Essay On The Scarlet Letter Motherhood

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Slavery, and motherhood these things connect two women Hester Prynne and Sethe Garner. Motherhood and slavery is a key role in both The Scarlet Letter and Beloved. Motherhood and slavery is shown with Sethe and Hester, Slavery however this gets a little tricky to explain. Sethe was enslaved by the Garner’s at Sweet Home but escaped and lived in exile. Hester was a slave of her letter A and mistreated because of it. The letter A pushed her into the edge of town in exile much like Sethe. Another great example of how they are connected with motherhood is they are both judged with their parenting like how Hester's community tried taking her daughter Pearl away, and Sethe’s parenting is judged because of when she killed Beloved protecting her. …show more content…

Hester Prynne the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter is not enslaved by slave owners but she is enslaved by the letter A that her community branded her with after being accused of adultery. Another way she is enslaved is by her daughter Pearl.Pearl is the love child that came from her adulterous acts, Pearl has enslaved her mother on many occasions but one example is when Hester decides to take her letter A and let her hair down but when Pearl sees her mother without her A and hair in a bonnet she claims that Hester isn't truly her mother and forces her put her letter of shame back on hence enslaving her with her A. But Hester Prynne does connect with Sethe Garner with motherhood but on different levels. Sethe was willing to do everything it took to keep her children safe and with her even if it costed one of their lives. Hester was willing to do what it took to fight to keep the community from taking her daughter Pearl away. Both women did succeed, Hester kept Pearl and Sethe was able to keep all her children except for Beloved who tragically died as a result of Sethe killing her for her

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