Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
American society gender roles
The role of women in 20th century novels
Portrayal of women in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The church did many things in the puritan religion. It controlled society, created a place for all people to go and be with god, and also created social roles for women which kept them oppressed and not allowed to be equal to their male partners. In The Crucible, Goody Nurse, a kind old woman is killed simply because dominate men of the church decided suspected evidence is enough to be proven a witch. So were many other women, but no men were called witches, no men had to fear for their lives and hope that they would not be. The church was run by males because it was god's choice to have them dominate the church men were the only ones who could preach. They were the only ones who could truly bring the word of god to the people. If a women …show more content…
Due to this she was rejected by her community and seen as an impurity to society in the eyes of the church. Hawthorne describes her punishment as she is placed in total isolation. He writes, “Measured by the prisoner's [Hester] experience, however, it might reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon” (17). Hester was shunned and thrown into exile for all to see. She was put through horrid times events, such as walking through the street with people staring at her with her disgraced A embroidered beautifully on her chest. If she were a man she would have never had to go through this same pain and agony. This is because males were held to a different standard. They were not expected to be perfect beings, but women always were. Hester’s punishment of eternal shame and isolation would be considered a light punishment in a puritan community. Mamo explains that would who committed adultery were often stoned to death by members of their society ("On Puritanism." Humanis”). When it came to adultery it was simply not tolerated in puritan society. Women although typically got in much more trouble than the men. Men still did get in trouble though. Mamo says, “ If a damsel, on being married, cannot produce the "tokens of virginity," she will be stoned. If a man rapes a woman and she does not cry for help, both will be killed. (She was asking for it, perhaps she was dressed as a slut)” ("On Puritanism." Humanis”). Even though men did get punished for rape women still get punished for being raped. Due to them not calling out for help she’s not a victim. The church truly believes someone who has just been raped, but did not
In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.
Hester is a committer of the sin adultery. She receives a letter with an A on it, which is meant to represent her sin. Hester is free to go wherever she wants with her letter, but she decides to stay within the boundaries of her Puritan town: “Kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement...” (Hawthorne 73). Hester has a newfound sense of pride in the letter she wears, even though that letter is her reason for her own personal condemnation. She doesn 't have any restrictive boundaries, but she feels like her letter is that line that keeps her in her town where she will constantly be judged by others. Constantly criticized, evaluated, and assessed. Hester appears to have a negative mental state caused by her mental condemnation due to the adverse diction when she’s addressed through use of words such as sin, dark, or inscrutable. As her condemnation continues on, she (unlike Jake) changes her subjective thoughts into ones that represent pride and acceptiveness. She turns her views on life into ones that are happier and more accepting, since she has already gone through so much. Condemnation often changes how one might go through processes mentally, but those do not always have to be awful. Most see the restrictiveness in the actions of being condemned, yet new ideologies on how one
“Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.” (Hawthorne 38) Very early in this novel we can see that one of the main themes is going to be isolation. This quote summed up, basically says that everyone in the town has turned up to shame her, her being Hester Prynne, publicly and that she is surrounded and totally alone, isolated. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of this book has a bad history with the Puritan belief and writes against, and makes fun of it constantly in his works. He does this
The Crucible How does an individual gain so much power through trials? In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays Abigail Williams as a powerful individual by revealing her control over the younger girls and the continuous accusations she makes until the end of the play. Throughout the entire play, it is made clear that Abigail has control over the younger girls in the village. In Act 1, it is right away noticed that her way of controlling them is through causing fear by making threats.
...e to the Puritan ideas that women were more vulnerable and evil than men, their sexuality was more obvious and sinful, and the fear of women gaining power and authority.
The girls lied because they did not want to get in trouble for running around naked in the woods, Abigail lied and said that John Proctor’s wife was the one who made her do what she did so that she will end up with John.
