It is their identification of her as their sinner that binds her to conform to their societal values. Pearl is the living version of the scarlet letter that traps Hester Prynne in Puritan society, and yet is ironically one of the most free-spirited and wild creatures, and the symbol of Hester’s passion in the novel. Unlike other children in the Puritan community, Pearl is free-spirited and cannot be governed by any laws, and instead seems to follow her own rules. When describing Pearl, the narrator notes that Hester is afraid of Pearl because “the child could not be made amenable to rules… the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder; or with an order peculiar to themselves” (80). Because Pearl is a product of the passion of the adultery that the Puritan community does not accept, she does not follow by its rules and when she is born into the Puritan community she has to make her own laws to follow.
Her clothes being of the “coarsest material” and “sombre hue” (80) are evidence of the miserable feeling taking over her. As a result of her deception, Hester no longer obtains her former beauty. Instead, it is replaced with a dreary plainness. Hester is also affected emotionally. Before Hester was ever shunned by society due to the lies brought about by the scarlet letter, Hester was known to be a passionate woman.
Although Barbara is full of bitterness and jealousy, who rejects almost everyone she meets inferior to herself; in her snide comments and spiteful writing, she reveals her main problem – she longs to be loved and accepted by anyone. When she realises that Sheba is willing to be her friend and accept her as the person she is, she then clings onto the friendship she has so tightly, she appears unhinged. Despite her malice and obsessive behaviour, she is
One final example of a person who deals with this problem would be most importantly Boo Radley who with his almost non-existence in the Maywood community, could very well the prime example of loneliness in the book and maybe even in life. Mrs. Dubose at first presented herself in a way that portrayed the attitude of anger and hate. However, as the plot progresses the children find out the she really does care about how she presents herself and they see some of the struggles she faces. Sadly, though, this fact does not become apparent to the children until Mrs. Dubose dies. In the story Jem acts out against Mrs. Dubose’ hatful and racist remarks about his family, and his father in particular.
The letters that Irene sends are often full of misinterpreted information that often causes trouble, where it is none of her business. So I think as an audience we feel pity for her, as we see how lonely and devout of purpose she is, but also she is clearly a very bitter woman so perhaps we don’t feel too sorry for her. The first line of the monologue, ‘I can’t say the service was up to scratch’, sets the tone for the rest of a Lady of Letters, with Irene moving from one disappointment and source of complaint to the next at a rapid rate. Her only link to the community that she seems to mostly despise is the letters she writes; these letters are an outlet of her frustration and fear of a community she has been almost completely isolated from. Irene doesn’t realise this isolation as she thinks she has been sent a personal letter from an opticians, when in fact it is simply generated advertising.
I thought that they would remain there forever, orphaned and alone, unless someone began to want them, to give them love and care" (Hooks 1996, p. 24). The narrator depicts the pain and throe of her experiences with prejudice against appearance and deformed physicality. Like the narrator in Bone Black, we see that Lucy initially comes to have a first gear self-esteem and valuation of her self because she bases her entire sense of wellbeing and her entire definition of her identity based on the inhumane and prejudice reactions of others to her. She implys of her body as having "physical oddness," and she also thinks of herself as a "disfigured child" (Grealy 1994, p. 4). These images of identity and self free radical not from inherent feelings of worthlessness in Lucy.
Roger Chillingworth was shown to be ambiguous because he was first described as a vengeful horrifyingly natured person, yet shows glimpses of human characteristics, such as assisting Hester and her child in the beginning and leaving everything he left behind after his death to little Pearl. Another example of ambiguity was Hester Prynne, because she at first is someone a reader could pity, then she becomes a cold person with no sense of feeling, then later to a sympathetic fortunate woman. Finally, Dimmesdale’s revelation of his chest marks the last questionable situation. He could have had something physical on his chest because he has always shown pain in that area, Chillingworth acted as if he found something on his chest while the minister was fast asleep, and it would be most likely that Dimmesdale only revealed his chest to the Puritans if they could observe anything significant on his
For example George states she is a ‘tramp’. Her relations with Curley are troubled and extremely scarce as they are never once seen with one another. Steinbeck portrays many acts of Curley’s wife that significantly affect the reader’s relationship with her. Two prime examples would be when she enters Crook’s barn and shows a shear amount of prejudice to Crooks, Lennie and Candy. Secondly, towards the end of the novella, the readers see her as an innocent woman due to the way she ‘consoles’ Lennie.
Silence becomes ordinary when courage is forgotten. The courage to speak up and the courage to live life the way one wants for him/herself is what breaks the silence. Most of the time, silence is learned and passed on by following the footsteps of a role model. From the stories we have read in class, every protagonist fights a battle of how to live their life outside the norms of their society. The character of Isobel in “Precious,” by Nalo Hopkinson, loses her voice, one of the most valuable treasures in her life, because she never stood up for herself.
Many themes appear in “A Rose for Emily,” including fantasy versus reality, death, love, and social class. Isolation is one of the primary themes that are evident throughout the story and the depth of the theme helps to understand her characterization. Miss Emily Grierson is a character with various levels of emotional instability which directly result from her lack of interaction with society. Examples of her emotional problems include her obvious hostility towards the members of her community and her proclivity for necrophilia. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” skewed public perception for the Grierson family and both unintentional and intentional lack of public interaction force Miss Emily Grierson to live and die in a world isolated from the rest of her society.