Question

1. there are many, many examples of textual ambiguity in the scarlet letter. what is the overall effect of using this device in novel?

readers must get a sense of characters through their actions, speech, and thoughts because hawthorne does not actually describe them directly.
readers must understand a characters qualities by comparing them to qualities of a different character.
readers must make their own interpretations of the events in the text rather than relying on the author to explain what he means.
readers must analyze the ironic statements made by the narrator to determine if the narrator is reliable.

Explanation:

Textual ambiguity in literature requires readers to engage actively. When an author uses ambiguity, they don't spell out every detail. So, readers can't just passively accept an author's explicit explanations. Instead, they have to interpret events based on the text's clues.

• Option 1 focuses on character description method (not about ambiguity's effect on event - interpretation).
• Option 2 is about character - comparison (not the core of ambiguity's effect on event - understanding).
• Option 4 is about narrator reliability (not directly related to the overall effect of textual ambiguity on event - interpretation in the novel).

Answer:

Readers must make their own interpretations of the events in the text rather than relying on the author to explain what he means.