Robyn Walz 9/01/2013 Prompt 2 Sexist Punishments? : Protofeminism in The Scarlet Letter In the eyes of some‚ The Scarlet Letter may seem like a protofeminist novel. In the eyes of some‚ had Hester been a man‚ her punishment would not have been nearly as embarrassing and deceitful. In the eyes of some‚ Hester did nothing but the right thing based on her trying to protect other women from gender-based prosecution‚ though it meant completely disregarding Puritan laws in her society. Then again‚
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that has the potential to represent something that is not manifested in the reading. Readers may comprehend something differently about what they are reading than what the symbols are actually revealing in the book. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ is significantly symbolic. In this book‚ the forest is a substantial symbol due to the fact that there are many different viewpoints of what the wilderness represents throughout the story. The forest portrays a place of sin and darkness‚ a
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In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ the sunshine is used as a symbol to suggest happiness among the characters. The reason this symbol stands out is because there were numerous times in the novel where Pearl speaks of the sunshine hiding or fleeing from Hester. The reason for the sunshine disappearing on Hester is because sunshine represents happiness and as long as Hester wears her scarlet letter “A”‚ she will never be happy. There are several aspects in the story where the topic of sunshine
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Often‚ two people can commit the same sin‚ but deal with it differently. Guilt can be dealt with in two ways: publicly or privately. In The Scarlet Letter‚ by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale both commit adultery‚ and both Hester and Dimmesdale deal with guilt from the sin they committed in completely different ways. Hawthorne writes about dealing with guilt publicly and privately to show the emotional and sometimes physical toll of guilt based on how people choose to deal
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the forbidden acts of drunkenness‚ blasphemy‚ and adultery. In The Scarlet Letter‚ the church enacts harsh sentences of incarceration and public shaming in order to discipline the presumed sinners. Even though these punishments seek to inflict harm and cause suffering to their victims‚ Hawthorne uses their cruelty to elicit the truth. Presenting a major symbol of Puritan punishment‚ Hawthorne employs the harshness of the scarlet letter to allow Hester to discover her own strength and beauty. Under
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Skyler Vincent English 2333 Amanda Cuellar April 04‚ 2012 In The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter‚ they are both known to be a part of the Puritan religion. The puritans are known to be very strict. Often people are put to cruel punishments for mistakes or sins they had committed. The actions they take to “punish” a person are extreme. The Puritans act and seem so committed to their religion. The people seem “Holy” but you never really know what happens behind closed doors. The Puritan religion
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Written in 1850’s‚The Scarlet Letter made Nathaniel Hawthorne even more acknowledged than he was and making other famous authors like James Henry place him on a higher pedestal than ever in stating in his Hawthorne about him that “He was a beautiful‚ natural ‚original genius and his life had been singularly exempt from worldly preoccupations and vulgar efforts .It had been as pure ‚as simple ‚as unsophisticated ‚ as his work .He had lived primarily in his domestic affections ‚which were of the
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“The motherchild relationship...requires the most intense love on the mother’s side‚” according to Erich Fromm‚ a German psychologist. The love that Hester expresses toward her daughter Pearl in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ and the lessons that she teaches her are what makes Hester a great mother. In return‚ Pearl improves Hester’s public image with her beauty and keeps Hester’s emotions and actions in check. The way these two characters subconsciously complement each other forms a
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The short story “The Scarlet Ibis” is a very touching story‚ which includes many themes within it. The story is about a boy who is born with a special condition which makes him weaker than other children. However‚ “Doodle”‚ the boy with the condition overcomes it when his brother teachers him how to walk. The shorts story‚ “The scarlet Ibis” has many conflicts in it‚ such as Doodle vs. his brother and Doodle vs. Nature. The first example of conflict in this short story is Man vs Man. An example
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The Power of Romance Versus Society Hester Prynne‚ the main character in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ is very similar to Edna Pontellier of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening‚ in that both women contradicted the societal standard and followed their hearts as opposed to the rigid marital structure of their respective times in history. Edna and Hester chose to be with men whom they really cared for. At times when marriage seemed to be based more on a convenient loyalty rather than a genuine bond‚ these
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