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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 9 page research paper/essay that addresses 3 critical perspectives on this classic work. There is an old Buddhist parable that describes how a raja had six blind men examine an elephant and relate what they believe an elephant to be like. Each blind man touches a different part of the elephant: one the tail, another the trunk, etc. Consequently, the animal that they each describe is very different because they each have a totally different perspective. Similarly, literary criticism can take very different perspectives. While critics may be analyzing the same novel, their particular critical perspective can result in widely divergent interpretations of the author's narrative. This examination of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter demonstrates this point by looking at this early American masterpiece from three different critical perspectives: feminist, psychological and historical. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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9 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khperslr.rtf
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like. Each blind man touches a different part of the elephant: one the tail, another the trunk, etc. Consequently, the animal that they each describe is very different because they
each have a totally different perspective. Similarly, literary criticism can take very different perspectives. While critics may be analyzing the same novel, their particular critical perspective can result in widely
divergent interpretations of the authors narrative. The following examination of Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter demonstrates this point by looking at this early American masterpiece from three different critical perspectives:
feminist, psychological and historical. The feminist perspective examines literature in order to discern what novels and short stories tell contemporary readers about the role of women in society
and how the women portrayed in these works go about addressing this role. In so doing, feminine criticism charts the path of patriarchy and illuminates the nature of current gender
concepts by showing how they evolved. For example, Cindy Lou Daniels takes a feminist perspective when she argues that Hawthornes characterization of Hesters daughter, Pearl, provides "new insights into the
role of women in todays society, a role that began to change as early as 1850 when Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter" (Daniels 221). Daniels points out that previous
scholarship addressing the character of Pearl have seen her as the "sin-child, the unholy result" of an adulterous love and a symbol of her parents fall from grace. This interpretation
sees Pearl as little more than a living personification of Hesters badge of shame, the letter A, which the Puritan elders have sentenced her to wear as a sign of
her adulterous sin. Daniels differs from this position saying that such an interpretation does not address "Hawthornes complexity of character development" (Daniels 222). According to Daniels, critics, particularly male critics,
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