Able not Angel
Women are the mother, the wife, the object of infatuation, a symbol for something else, and a villain. She has been marked with the original sin, forever doomed to repent. She is to be ashamed off, brushed off, controlled. This is what the role of women has been written of as in a multitude of literature, but this is also how she is treated. She is never to be the hero; she is the only there to assistance him in his journey. There have been the occasional defiant of these tropes in literature and a reality, but one can only count these on two hands. If one were to count all the instances with the tropes, well, one would not have enough fingers to count with. Women have been told they must choose between purity and contamination, …show more content…
This viewpoint has appeared in stories, describing the purity of a woman indirectly as well as directly. As if women are like roses that once beautiful, after they are sullied are now hideous and should be ashamed of. Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, was to be forever known as an adulterer, was banished from her society. If it had been known that Hester was married, she would have been hanged after the birth of her child. The ultimate crime of women cheating on her husband deems death, yet a man doing such seemed not out of the common place. There has been however movement away from this more archaic standpoint, but still retains the contradictory view of women who are sexual as dirty and those that aren’t, are seen as a prude, and all on top of that, pressure to stay abstinent from school sexual education. Double standards are the woman’s bane. A woman cannot be approved of in society if she is one decreed acceptable type but this acceptable type conflicts with …show more content…
Hester is presented as a sinner, she has committed adultery therefore, is rejected by her society. Hester as been presented with what her community and time period views as one of the worst things a woman could do, commit a sexual sin. Hester must adapt, and she did. Hester managed create a small business, raise her daughter by herself, and possess to a degree free will. However, Hester is only able to achieve once she is no longer following the perceived rules of Puritan New England. This follows through with how woman can only succeed when they have opportunities. Women cannot succeed if she is restricted the way that she has. Hester once viewed as an object of embarrassment and guilt became known as “Able” and “So strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”(Hawthorne 150). No longer had Hester represented adultery in her village of Salem, the ultimate sin. Though Hester only achieves her freedom through her sin, Hester was a start to a “heroic” view of women. Hester overcame her obstacles, starting the “ [The Scarlet Letter as a] founding classic of that American heroic tradition” (Bercovitch). Heroism not in the bounds of fairy tales, but of own personal victories over social issues like of Hester Prynne.
In order for all women to truly succeed and be perceived as equal in all eyes, she must not
Women are the mother, the wife, the object of infatuation, a symbol for something else, and a villain. She has been marked with the original sin, forever doomed to repent. She is to be ashamed off, brushed off, controlled. This is what the role of women has been written of as in a multitude of literature, but this is also how she is treated. She is never to be the hero; she is the only there to assistance him in his journey. There have been the occasional defiant of these tropes in literature and a reality, but one can only count these on two hands. If one were to count all the instances with the tropes, well, one would not have enough fingers to count with. Women have been told they must choose between purity and contamination, …show more content…
This viewpoint has appeared in stories, describing the purity of a woman indirectly as well as directly. As if women are like roses that once beautiful, after they are sullied are now hideous and should be ashamed of. Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, was to be forever known as an adulterer, was banished from her society. If it had been known that Hester was married, she would have been hanged after the birth of her child. The ultimate crime of women cheating on her husband deems death, yet a man doing such seemed not out of the common place. There has been however movement away from this more archaic standpoint, but still retains the contradictory view of women who are sexual as dirty and those that aren’t, are seen as a prude, and all on top of that, pressure to stay abstinent from school sexual education. Double standards are the woman’s bane. A woman cannot be approved of in society if she is one decreed acceptable type but this acceptable type conflicts with …show more content…
Hester is presented as a sinner, she has committed adultery therefore, is rejected by her society. Hester as been presented with what her community and time period views as one of the worst things a woman could do, commit a sexual sin. Hester must adapt, and she did. Hester managed create a small business, raise her daughter by herself, and possess to a degree free will. However, Hester is only able to achieve once she is no longer following the perceived rules of Puritan New England. This follows through with how woman can only succeed when they have opportunities. Women cannot succeed if she is restricted the way that she has. Hester once viewed as an object of embarrassment and guilt became known as “Able” and “So strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”(Hawthorne 150). No longer had Hester represented adultery in her village of Salem, the ultimate sin. Though Hester only achieves her freedom through her sin, Hester was a start to a “heroic” view of women. Hester overcame her obstacles, starting the “ [The Scarlet Letter as a] founding classic of that American heroic tradition” (Bercovitch). Heroism not in the bounds of fairy tales, but of own personal victories over social issues like of Hester Prynne.
In order for all women to truly succeed and be perceived as equal in all eyes, she must not