Previous
Motifs
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Vanity in Clothes:
In Chapter 5, the narrator describes how Hester makes money by sewing clothing, including quite ornate clothing that may not be strictly in keeping with Puritan ideals. The narrator uses personification to describe how her clothing brings the vanity of the townspeople to life:
Vanity, it may be, chose to mortify itself, by putting on, for ceremonials of pomp and state, the garments that had been wrought by her sinful hands.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Pine-Tree Puritans:
In Chapter 6, the narrator describes how Pearl plays imaginary games by herself, imagining that the trees and flowers around her are people from town. Vivid imagery contributes to the personification of plants as people:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The pine-trees, aged, black and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully.
Related Themes:
Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Inconsolable Brook:
Hester and Pearl go into the forest in Chapter 16, and Pearl is disturbed by the fact that the brook seems to be crying rather than laughing. The brook's personification as an inconsolable being foreshadows the difficult meeting Hester is about to have with Dimmesdale:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But the little stream would not be comforted, and still kept telling its unintelligible secret of some very mournful mystery that had happened—or making a prophetic lamentation about something that was yet to happen—within the verge of the dismal forest.
Related Themes:
Chapter 18
Explanation and Analysis—Bad Teachers:
An instance of personification occurs in Chapter 18, when the narrator reflects on how wearing the scarlet letter has prepared Hester to flee Boston with Dimmesdale:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Related Themes:
