Persuasive Essay On Gender Identity

Throughout an individual’s lifetime he or she will attempt to form an identity that is acceptable to themselves and their society. One will do this through their actions either intentionally or unintentionally. However, once someone forms an identity that is clearly seen by many people, it is nearly impossible to change how people will view that individual. Hawthorne uses Hester’s development as a character in The Scarlet Letter to show how one can discard the identity given to them by society by forming one of their own. Changing one’s identity is difficult enough; but in a puritan society while seen as the living embodiment of sin it would seem inimaginable. However, Hester is able to do this through perseverance and patience after many

Pearl for example is able to express herself freely as she wanders inside. It was strange as Pearl stood in the forest “looking so steadfastly at them through the dim medium of the forest-gloom; herself, meanwhile, all glorified with a ray of sunshine that was attracted thitherward as by a certain of sympathy.” (197) In Pearl’s eyes, the forest is a different concept. Instead, it’s like is like a best friend to Pearl, it treats her as if she were one of its own. The animals do not run away, but instead come to her. The light is chasing her wherever she goes and she is able to run and play freely. Hester takes off her scarlet letter and relieved a “long, deep sigh, in which the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit.” (191) The fact that she takes off her scarlet letter when she’s in the forest and not in the Puritan society gives her freedom to express who she is. Taking off the scarlet letter was like a weight that kept her down. While it was off, she told Pearl to come to her. In response, Pearl started to stamp her foot “wildly gesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester’s bosom.” (198) Pearl would not come over and gets frustrated because she is not use to Hester without her scarlet letter. Since this happened in the forest, it reveals how the characters like Hester have the freedom to express themselves which leads to seeing their true identity.

Hester harbored an intense love for her child Pearl although the child's mischievous and imp-like qualities brought nothing but pain to the child's mother. This is demonstrated as Hester, after having her talents as a seamstress publicized, began to change the attire of her family. For example, "Her own dress was of the coarsest materials and the most somber

> The manner of speech of Hester has two sides, one is elegant style, and the other one is not. She can speak nicely as an elegant person, but she has trust in herself, which makes her change her manner of speech. She defends herself and speech changes from elegant to not elegant, she flips over.

Hester’s needlework grew in this particular industry, so much that “it would now be termed the fashion,”(para1,p.76) and, “her needlework was seen on the ruff of the Governor,” (para 2,p.76). The exception however, was that her work was never on a bride due to her sin. Her needlework allows Hester to make her way into the community as, the society tolerated her and no longer closed her off from society completely as described towards the bottom of page 79. She wasn’t accepted but, she wasn’t ignored.

Once, Hester fancied not her own miniature portrait, but another face in Pearl's eye. It was a face, fiend-like. It was as if an evil spirit possessed the child, and had peeped forth in mockery.

The fact that Hester had to embroider her condemnation herself, shows that she took control of her punishment. She made it so ornately and so beautifully that her independence shines from it.

The crowd is quick to scorn Hester, in some cases it seems out of jealousy since Hester is said to be strikingly beautiful, with “dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam and a face which besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes” ( 37). Some of the elder women seem to be particularly bitter, saying, “if we stripped Madam Hester’s rich gown off her dainty shoulders and as for the red letter which she hath stitched so curiously, I’ll bestow a rag of mine own rheumatic flannel to make a fitter one!”

In a town of few, Hester was quickly identified as an adulterer and shamed by other women for the “A” she wore on her chest. The women thought the embroidery was unneccesary and too beautiful to be worn by this woman, or as they thought: a subhuman. Although she faces judgment daily, Hester does not leave the community, for God had sent her there like anyone else as evident

Not only did the townspeople remind her but her little pearl remind her as well. “She hath good skills at her needle that’s certain,” remarked one of her female spectators; “but did ever a woman, before this brazen hussy, contrive such a way of showing it! (pg.46). But yet that did not stop her from pushing forward. Hester began to cope with her sin, she started embrace the letter “A”.

Nevertheless, not every person in the town thinks that Hester is deserved of a lifetime of public humiliation. One woman in the town feels as if Hester should be able to cover up the mark anyway she feels like, because no matter what she will always feel the pain of her sin in her heart. (33; Ch. 2) Notwithstanding, as time goes on and Hester’s baby begins to grow up into a young adolescent near the forest, people begin to forget what the “A” stands for on Hester’s breast. Hester begins to help the sick and poor in the town to help try and compensate for her sin that she has perpetrated, so she can still have an opportunity to ascend to heaven. The villagers in Boston start to see her as their own care taker and establish the letter as an indication

Time doesn't just have its way with Hester's looks; it also wears down her personality as well. Normal routines, such as a trip to the market, now cause her immense pain and suffering. Everyone is able to see her symbol of weakness that she wears on her chest. Besides being in the company of her daughter, she can only find joy in embroidery. "It was the art-then, as now, almost the only one within a woman's grasp-of needlework. She bore on her breast, in the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill, of which the dames of a court might gladly have availed themselves, to add the richer and more spiritual adornment of human ingenuity to their fabrics of silk and gold" (85). With the help of her many talents as a seamstress, Hester slowly gains the town's good graces. They even start to see her as a person and come to know the A to stand for able, not adultery. Hester grows in ways that most Puritan women don't. She possesses a power that most woman of her time have never heard of. Through her struggle, she learns to see people as truly people and makes up her own mind, something that was unheard of in her time. Though she grows as a person and society bends with her, times still don't

Being on her own, segregated from society not only changed her views, but also hardened her. Before the scarlet letter was branded upon her, she is feminine, but the letter takes this away. People look at her in disgust, and she starts to hold herself differently because of their opinion of her. She starts wears clothing that will attract little attention, and tries to humble herself as not to offend the other Puritans. It is as if they have placed the letter upon her in shame, and she has accepted this, allowing it to take away her unique femininity. It is not until she is free of the letter and reunited with Dimmesdale that she can finally return to her feminine state. “She took off the formal cap that confined her hair; and down it fell upon her shoulders, dark and rich, with at once a shadow and a light in its abundance, and imparting the charm of softness of her features. There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seem gushing from the very heart of womanhood” (Hawthorne 139). This true version of Hester is only seen for a moment, and yet she is happier than she ever was with the letter. She is free of the burden of the letter, and her freedom has rejuvenating effect on her. Finally, she is herself, no longer having to be hard because of the label on her chest, but able to be

Hester could not explain why she was emotionally cold. “When the children were present, she always felt the centre of her heart go hard”. Her children had been thrust upon her and she could not love them and the children knew that Hester did not honestly love them. Their actions were never shown but Hester knew that the chemistry between them was never pure, “They read it in each other’s eyes”. She looked to conceal her iniquities with furnishings and other items that would

In Hedda Gabler is a women who is so unhappy with herself that she takes her mental anguish out the people around her. She does not appear to be mentally strong she is a very contradicting putting on a good front for people. For example, she gets married to a man just because her time was running out and it seemed like the right thing to do. She says her true feelings on this matter with the judge “I had positively danced myself tired, my dear Judge. My day was done. [With a slight shudder.] Oh no—I won't say that; nor think it either!” It is understood that people during this time period would have been looked at her very negatively if she had stayed single given her age and the time period this takes place. But what is so interesting about her she complains about it to others. When the judge brings up the topic of love he says “not even the specialist one happens to love?” And by her reaction she scuffs at him “saying do not use that sickening word.” Honestly she is does not seem to like to be a women very much and if she has the choice to be a man she would rather be a man. For instance, she had a fascination with hand guns which it a pretty male orientated thing to