PEARL'S RESPONSE TOWARD SOCIETY IN CONNECTION WITH HER PARENT'S ADULTERY IN ATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S THE SCARLET LETTER

Abstract

Literature, in its general meaning, includes all written materials. According to Jones, this grouping includes philosophical works, history books, novels, poems, plays, scientific articles, dictionaries, school textbooks and magazines. From those general materials, we can divide them into two groups; 1) the materials that present information and; 2) the materials that mainly entertain. As Jones (1968:1) states in his book Outline of Literature, "There is first, the literature of knowledge, and secondly the literature of power. The function of the first is to teach; the function of the second is to move". The basic purpose of informative language is to offer knowledge. Meanwhile the imaginative literature aims to arouse thought and ,feeling. So, from now on, the term literature will refer to all written materials that deal with thought and feeling. wellek and Warren say, "The function of literature, some say, is to relieve us-either writer or reader- from the pressure of emotion"(1956:36).