Essay on the Use of Chiaroscuro in The Scarlet Letter -- Scarlet Lette

Use of Chiaroscuro in The Scarlet Letter  Ã‚      Nathaniel Hawthorne the author of The Scarlet Letter uses the literary device of chiaroscuro to effectively develop his characters.   Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804 to a prominent family.   His father passed away on a voyage when he was four years old.   His relatives recognized his talent, and they helped pay his way to Bowdoin College.   Hawthorne and his classmates became the most prominent people in America at that time.   He had many strong ties with important people from attending Bowdoin, such as:   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce.   In 1828, his first novel, Fanshawe was anonymously published at his own expense.   In 1842, he befriended Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott, and married Sophia Peabody, an active member of the Transcendentalist movement.   In 1846, he was appointed surveyor of the Port of Salem where he worked for the next three years, being unable to earn a living a s a writer.   He wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850, showing the Puritans as hypocrites fixated on sin.   This romance was an immediate success, even though it received many criticisms for its risquà © topic.   In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively uses chiaroscuro to develop the personalities of Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale.   Hawthorne uses chiaroscuro to show Hester Prynne as a woman whose sin has overtaken her, and made her impure.   One example of this is:   â€Å"The mother’s†¦medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant the rays of its moral life; and however white and clear originally, they ... ...  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively uses chiaroscuro to develop the personalities of Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale.   Hawthorne uses chiaroscuro to show the depth of Hester’s guilt and strength of bearing her sin and Arthur’s secret.   Pearl is characterized as radiant through Hawthorne’s vibrant descriptions of her beauty.   He uses the sun to depict the purity of Pearl.   Hawthorne uses shadows to show how Arthur is a meager man compared to Hester, also bearing the sin.   Hawthorne shows Arthur deteriorating from his guilt, while Hester pushes herself to live on and try to overcome it, still always bearing its weight and pain.   In conclusion, chiaroscuro is effectively used by Hawthorne to develop the personalities of his characters.