Group+10


 * Prompt: Read Chapter 22, “The Procession,” from //The Scarlet Letter//. Then write an essay analyzing how Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices, including irony and imagery, syntax, organization of details, and other rhetorical devices.**

1) "Little Pearl at first clapped her hands, but then lost for an instant the restless agitation that had kept her in a continual effervescence throughout the morning; she gazed silently, and seemed to be borne upward like a floating sea-bird on the long heaves and swells of sound." -In this quote, Hawthorne uses imagery that is somewhat spiritual in order to show the great emotions that had overcome Pearl and some of the other characters at this time. He also uses a simile to relate Pearl to a sea-bird. 2) "Its ranks were filled with gentlemen who felt the stirrings of martial impulse, and sought to establish a kind of College of Arms, where, as in an association of Knights Templars." -This allusion gives Hawthorne credibility about his writing by sounding scholarly, creating a more formal tone. 3) "And yet the men of civil eminence, who came immediately behind the military escort, were better worth a thoughtful observer’s eye. Even in outward demeanor they showed a stamp of majesty that made the warrior’s haughty stride look vulgar, if not absurd." -This quote is a comparison between someone of royalty to a person of prominence. There is also a hint of irony through the use of the word "absurd." 4) "…and so he saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing, of what was around him; but the spiritual element took up the feeble frame and carried it along, unconscious of the burden, and converting it to spirit like itself." -Hawthorne uses irony in this passage to convey the point that Dimmesdale had a huge burden that he had to carry, but then explaining that it was a sort of "spirit." "The sainted minister from the church! The woman of the scarlet letter in the market-place! What imagination would have been irreverent enough to surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them both?" -This passage again presents an ironic tone because it talks about Hester and Dimmesdale bearing the same physical mark. 5) "He, moving proudly past, enveloped, as it were, in the rich music, with the procession of majestic and venerable fathers; he, so unattainable in his worldly position, and still more so in that far vista of his unsympathising thoughts, through which she now beheld him! Her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a delusion, and that, vividly as she had dreamed it, there could be no real bond betwixt the clergyman and herself." -Hawthorne utilizes the device of organization because he goes from a happy, enthusiastic stand point when Hester is describing how majestic Dimmesdale is to a sad stand point when he mentions how she can’t have him. This shows that the one thing keeping them apart was the fact that Dimmesdale was in such a high social position. "What was it? The complaint of a human heart, sorrow-laden, perchance guilty, telling its secret, whether of guilt or sorrow, to the great heart of mankind; beseeching its sympathy or forgiveness—at every moment—in each accent—and never in vain! It was this profound and continual undertone that gave the clergyman his most appropriate power." -Organization is used again, but this time it goes from a sad, depressing idea to a triumphant one because Dimmesdale was able to use his guilt in a good way. 6) "She made the somber crowd cheerful by her erratic and glistening ray; even as a bird of bright plumage illuminates a whole tree of dusky foliage, by darting to and fro, half seen and half concealed amid the twilight of the clustering leaves. She had an undulating, but oftentimes a sharp and irregular movement." -This passage is a powerful example of syntax because the words are masterfully put together. Hawthorne describes Pearl as "a bird of bright plumage" and then implies that she is vastly different from others in her society.

tpatton mromano kwilson per. 3