It felt to Hester as though the red cloth emanated a “burning heat; and as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron” (30). As beautiful and as ornately designed as the letter was, it was created as a symbol of shame to be worn by Hester and to be seen and condemned by everyone in the town. Hawthorne’s decision for the letter to be red can be seen as symbolic, as the color can represent the pain that Hester has with the situation. It can also be seen as the death of her innocence as she is judged by society. Later in the novel the color red is used to describe Pearl, called a “scarlet vision” by the narrator (101).
There are plenty of sparks that contribute to the proverbial fire that is the contoversies within the novel. In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is confronted with a myriad of feelings which overcome her and lead to her eventual death. Throughout the story she finds her true thoughts on being a mother, sex and independence. Edna also learns of her own identity and self expression, which is on of the key underlying purposes of the novel. From the beginning of the story we learn about Edna through her actions.
The reader has now observed what traits and behavior is being conveyed based on the conversations from Hester and Chillingworth of said chapter. We have now learned through Hawthorne, and the dialogue he set for Chapter IV, is that about Hester’s past, for the most part; is unknown. She is a strong-willed and haughty woman whose actions are done with passion (as seen when she was standing in the scaffold in the beginning of the story). However, she seems to get intimidated by Chillingworth during their conversation. Her sudden change of personality gives the reader an insight on how intimidating Chillingworth really is to Hester, and possibly others.
One of her biggest challenges was working with Douglas Henry, who was the company’s key punch and computer sections supervisor (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2009). Rabidue and other female colleagues were exposed to Henry’s vulgarity, hateful comments towards women, and obscene posters demoralizing women. Upper management had been informed of it, but had only given Henry friendly advice to curb the behavior, which had not been effective. Rabidue was also faced with challenges of not being able to perform her duties or receive the same courtesies and benefits as the other managers such as: free lunches, free gasoline, a telephone credit card or entertainment privileges (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2009). She was unable to take clients to lunch because of how it would be perceived.
As Eunice is used to present a wider background for the play, she also presents the society at the time, and sometimes voices the audience’s opinions, for example, after Stanley beats Stella, Eunice’s speech is punctuated with many ‘!’, showing hers and, furthermore the audiences, shock at the violence. Compared to the violence between Stanley and Stella in Scene 3, Williams portrays Eunice’s ordeal to be less dramatic and more normal, showing that as the play has progressed that domestic violence was a regular occurrence in the 1940’s. Furthermore, Williams has used Eunice to also enforce the submission of women during the set time period, using the alcohol Eunice drinks after the beating by Steve to portray this; alcohol in A Streetcar symbolises a means of escape from reality, mainly used by the protagonist, Blanche DuBois. By presenting Eunice to be drinking alcohol conveys the idea that she can’t cope with her relationship with Steve, and uses alcohol to escape it, much like
Then, when people called her names or treated her like a prostitute, she would become extremely aggressive and yell and curse. Her hostile self-harm behaviors were shown when she was punching the door. She was angry with her boyfriend and could not express it well, so she felt the need to punch the door repeatedly. This can also be instrumental aggression because she is expressing other feelings through breaking the door. Overall, I believe that Tamela’s self-injury was instrumental aggression.
The freedom women once felt turned into a life of fear. Riverbend shows many feminist views throughout the novel, but more so a view of a woman wanting peace and equality for both sexes in her country. Riverbend’s life changed drastically because of the war on terror and led to changes in gender issues, in her daily life and professional life. The United States only aided in further oppressing Arab women by not being fully
Steven Jimenez English Ms. Torres 31, October, 2014 The Scarlett Letter Many people throughout their lives have been in the position of being looked down on by a group of people or society because of something they have done wrong, but overcomes their wrong doings at the end. In the novel “The Scarlett Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist Hester Prynne has this perpetual fight with proving to the puritan society that she is more than the letter “A” that is attached to her bosom. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows in his novel that people sometimes should receive a second chance. Being in a conflict with a group of people can be extremely stressful and overwhelming but people need to be their own support system and backbone to overcome such a difficult problem in order to move on with their lives. People often when being in a conflict with their society, usually back down because it is on person against a large amount of people but sometimes that is not the case.
Merely Teasing Charlotte Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” both demonstrate how society, at the turn of the century, seemed to make women feel enclosed or trapped. The narrator in “Yellow Wallpaper” and the main character in Chopin’s story, Louise Mallard share many of the same desires and characteristics. Their desire to get out and be independent eventually gets them punished. In both stories, it is clear that the narrator or character is a female. From the way the narrator talks in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” describing her husband and house and the decorations, it is obvious she is a female.
In all three sources, the males use violence as a tactic to enforce traditional roles among women and prolong control. In the article, Pakistani women are a witness of violence on a daily basis, and this violence is mainly constructed towards them. Several husbands and fathers abuse or threaten their wives and daughters regularly, and emplace fear within them. This fear is especially shown in the article by a woman named, “Savida, who declined to give her family name [to the community center] because she feared violence from her husband” (Mekhennet). This signifies that violence is the root of fear that results in women to conform to their traditional roles, as they fear the consequences of disobedience.