“Does Silence Speak?”: The Revelation of Truth in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

In the portrayal of the anguish and oppression experienced by individuals within society, silence assumes a distinct textual manifestation. In various literary narratives, the theme of silence is sometimes given priority over the entire course of action of an event. Through evoking profound emotions and building suspense within readers, it serves as a vehicle to reveal concealed truths pertaining to historical occurrences. Focusing specifically on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the paper aims to explore how the potency of silence is intricately woven into the fabric of the novel’s characters, ultimately unveiling the concealed reality of an undisclosed incident. As the main characters in the novel remain almost ‘silent’ in an attempt to hide the actual truth, the theme of silence has been purposefully used as a device in enunciating the true facts of a particular event. Consequently, the paper will try to enunciate the theme of silence as an expressive entity, which serves as a conduit to expose the veiled truth surrounding a clandestine affair.