The Conflicting Meanings of Marriage in The Scarlet Letter
On a frigid December morning, I awoke from the night drenched in sweat, screaming inside. I told myself it was just a dream, but I knew it was my harsh reality. I was living the perfect life, or so it seemed, an extravagant house, a new car, and a husband with enough money to buy me any luxury I desired. I was trapped, I was a good Christian woman who had everything but happiness, and my marriage was not simply a handbag I could return, that would destroy my reputation, something I could not get back.
Our current society has a grand image of what a marriage should be. A catering wife, a working husband, and angelic children. Society wants marriage to uphold the standards of this perfect image, but this image often overlooks the most important factor, love. When there is love without marriage, and marriage without love, the definition of marriage can become distorted. Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, although not legally wed were in love. Hester’s relationship outside of her marriage to Roger Prynne granted her a child, Pearl, that branded Hester with a Scarlet letter A, the two forever outcasts in their society. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger and Hester Prynne are deemed married by the church …show more content…
Marriage is hardly a term that can be described, because what it means to each person is different. It is impossible to determine who sinned in The Scarlet Letter, because marriage is an "indefinable ideal" which was proven throughout the novel as all of the characters had contrasting views of who sinned. The Puritan Society branded Hester Prynne with the letter "A" and a poor reputation because they did not consider her suffering in her previous relationship, and the true love she found in the new
On a frigid December morning, I awoke from the night drenched in sweat, screaming inside. I told myself it was just a dream, but I knew it was my harsh reality. I was living the perfect life, or so it seemed, an extravagant house, a new car, and a husband with enough money to buy me any luxury I desired. I was trapped, I was a good Christian woman who had everything but happiness, and my marriage was not simply a handbag I could return, that would destroy my reputation, something I could not get back.
Our current society has a grand image of what a marriage should be. A catering wife, a working husband, and angelic children. Society wants marriage to uphold the standards of this perfect image, but this image often overlooks the most important factor, love. When there is love without marriage, and marriage without love, the definition of marriage can become distorted. Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, although not legally wed were in love. Hester’s relationship outside of her marriage to Roger Prynne granted her a child, Pearl, that branded Hester with a Scarlet letter A, the two forever outcasts in their society. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger and Hester Prynne are deemed married by the church …show more content…
Marriage is hardly a term that can be described, because what it means to each person is different. It is impossible to determine who sinned in The Scarlet Letter, because marriage is an "indefinable ideal" which was proven throughout the novel as all of the characters had contrasting views of who sinned. The Puritan Society branded Hester Prynne with the letter "A" and a poor reputation because they did not consider her suffering in her previous relationship, and the true love she found in the new