The Madonna/Whore Complex In The Scarlet Letter

It is narrated by the protagonist, Offred who is a handmaid forced into sexual servitude. Facing a plunging birth rate, the fundamentalist regime treats women as property of the state. Handmaids are the few of the remaining fertile women and their sole purpose is to help the government into re-populating their society, where a lot of people are left sterile. The Handmaid’s Tale deals with the theme of women in subjugation to misogyny in a patriarchal society, primarily. It shows the struggle that women have to go through in that society, as a Handmaid or as not being able to be one.

Hawthorne goes on to depict dimmesdale and the rest of the Puritans as, “stern and black-browed” (52), as they cannot truly express their inner beauty due to the standards of society. On the other hand, Hawthorne actually describes Hester as having a, “ charm of softness to her features”(304), contrasting the images 0f the rest of the characters in the novel. Hawthorne uses Hester’s beauty as a symbol of a free sole that is not confined to the constraints of Puritan society. Once Hester decides to leave behind the scarlet letter and the religion that had defined her for so many years, Hawthorne reveals that, “She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom” (308), demonstrating his perspective that Puritan society restricted a person 's god given

First deception being between Desdemona, Othello, and her father with the elopement. Next, The lack of communication between the two characters signifies the type of relationship Othello and Desdemona had. Despite the fact that each were loyal to each other, it proves to show how unhealthy their relationship truly was, and reflects how it was in the beginning as well when they eloped and how much it was a bad idea. Iago, however, remained sovereign over their relationship, allowing the loves to fall right into his trap. However, Iago is not the only one that is to take all the blame.

Indirectly, Steinbeck lets us know that she is not happy in her life. Elisa is stuck in the role of trying to be the perfect housewife, when all she really wants is a life happiness and love. “She turned up her coat collar…she was crying weakly—like an old woman” (Steinbeck 5). When Elisa saw her flowers in the middle of the road, it made her realize that what she had done earlier in the day was ridiculous and lousy. While Elisa has a soft side to herself, we mainly see her trying to be strong the whole

Hester adores her daughter; however, Pearl serves as a constant reminder of her sin. Between the scarlet letter and her own daughter, Hester is reminded daily of the evil she has done. Pearl is born as a result of sin, therefore, she is undoubtedly forced to deal with her mothers’ sinful decisions. Due to Hester’s adulterous sin, Pearl is born into the world as an outcast. The Puritans taunt her by saying, “Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world.

Another act of betrayal in the novel is when Sanaubar left Hassan and Ali. Sanaubar had a duty of being a mother to Hassan and a wife to Ali. She not only betrayed Ali by committing adultery, but also leaving Hassan without so much as holding him because of his cleft lip. According to the text,” Sanaubar had taken one glance…barked a bitter laughter…she had refused to even hold Hassan, and just five days later, she was gone.” (Hosseini, 9). Her actions had left Hassan without a mother figure.

The author expertly describes events Laila and Mariam encountered within their everyday lives that has either affected them or helped them progress and deal with the modern rules for women rooted within Afghanistan. The novel starts by introducing Mariam, in the beginning, she’s a self-conscious young lady with a mother who is despicable and suffers from depression.Her father has entirely different family and shuns her when she tries to be indulged in his life. Mariam is the banished child, due to Nana and Jalil having intercourse while unmarried, resulting in Mariam being illegitimate. At a young age, she was forced to marry a severely abusive man named

She symbolizes evil in the sense that she is born through sin and therefore she represents the punishment that God inflicts on Hester's adulterous act. Pearl also symbolizes the guilt that her parents are experiencing. She defies the puritans' law by being cheerful when she is associating with nature instead of suffering. Another way in which pearl symbolizes punishment is the fact that she keeps pestering and bothering her mother. “‘Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!’ whispered her mother.

She simultaneously loves and resents her children because, while she is their mother, she feels that they have taken away her freedom and self-purpose. As Edna journeys in her awakening, she strives to find meaning for herself as Edna, not her children's mother. To prove she is more than just a mother, she distances herself from normal motherly responsibilities. “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?”(Chopin, 15) Edna's neglect of her children stems from others expectations for her to submit to and look after her

Both stories have common situations about the mothers portrayed in the stories. In both stories, the main characters had to deal with abandonment in some form. As seen in the story “I Stand Here Ironing”, the narrator’s husband left and caused her to play both roles of being a mother and a father to her children. Therefore, the relationship between her and her daughter isn’t as strong as it should be and the narrator feels guilty about it. The main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” blames her husband for her depression.