Hester Prynne: A Role Model That Transcends Time

Edna fully understands that society would brand her as a terrible woman, but she does not view herself as a bad person. There is an external and internal difference that Edna hopes to one day reconcile. Chopin, instead of creating tension within Edna, created tension within the society and Edna with her newfound independence does not mind how society classifies her. Decisively, it can be concluded that the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning builds the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period.

Their mental and physical states are damaged. Yet this new regime claims to have helped women. The regime is a new protector as ““women in the past were not protected” (Atwood 24). This is a dystopia, yet it’s built like their own utopia for everyone. Women are given protection and helped from the misdeeds of others.

It wasn’t fair!” (Jackson, 224) It is apparent that she is not necessarily distressed over the practice of the ritual, but specifically that she is the victim, as she states they should start over, so that a new victim will be chosen. “I think we ought to start over,” Mrs. Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could.” (Jackson, 223)

Change can be caused by self­exploration and experience. These experiences can change one’s emotional feelings of the world around them. In Kate Chopin’s novel, T​he Awakening,​the protagonist, Edna Pontellier evolves into who she truly is. Edna transforms throughout the book from an unsatisfied wife and mother into an independent and selfish woman. Additionally, she transforms from a complacent young lady to a defiant woman who values her own desires over the opinions of society.

Her ability to swim starts in chapter 10, and ironically Edna’s happiness then eventually leads to her bismal ending in chapter 39. Another interesting example is Edna’s relationships with Arobin and Robert, where Edna chooses to act rebellious and choose her own terms for two affair-like relationships. Either case, Edna felt “as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to took upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up of beauty and brutality” (Chopin 84). Her relationships tore her emotions apart, but in the process angered and falsely strengthened her; this is an example of the “masking” of her characteristics. In reality, Robert and Arobin

The tragic hero fabricates false dangers to compensate her desire to be needed by her sister who has moved on with her life. Nea feels abandoned becausen Sourdi matures while she remains a child. Ma and Sourdi remain connected with traditional customs that Nea simply cannot understand due to her exposure to American culture. Her over active imagination, anxiety, and aggression get her into trouble. When Nea tries to rescue Sourdi from her husband, it is the last straw and she knows that she has lost her dear older sister for good.

Lily then consequently comes to find that the tables are turned and that her mother is the one who is in need of forgiveness. She shows her struggle by saying, “people in general would rather die than forgive” (Kidd 277). Capriciously, she contemplates the situation thinking for one moment “it is over and done,” but in the next she “would be picturing her in the pink house, or out by the wailing wall” (Kidd 278). Ultimately, after her entire debacle, with thrown honey jars as well as many headaches, Lily comes to learn that “you have to find a mother inside yourself” (Kidd 288). This idea sets Lily at ease giving her the knowledge that everything is going to be peaceful from this moment on and that she can take the time to learn to forgive others, just as she has to learn to forgive

In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll,” the girl-child was perceived on the effect that society has expected in women. There stood a hazardous trend that raged in her society causing self-destruction. This comes to comparing the normal to unreal to satisfy on what society begs the girl child to be. This may occur within both genders. However, in the poem “Barbie Doll” it was more likely to occur within a girl gender.

In Kate Chopin's,The Awakening it has been the talk of many critics due to Choplin's conversational topic about women's freedom. Woman in the Victorian era are powerless and have little say so in what they choose to do. Throughout the novel Edna faces struggles with her independence and the persecutions woman faced in this society. There are many symbolisms that help show the struggles that Edna faced and how she overcame it.

The shattered mirror continues to be an important symbol in this novel and serves to tie the book further with the myth of Narcissus. After Oedipa’s affair with Metzger, “things grew less and less clear…she went into the bathroom, tried to find her image in the mirror and couldn 't. She had a moment of nearly pure terror (Pynchon 33).” Like Narcissus and the pool of water the mirror serves Oedipa in a similar fashion, it reflects the woman that society has shaped her to be but the shattering of the mirror shows an end of that. The mirror earlier in the novel served as a narcissistic connection to Oedipa’s old self who was okay with the lot in life that she had been dealt, but the breaking of the mirror symbolizes the break of the hold on her

The “cures” back then were sadly insufficient and ignorant of treating the illness and instead closeting away those who suffered in the hopes of recovering or remain the dark family secret (Hale, 2008). Charlotte admits she never had hallucinations to the mural decorations, but simply her motivation to embellish and sharing her story, was in the hopes of saving women from her fate of mistreatment. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s own words regarding her composition of “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Continuing, another theme that led us through Lily’s adventure of growing up was her discovering how important storytelling was. She was going through gruesome horrid things, and when she read things like Shakespeare she realized how important it was because it helped her escape to a fantasy world for a little bit of time. Lastly, Lily learns the power of the female community. Lily grew up without a mother, so for a large chunk of her life she didn’t know the real power the female community held.

Even though she will well aware that her husband, sister and doctor find it a un- likely cure and are against it. We are also to that the narrator tries to cope with her problems as well. Unlike John, who simply ignores his obstacles, the narrator descends into a sense of imagination to help mentally heal herself. The narrator becomes almost compulsively obsessed with the idea of freeing the women behind the bars of the yellow wallpaper. She says, “There are things in that paper which nobody knows but me, or ever will.

Sex is a big deal. Today's culture suggests that women can have sex whenever and with whomever they want. In the world today, people are not criticized as harshly as they are in the Puritan culture, as in The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. In the novel, Hester Prynne is driven to be successful regardless of her sexual mistakes. Even though Hester does not act embarrassed or shameful of her mistakes, she uses them to teach herself how to be confident in her way of life.