Theme Of Deceit In The Scarlet Letter

Deceit, an action so common and malicious—yet human’s fail to recognize deceit until the damage is already done. Exemplary illustrations of this behavior are prevalent in a book that is dated in the 17th century, featuring the stringent ways of the Puritanical culture called, The Scarlet Letter as well as a book that was set in the late 1990’s called Speak. The two main characters, Hester Prynne and Melinda Sordino, are both victims of deceit, and are ultimately victims of rabid and passionate sin. Henceforth sexual exploitation vs. Deceit, Deceit vs. sex roles vs. exploitation, and psychological similarities and issues are also what they fall victim to as well.
To begin with, in the book Speak, Melinda Sordino’s recovery story is depicting …show more content…
In the numerous articles accumulated about victims of rape, one of them specifically went into a brief description about the mindset and the psychology of the archetypal rapist/attacker; “The intention of the rapist is to profane the most private aspects of the person and render his victim utterly helpless. The character of the event is thus connected to the perpetrator’s apparent need to terrorize, dominate and humiliate the victim. Rape by its very nature is intentionally designed to produce psychological trauma” (Rape Trauma Syndrome). Andy Evans while dancing knew what his intentions were; he came (to terrorize), he saw (Melinda/victim), he conquered (domination, and humiliation). What did he also conquer? Sexual deception. Being exploited by her peers also added to her pain, after Melinda was raped she was frantic and was desperate for help so she called the police, one of her peers took the phone from her after she froze. Everyone from then on classified her as the girl who called the police, and got multiple people arrested. To also perpetuate the pain that Melinda suffered, throughout the novel Andy Evans taunts, mocks, and …show more content…
In the beginning of the novel, Hester Prynne is forced out of her prison cell, and proceeds to fulfill part of her punishment by standing on a scaffold while the whole town watches her alienation, and humiliation by ecclesiastical persons, and officials of the town. In the Puritan society, sex roles and public exploitation played a tremendous role in how the Puritans governed themselves morally and religiously. “…she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile and a glance that would not be abashed looked around at her townspeople and neighbors (Hawthorne 60)”. This was the foundation to initially establishing the difference between average Puritan women, juxtaposed to Hester Prynne. For the rest of Hesters’ life, she is forced to wear the letter “A” for committing adultery, which she embroidered with