The Church of England was not a good religion during the sixteenth century, the puritans want to practice their own religion but the Church of England would not allow them. People didn’t want to obey the churches authority anymore. The Puritans it particular did not want to follow the Church of England. Over time, “the church of England began to crack down on those who refused to bow to their authority” (www3.gettysburg.edu) this caused the Puritans to leave England. The puritans left England and went on a dangerous journey to be free from the church. It was so bad that, “it got to the point where the puritans decided to face the dangerous journey to the New World rather than be persecuted for their religion” (www3.gettysburg.edu) these people would rather put their lives and families in danger than to be put down by the Church of England. There were ranks inside the church and women were at the bottom.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
Readers generally characterize the Puritan Townspeople in The Scarlet Letter by their attitudes in the beginning of the novel. When Hester first walks into the scene, most of the townspeople are very harsh and strict in their religions. They believe that adultery is one of the worst sins possible. One unyielding woman says, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and in the statutebook. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray.'; Although a young woman and a righteous man try to intervene with the angry old women, their voices are never heard. Also, Hawthorne associates ugliness with wickedness; therefore, all of the stingy women are described as being very ugly. They regard her not as a fellow sinner but as a woman so evil that she must be ostracized from her “perfect'; community. They view the scarlet letter that she wears upon her breast as a symbol of her atrocious crime of adultery and nothing more. The women in the beginning of the novel are so quick to pass judgment on others, yet they fail to recognize the sin in themselves. Once they realize this obstacle, the townspeople will become more understanding of Hester’s situation.
By Hester committing a sin, they weren’t being sentenced to eternal damnation, she was. All the townspeople did was make Hester’s life a living hell. However, ironically, Hawthorne contrasts the goodness and strength with the cruelty of the religious Puritans. The letter ‘A’ upon her breast harsh cruel enough. It was “represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it” (Hawthorne 97). Hester’s identity was swallowed by her marking. Nobody knew the true Hester Prynne because the society connected the letter to her morality. Hester wasn’t a person who should be damned to Hell, but the Puritans thought so when they saw her chest. Hester almost escaped this life of being enslaved by the letter, but “Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but out loud, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation” (Hawthorne 180). She chose to live her life with the embroidery upon her chest,
In conclusion, Puritans looked down upon woman, thus women were always the accusation of many evil and sins. Whether it was Puritan teachings or events associated with the accusations of women, people wanted to blame women for what was taking place. Puritan teachings, were the uproar of all the negative assumptions society had against women. Furthermore, the events and accusations that took place reflected the way men acknowledged women. Men were considered the superior gender and women were created just to elevate men’s role in society, and nothing else. If a woman, was to stand equal to a man that would defy her very role in existence, and so the role of a woman was never acknowledged in Puritan society.
The society in which she lives is legitimized such that people follow a certain moral code. Refraining or overlooking of such codes leads to punishment as revealed by the women “this woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (The Ugly Woman, 7). The narrator however, echoes concern against following strict codes of conduct. Hawthorne presents the idea that lack of compassion and forgiveness makes a society dictatorial, he believes the need to observe and practice grace is imperative. Ruling through grace was expressed by Hester when she is forgiven by a society that had once punished her for same mistakes as the young girl retorts “let her cover the mark she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart” (A Young Wife, 6). Reverend Dimmesdale finds adequate grace after seven years of not confessing his sins because of the repercussions that would come thereafter. He begs Hester to reveal his name so that he can as well reveal his sin “be not silent from any mistaken pity, and tenderness for him” (Reverend Dimmesdale, 26) YOur
In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery, a disgraceful sin, and she is severely punished. Yet although her sin was not a good choice, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, attempts to justify her actions. His writing indicates that he does not accept of her behavior but that it was not completely her fault. Being a Puritan, Hester was forced into one way of life, the only acceptable way in the eyes of her community. This pressure to adhere to numerous strict rules was metaphorically compared to a difficult journey down a narrow, winding road in the forest with little light. The Puritanical way of life curbed deviant behavior and is a justification for Hester's sin because every so often, everyone strays from the path but it the reaction to the wrongdoings that should be defining and Hester remained strong and took the consequences.
In a normal Puritan society, a woman’s most important role was that of being a mother and housewife, and women were always seen as being less than a man. The rights of women during Puritan times were very limited and they had many restrictions on what they could and could not do. For example, they could not vote in the town council, own or buy land, or command any servants that their husband or father owned (study.com). Hawthorne represented this through the societies thoughts about Hester, and through how most other women in the society act. The societies thoughts about Hester show that any women who does not follow the normal way of doing things is to be punished and looked down on, even if their actions are completely relevant and harmless. It also represents how harshly women were judged for simply just being a
Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it less serious than those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester’s sin was a sin of passion. This sin was openly acknowledged as she wore the "A" on her chest. Hester did not commit the greatest sin of the novel. She did not deliberately mean to commit her sin or mean to hurt others.