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Example research essay topic: Began To Realize Emily Dickinson - 2,267 words

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19 th Century North American Writing To find out about female sexuality in the Scarlet Letter was not an easy task. The history of female sexuality remains for the most part terra incognito. Only in the last century or so have women themselves openly discussed their sexuality in ways that are accessible to historians. Another problem has been that for most of human history, the written word has been largely a male preserve, so women are almost always perceived through the distorting lens of men.

In my opinion, women undoubtedly have always talked about sex and passed on information and misinformation to their daughters and friends. But this oral tradition, as regards past periods, is hidden from us. Anyway, North American literature can clue a reader into the values, morals, traditions, and beliefs of the time. The church, a very powerful cultural arbiter of the day, was deeply suspicious of sexuality in general and female sexuality in particular. The clergy preached that sex should only occur for the purposes of procreation, not for pleasure - As I see it, the church still sustains this point of view and sometimes, specially supported by certain priests, it is overtly stated in services. By Puritans enjoying sex too much was viewed as a sin, although a venial one as opposed to a mortal sin.

For women, virginity was the highest possible state, widowhood next best, with marriage coming in a distant third. Widows who chose to remarry were viewed with suspicion. How Hester's letter can be compared to some of the scarlet letters of today? Would Hester's act of adultery really be viewed as bad as some of the other problems that occur in our world today? I believe that Hester's action have received the same attention as they did back in her time. People today are much more accustomed to issues such as adultery because they constantly hear about it and have really just learned to deal with it in a normal every day sort of way.

We still see many problems with the actions of people in our society today; its just that we have many different and more severe problems in our world. Contemporary scarlet letters are more serious than the ones in the Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but still relate to what Hester experienced. Adultery was the theme of The Scarlet Letter it was seen as one of the most awful and disrespectful acts that could be committed at that time. All people back then were fairly religious, and the church played a key role in their lives; it gave them a set of morals and rules they had to follow to live a happy, respectful, and fulfilling life. Whenever some one broke the laws and morals set by the church, as in the case of adultery, they were severely punished, because they went against morals and laws that were higher than government, they broke the law of God, which was more important to people back then than government. People today treat adultery very differently.

The idea of God is not as influential as it was back in the 1700 s, because not everyone shares that belief in God; in the United States, there is a very mix of religions and spiritual backgrounds, and that diversity makes it hard to compose one correct set of morals based on religion. Therefore, acts such as adultery are not punished so harshly, because everyone does not see it as being wrong. Scarlet letters today have a direct correlation with breaking the law. People who break laws are always punished more seriously than those who break morals. They are labeled with that scarlet letter of being a murder, rapist, thieve, whatever law they broke that reputation stays with them for life, and people do not always forget about it and see that good side of the person like they did with Hester. They will always remember what that person did and they were capable of doing such things even though they might be a completely changed person.

Unfortunately, when it comes to sexuality we still can observe that different sexual norms exist in the world, which means that even today after several centuries sexual moral did not change. Rape is a modern day scarlet letter. Like Hester's scarlet letter, the reputation of being a rapist stays with you for life. No matter what you do you would not be able to escape the social consequences of being a known as a rapist. People look would see you as being lower than them and would not give you the respect you would get otherwise if you did not do the things you did. The punishment for sex offenders and rapists today is very to the punishment Hester received for her adulterous act.

They both receive jail time and are marked with something that would constantly remind people of what they had done. For Hester it was the eloquent scarlet letter on her bosom; while sex offenders and rapists have to constantly remind the people around them what they had done. Whenever they move to a new place, the people in the community are notified of what that person had done. Both the letter on Hester's breast and the notices to people in the community are constant reminders for the people that committed the crimes. It reminds them and the people that they interact with of what they have done and what they have to live with for the rest of their lives, and they will not be able to forget it. When it comes to a modern understanding of sexuality another contemporary scarlet letter has to be teen pregnancy.

This problem is not against the law, but it is a moral issue much like adultery is today and was in the times of Hawthorne. People see teenage girls who get pregnant as being irresponsible kids who do not think about the consequences of their actions, and then end up being up a burden on their parents. Hester was viewed back at those days also as a pregnant teen would look today. They both are seen as an outcast from the social group they were previously surrounded with because people now are like oh my god! She has a baby?

and people simply do not how to react. This was the exact same response that Hester received in the novel. People did not know what to do when they saw her as a single mother, so they treated her as an outsider, who was not part of the community anymore. Over time people began to realize that just because Hester was a single mother, it did not make her an evil person. In fact, she was quite the opposite.

People began to realize her A did not stand for adultery but for able, and they began to slowly restore their respect in her because of all the right things she was doing after her big mistake, but they still knew that she had committed a sinful act, and she could not repent. A teenage mother goes through the same process, at first she is an outcast, but overtime if she does the right things, she will gradually return things to normal, but her child will always be the symbol of her mistake, no matter what. Hester continued to be an outcast in a society of hatred and used her extreme talent and skills to start her own business as a seamstress. This was a very unorthodox way for a woman to live. In the Puritan era, women never worked outside of the home and never had a separate income. The man was always the supplier for the family, but Hester was different than all the rest.

