Rereading Toni Morrison’s foreword to Sula at the end of the novel was indispensable in cementing my comprehension of the story. While I understand that the desire to have an audience consider a text alongside a set of principles requires a strategic placement of them, Morrison’s preface doesn’t do justice to the words that follow; […]
The most extravagant shift in Hawthorne’s novel is one mobilized by a light that can come only after an extreme darkness: Hester and Dimmesdale’s meeting in the forest is traced by their mutual illuminations on personal truth in contrast to the “human law” and the “higher truth” that govern their fellow townsfolk (217). Their revelations […]
In class yesterday we talked a bit about eyes (sight) and mirrors (reflection) as symbols in The Scarlett Letter. Our discussion focused on how the characters’ perceptions of themselves and their surroundings are shaped by the peculiar, perhaps deceiving, sense of sight. I would like to continue on this vein and explore how Hawthorne portrays […]
