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The Scarlet Letter: The Theme Of Women In The Scarlet

1625 Words7 Pages
‘If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences of your own actions—you 'd be doomed. You 'd be ruined as God. You 'd be a stone. You 'd never eat or drink or laugh or get out of bed in the morning. You 'd never love anyone, ever again. You 'd never dare to.’
Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

The previous quotation can greatly refer to the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. What appealed me immediately when I first started reading the novel was the destiny of a woman in the 17th century, for, more than once have I encountered bad faiths, oppressions, and lost lifes of women within novels. The Virgin Blue, a novel written by Tracy Chevalier, whose theme is also a tragic life of a woman, instantly came into my mind. And it was then when I decided that the issue of women from that period should be discussed. Still, the novel of that importance as it is The Scarlet Letter depictures far more than just a destiny of a single woman. Hence, if the writer questioned the power of love, toyed with human emotions and their psyche, and managed to insert a substantial amount of symbolism by creating the novel with historical background, then all the aspects should be included within the analysis.
Let us start with the very theme of the novel – the sin; and among all, the sin within the Puritan colony. This precise theme has always been the subject of interest and therefore it has
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