representing sin and redemption), allegory (the story serving as a moral lesson about societal judgment and forgiveness), and irony (the irony of Hester Prynne being both ostracized and admired for wearing the scarlet letter). These devices add depth and layers of meaning to the novel.