The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter Tone

Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?

Detached, moralizing, impassioned, formal, skeptical

The narrator fakes an unbiased point of view (even though it’s obvious he doesn’t think much of Puritans), and frequently spends a paragraph or two moralizing about the problems with Puritan society or with Hester and Dimmesdale’s responses to Puritan society.

Writing Style
Genre