Societal Perception on Female Subject of Adultery in The Scarlet Letter

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.220304.027How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Gender; Society; Literature; Hester Prynne; The Scarlet Letter; Nathaniel Hawthorne

Abstract

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is famously known for its story about adultery. As the act of adultery is against the religious laws, and it involves two parties, the punishment must apply pretty to both males and females. In the case of The Scarlett Letter, however, the penalty falls on Hester Prynne much harder than her partner, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Is it simply because he is not known as Hester’s partner or because of some hidden message necessarily delivered by Hester? This is the issue we want to investigate in our analysis. This issue happens because each type of gender is constructed to have some particular behaviors to obey in order to be accepted in society. This paper discusses how a female who is considered a deviant becomes an outcast from society as a consequence of her actions. Aside from gender roles, this paper also discusses how the Puritan society reacts to adultery as a violation of their rules. Close reading and interpretation are applied to understand the issues in the novel.

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aprilianita Kartika
AU  - M. Misbahul Amri
AU  - Kukuh P. Subagyo
AU  - Herditya W. W.
AU  - Anik Nunuk W.
AU  - Yusnita Febrianti
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/03/28
TI  - Societal Perception on Female Subject of Adultery in The Scarlet Letter
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Gender Studies (WCGS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 193
EP  - 197
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220304.027
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220304.027
ID  - Kartika2022
ER  -