In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is a charismatic, independent and a lovely woman who in the article, When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision by Adrienne Rich is “threatened with loss of beauty, the loss of youth” due to the Puritan laws of Adultery.
Adrienne Rich points out in the article, When We Dead Awaken: Writing as a Re-Vision that women are a luxury. In the scarlet letter, Hawthorne describes Hester as a luxury when Hawthorne says, “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion” (Hawthorne …show more content…
Hester feels sorrowful and even has suicidal thoughts thinking that killing herself and Pearl would make everything return to back to normal. Hawthorne shows Hester saying this when she says, “I have thought of death,’ said she—‘have wished for it—would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything” (Hawthorne 110). Hester feels the need to kill herself and even prays for her own death. Hester is also faced with a lot of insults from the public because of her scarlet letter which makes the public image of her look more and more fouler. Hawthorne talks about this and says, “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast . . . as the figure, the body, the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 118). Children were taught to point and look at Hester where their parents told them an example of who not to be. Hester almost loses everything, both her beauty and her life. However, Hester is able to change herself and gets to adopt a new name from adultery to able as in able to change. Hester good deeds earn back her beauty and eventually she finally get what she longs for, to get back Dimmesdale even though it was only for a short period of time.
Hester was threatened with the loss of youth and the loss of beauty in the beginning of the novel but through her
Adrienne Rich points out in the article, When We Dead Awaken: Writing as a Re-Vision that women are a luxury. In the scarlet letter, Hawthorne describes Hester as a luxury when Hawthorne says, “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion” (Hawthorne …show more content…
Hester feels sorrowful and even has suicidal thoughts thinking that killing herself and Pearl would make everything return to back to normal. Hawthorne shows Hester saying this when she says, “I have thought of death,’ said she—‘have wished for it—would even have prayed for it, were it fit that such as I should pray for anything” (Hawthorne 110). Hester feels the need to kill herself and even prays for her own death. Hester is also faced with a lot of insults from the public because of her scarlet letter which makes the public image of her look more and more fouler. Hawthorne talks about this and says, “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast . . . as the figure, the body, the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 118). Children were taught to point and look at Hester where their parents told them an example of who not to be. Hester almost loses everything, both her beauty and her life. However, Hester is able to change herself and gets to adopt a new name from adultery to able as in able to change. Hester good deeds earn back her beauty and eventually she finally get what she longs for, to get back Dimmesdale even though it was only for a short period of time.
Hester was threatened with the loss of youth and the loss of beauty in the beginning of the novel but through her