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A moralistic tone carries the sole purpose of regulating the behavior of
others through appeals to their morals. It is, in a way a type of persuasive strategy used often to quickly gain the support
of your audience.
“This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there
not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of
no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!”
_The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
The “female” speaks this in the market place moments before Hester
Prynne walks out the prison door and onto the market place to be punished.
Hawthorne bases the female’s gossip fully on morals taken from the Bible
(“Scripture’) and adds logic to her case by including the law (“statute-book”). Finally, with an appeal
to family values, Hawthorne allows the female to close with a message directly intended to alert the magistrates; danger to
their daughters if they do not increase Hester’s punishment.
Here, with a perfect example of market-place gossip, Hawthorne highlights
the morals of the people, thus giving the reader a taste of what the rest of the novel will be based on.
Clean, conscientious, corect, decent, equiltable, ethical, fair, high-principled, honest, honorable, noble,
proper, upright, and virtuous.
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