Hester Prynne The Symbol Of Nonformism And Self-Reliance By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester uses her infamy as a way to change the Puritans’ mindset about those who have sinned. Throughout the novel, the Puritans of Boston treat Hester poorly due to the fact that she is a well-known adulteress. Despite her poor treatment, Hester does not allow the Puritans to control her life; in point of fact, she decides to interact with the Puritans through acts of charity so that she can eliminate the stigma associated with the scarlet letter. Originally, Hester never sinned so that she could go against god’s words. She sinned because she felt lonely, and she longed for someone who would love her and take care of her.

Each person will manipulate and handle the other until the time that one of them gets bored, hurt, or just leaves the imbroglio. In this story, the mistress starts out trying to prove herself morally, intellectually, and physically superior through comparison to others and learns this will not serve her in life. She compares herself to her sister Claire, Peter her lover, and Mrs. Piper, his wife. The mistress shows a sudden speck of maturity but never claims any culpability for her actions.

Yet I have to disagree with these statements because we see how Adeline’s reputation as a “fallen” woman is not the result of a shameful behavior but of her negation to conform to the norms and moral codes of the period. She is taking a stand for femininity and independence, as well as contesting the notion of the docile woman that conduct books so vehemently affirmed. Because of that Adeline has to endure the pain caused by society’s rejection, and to use Gary Kelly’s words “she is taken to be anything from naughty to vicious by other good characters”(1980: 200). Thus, we are lead to see Adeline’s virtuous character as irrelevant as long as she endorses in radical philosophies which guide women towards vice and immorality. But is her behavior in any way degenerate and leading others on “the path of sin?”(Opie, 1999: 240), or the real problem has to do more with the fact that, in a patriarchal society, Adeline professes her desires and dares to live with her lover outside the confines of

This acceptance of a new type of freedom highlights her unconscious conformity to her status and place in society and the definition of freedom (4a). In Gilead, Offred, and the other Handmaids are considered lower beings who “[are] the people who [are] not in the papers,” and “[live] in the blank white spaces at the edge of print” forced to have sexual intercourse to produce offspring. Offred believes that being invisible in her own society “[gives] [her] more freedom,” because she “‘[lives] in gaps between the stories,” forever forgotten. The freedom she finds in being invisible within her society epitomizes the distortion of her beliefs by the oppressive government. In a way, she is conforming to the totalitarian regime, one that strives to rid humans of freethinking by instilling their own beliefs and way of life.

They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength” (Hawthorne 96). In a time when women were severely oppressed Hester manages to the defy the odds and lead a successful and fulfilling life on her

Hester Prynne was eventually able to overcome her rebellion by maturing and accepting herself for who she is as a person. After the events of being humiliated in front of the townspeople, Hester isolated herself in a small cottage in order to overcome her “monster.” The Scarlet Letter led Hester to change and become the person she was at the end of the book and, “...was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her

As we witness the play unfold, we are able to see Abigail’s true character, and though she tries to conceal her true personality, the reader is able to identify it through her actions and most interestingly her beliefs. Abigail Williams varies far from traditional Puritan society. Instead of abiding by the general rules of Puritans, Abigail decides that she is above the laws. This fact becomes evident when she pursues, then successfully seduces John Proctor, and when she

Group efforts are essential for the long-term preservation of ideals and continue the work of individual acts of rebellion because they reaffirm the thwarted value and seek to preserve it throughout society, beyond the individual level. Members of the Underground Femaleroad are united not because they are all Quakers or religious; “they were just people who didn’t like the way things were going” (247). Other references to unions based on values include the abortion protests that Offred’s mother once participated in and the Mayday group in Gilead. The novel further conveys this point by developing the fate of an individual rebel who does not join a collective rebellion. From the beginning of the story, Moira has strong beliefs against everything that Gilead stands for and escapes the Center because of her disapproval of the system.

This made Hester view her daughter Pearl as evil because she was born out of wedlock and the Puritans of the community made sure Hester knew the shame of Pearl’s origin. This also made Hester a stronger person because she realized that this was a lesson she could teach to Pearl so that she would not repeat what her mother did. When Hester came to this realization, she became a better woman for herself and

Alice is considered a feminist heroine because she manages to break the rules from society, like getting married or being told what to do. She rejects the female expectations and becomes a strong, confident and independent woman. We can see that Alice is oppressed, for example, when dancing with Hamish, she is delighted by her “visions” and he told her to “keep her visions to herself” or “when in doubt remain silent”.

Ismene eventually does come around to her sister’s side, however Antigone stops her from taking the blame in her place. Happy loman is Ismene’s counterpart in Death of a Salesman, he is unwittingly the archetypical product of the system that Willy subscribes to. Happy is a serial womanizer, regarding them more as consumables than equals,

This is supposed to make her seem vulnerable highlighting her innocence but because of the biased narrator we associate the makeup with the fact she’s a floozy. Curley’s wife is often compared to Eve from the bible for tempting Lennie and manipulating the ranch hands. However, it was Eve’s curiosity and innocent actions that had vast consequences just like Curley’s wife’s curiosity of Lennie. Steinbeck writes, “if anyone […] treated her like a person, she would be a slave to that person.” Lennie showed her kindness, so she satisfied him by letting him touch her dress.

Here Hawthorne proves that Hester remained in the community because she felt as if it was the place where she should still serve consequences for her sin. As the quote says, her entire struggle with sin, sorrow, and shame have all been established in the the Puritan society. After facing humiliating experiences she is convinced she would be unable to start over somewhere new. As a result, Hester 's shame and sorrow led her to becoming more of an outcast to the Puritan

Another would be that it is foolish to want those close to you – family, friends, etc, - to live forever because that’s not up to you and as stated in the quote above, it’s foolish to want things that aren’t yours to be yours because that’s impossible. He gives example in his sixteenth rule that when a person is mourning, it’s not what had happened, but rather his/her judgment of what has happened, so the best approach is to not mourning it inwardly, or applying feeling/judgment to it. So nothing beyond our own opinions belong to us, and because we can control our opinions, we can apply his reasoning that’ll supposedly lead to achieving peace of mind in life. This is because in his thinking, reason is good, and irrationality is bad, and to be intolerable of the rational – things out of your control – is irrational. Another part of human finitude that he gives way to improve upon is lack of self-discipline.

She is described as one, “who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comforting to the afflicted”(Hawthorne, 159). In fact, because of this, people started to change their interpretation of the scarlet letter from its original meaning. “They said that it meant ‘Able’, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”(Hawthorne, 158). However, because of Puritan law, no good deed can can make up for her sin. So though her community may be acknowledging her good work, people can technically only forgive her in the silence of their own hearts, for in Puritan society, that letter will forever leave a mark of shame on her.