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

The prevailing tone of Hawthorne's The Scarlet
Letter is one of irony.  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 Arthur Dimmesdale, who is perceived
as "ethereal" is as grievous a sinner as Hester Prynne who 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. 

Roger Chillingworth 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, Governor Bellingham 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 that Pearl is the child of the Reverend
Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne.