Similarities Between The Scarlet Letter And The Awakening

Who wore it better? The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Awakening by Kate Chopin both strongly embody the way women were treated before women’s rights became less restricted to cooking, cleaning, and parenting. Hester Prynne and Edna Pontellier are both upper class women that cheated on their husbands. Although their situations were distinctly different, they relate to each other in several ways. Hester in the seventeenth-century and Edna in the nineteenth are great examples of the good and bad consequences of doing what you desire or what you think is right. These two women seem to have a lot in common, like how they feel towards their lovers; however, they differ in their feelings towards their children and they both have
For Hester and Edna, that dream did not exactly go as well as they had hoped. Hester gets pregnant during her love affair with Dimmesdale, which alerts everyone to their affair, or the fact that she had one. Hester’s husband has not been around to give her a child. Hester has a baby girl named Pearl, that she loves and cares for very much. At one point, Hester is threatened to have Pearl taken away from her. Hester demands, “[l]ook thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!” (Hawthorne 116). She argues that, who better to teach a child about sin, than someone who once committed it. She also states that if she lost Pearl, she would have “willingly gone with thee into the forest” and signed her name in “the Black Man’s book” with her own blood (Hawthorne 119). Pearl is Hester’s saving grace, being one of the only good things she gains from the situation. The way Edna feels about her children is drastically different from Hester. Edna has two boys, and she has a lot of trouble connecting with them as her own. Edna pays no attention to her children, because she does not feel close to them. Even her oblivious husband notices her “habitual neglect of the children” and says, “[i]f it was not a mother 's place to look after children, whose on earth was it?" (Chopin 5). This refers back to the role of women in society. It was understood that they would care for the children. Mr. Pontellier does not consider
Hester’s affair was during the time bible was the law, and what she did was a bit taboo in the church’s eyes. One bad decision changes her entire life. Her husband being away for a long period of time obviously made her feel lonely, and she needed someone to fulfill womanly her needs. Instead, she ended up with a baby and a big, red “A” on her chest for seven years. She lives on the outskirts of Boston with Pearl, and she is ostracized by everyone in town. She makes a living by sewing, because she is very talented in her work. However, “it is not recorded that, in a single instance, her skill was called in aid to embroider the white veil which was to cover pure blushes of bride” (Hawthorne 83). Virgin brides were not allowed to wear veil’s made by her because of her sinful acts, it would be considered shameful. Although Hester had to face many problems due to her sinful actions, she wore the “A” out in the open and wore her sin with confidence. She was said to look beautiful when she walked out of the prison. When Hester is made to stand on the scaffold alone for three hours, she does it with grace and acceptance. She accepts what she did and the consequences that come along with it. Whereas Hester has many unavoidable obstacles caused by her sin, Edna does not face much ridicule by society. Since this novel takes place in the nineteenth century, punishment by law will not be a