Insidiously yet unabashedly delighting in the power to frustrate inherent in limited perspective, Hawthorne toys further with his audience by trolling them along with dramatic irony, using what should give readers confidence in their knowledge to ultimately disarm them into a state of complete uncertainty and suspense. By the time we have reached Chapter 18, Hawthorne has already planted enough trigger words to cause the reader to at least suspect that Judge Jaffrey is dead; yet the narrator skates around directly stating this point for several chapters, then casts a grave shadow of doubt over...

• Word Count: 1547
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate