Hester Prynne And The Awakening Essay

Hester Prynne and Edna Pontellier are characters from two classic American works of literature. Hester Prynne is from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edna Ponteller is from The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Both women live interesting lives detailed in their stories. Both are mothers who long to be more than what society says they should be. Hester Prynne was a kind and loving mother. She loved her daughter, Pearl, with all her heart. As shown here when Prynne was fighting to keep Pearl, “‘God gave her into my keeping,’ repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a shriek. “I will not give her up!”—And here, by sudden impulse, she turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes.” If Prynne did not love Pearl she would not have fought to keep her. Prynne cared for others as much as she did for Pearl. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “In such emergencies Hester's nature showed itself warm and rich--a …show more content…
She was very keen on this as shown here, “Edna had once told Madame Ratignolle that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one.” Pontellier meant she would never sacrifice who she was as a person for children or any else. Pontellier was not a good mother. She loved her children, but she did not always show it. As Kate Chopin wrote, “She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them.” Pontellier did not like being restricted by society’s role for her as a mother. As shown in some of her final thoughts, “The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for the rest of her days.” By slavery she meant being stuck as a mother. Pontellier wanted to be more than just a