What are some examples of tone in The Scarlet Letter? Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

The prevailing
tone of Hawthorne's is one of .  Here are some examples:

SITUATIONAL IRONY

The Puritans, who have escaped religious
persecution in England, first build a prison on their settlement.  This prison and the scaffold
are sites where people are persecuted and castigated for their sins.  It is ironic that public
condemnation is considered reliable by the Puritans. 

The Reverend , who is
perceived as "ethereal" is as grievous a sinner aswho is sent to prison and made to
stand upon the scaffold in ignominy, scorned by the viewers and later ostracized from society as
she lives on the edge of the woods.  However, the Puritan community exalt Dimmesdale as a saint
while he is a terrible hypocrite in reality.

The governor of the settlement,
Bellingham, has a sister who is a witch, yet no one objects to her activities.  In addition, the
leader of the Puritans, whose ideology holds to simplicity, has a beautiful mansion complete
with diamond-like glass windows, suits of armor, pewter tankards with the remnants of beer
visible, elaborately carved furniture, and a serving-man who wears a blue coat, the
"customary garb ...in the old hereditary halls of England."  That the leader of the
community has these beautiful objects and enjoys a draft of beer points to the hypocrisy of
those who would deny gaiety and passion to their community.

The punishment of
Hester, the wearing of the scarlet letter, changes to a symbol of her ability and
her solicitiousness to the community as nurse to the ill and dying.  Thus, the meaning of the
scarlet A changes ironically to Able and
Angel. 

 who agrees to treat Dimmesdale's apparent
physical illness--which is ironically not a physical ailment--is really the minister's
torturer. 

VERBAL IRONY

In Chapter III,tells Dimmesdale,
"...the responsibility of this woman's soul lies greatly with you."

In Chapter IV, Chillingworth tells Hester, "Think not that I shall interfere with
heaven's own method of retribution."  Yet, he intends to violate the secrets of the
minister's heart and destroy him.

DRAMATIC IRONY

The
readers discover long before the townspeople thatis the child of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
and Hester Prynne.