Daniel Hawthorne’s Sarcasm
Daniel Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter to express his disdain to the puritans. He is completely against them even though he has personal ties with them through his grandfather who was a puritan judge. Hawthorne is so ashamed to be a part of this he changes his last name from Hawthorn to Hawthorne trying to separate the ties with himself and the puritans. The sarcastic tone in The Scarlet Letter conveys Hawthorne’s disapproval to the hypocrisy of the puritans.
Hawthorne says, “Whatever utopia of human virtue and happiness they project,” on the first page; this is extremely sarcastic given that utopias don’t exist. He is making fun of how the puritan culture is supposed to be perfect and sin free but in reality they are extremely sinful. They are constantly bashing others for very simple mistakes which is opposite of what the bible wants them to do. Hawthorne shows his sarcastic tone by making these puritans very hypocritical like how he makes the reverend one of the most sinful people in the book. Hawthorne shows how the puritans did the exact opposite of creating a utopia.
Hawthorne says, “The puritans compressed… at a period of general affliction,” on page 184. This is how Hawthorne sets up a chance to ridicule the puritans in their backwards society. At this time the puritans should have been celebrating but they were compressed and somewhat sad. This is sarcastic because the puritans knew how to have a good time thanks to their ancestors who were