She went against all odds and under adverse circumstances, used her incredible skill as a seamstress to earn a decent living. Raising her healthy, elf-like child, Pearl, in an isolated cottage without a husband to assist her, Hester proves herself as a caretaker and provider. Hester shows her tremendous courage as a single mother by raising Pearl on her own. She dresses her little daughter beautifully and even spends time playing with her, showing no need for a male role model for Pearl. Hester proves to be a courageous woman by standing up for her thoughts and beliefs. She is an assertive woman that loves her daughter immensely, and risks her life to keep the pride of herself as well as the other woman of her community.

I believe that Hester Prynne is portrayed as a feminist woman by Hawthorne. Unlike many Puritan women, Hester creates her own lifestyle and way of living without the help of a male husband. Hawthorne uses Hester's business success, assertiveness toward well respected men, and skills as a single mother to emphasize the feminist aspects of The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne did not focus and could not actually discuss sexuality; however, today we can compare the scenes from the Scarlet Letter with real life examples. Since the time when the Scarlet Letter was written the sexuality concept have changed a lot. Intimacy and sexuality are the most important aspects of our life, our sex lives affect all other spheres and often determines a sense of our adequacy.

However, as human beings, Christian morality has left a deep influence on the development of the modern individual. Christianity has always prohibited open portrayal of human sexual feelings and activities. Sex, as a theme has always been a taboo subject, which was an inappropriate topic for discussion and indecent portrayal. Emily Dickinson explored un-conventional themes and explicitly expressed her feelings and desires regarding intimacy.

She shared the deep feeling that portrayed human emotions and world would not be adequate unless the potent theme of sexual desires is exposed. Emily Dickinson's break through barriers supposedly protects humans from natures force. Dickinson is viewed as rebels against social control. Emily declared her right to be sincere and really truthful when contemplating their emotions and feelings about her sexual desires. Her poems used sex as rebellion against the conventional Christian ethics of the time, which portrayed sex as a shameful act.

One of the biggest factors that both of the authors shared were the double meaning words that were used to create metaphoric symbols. Emily Dickinson went against more things at once then any man or woman had in her time. In her time, a woman was not even supposed to think or talk of such things as sex. Emily not only discussed it, but also wrote poetry about it. One would call Emily one of the first true feminists. Emily Dickinson, who had Victorian and Christian upbringing, defied the conservative morality of her time and society.

That viewed a woman as devoid of any sexual feelings and considered it utterly indecent and inappropriate for a lady to express any sexual desire. Dickinson states clearly that sex is a good thing. Being a woman, she is concerned with the spiritual side of her feelings. She is not explicit in her poetry about the physical nature of love.

Instead she penetrates the world of emotion. The life of the soul is undoubtedly more important to her than any physical actions that go along with sex. As the author she concentrates on depicting her inner world, which amounts to Biblical heights. The mention of Ethereal Blow shows that. The turbulence of her soul completed her. Her imagery of sexuality is vividly poetic yet at the same time poetic and discrete to her personal inner feelings.

Her vision goes beyond sexual; it reaches to the height of the universe. The poem rejects the Christian notion that premarital sex is dirty and sinful. Dickinson's poem describes sex as a spiritually euphoric experience. The fact that she, a nineteenth century unmarried woman, so openly discussed her sexual experiences was a profound political statement.

Emily Dickinson was an outsider in her poetry. She lived in her fathers house all of her life. The feelings she described were probably the product of her imagination. No one will ever know the truth. The emphases of the emotional and spiritual side of sexual feelings are typical of a womans approach to the subject.

People still live in a male-dominated society and sexuality is deeply engraved with male behavior patterns. There have been significant shifts in social attitudes, behavior and institutional regulations surrounding sexuality, especially since Freud opened the debate. Until now womens traditional sexual duty has been to give pleasure and satisfaction to men, and to give birth to children. We can observe this in the Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne. However, Emily Dickinson makes a statement about the equality of men and women when it comes to sexuality. Hawthorne and Dickinson reached the top in describing human sexuality using different approaches and perspectives.

They were rebelling against the rigid codes of morality, controlling and limiting expression of natural human feelings. They stand out as revolutionaries in describing the complexity of human life. Bibliography: Barna, Mark Richard. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Unpardonable Sin, 1998 Dickinson, Emily.

He fumbles at your Soul The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1890. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Vols. I-III.

Tr. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1980. Last, Suzan. Hawthorne's Feminine Voices: Reading The Scarlet Letter as A Woman. Journal of Narrative Technique, 1997 Singer, June.

Androgyny: Toward a New Theory of Sexuality. Garden City, N. Y. : Anchor Press, 1976. Trevelyan, G. M. English Social History.

Penguin Books: Great Britain. 1967. Van Doren, Carl. Flower of Puritanism: Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Nation, 1920


Free research essays on topics related to: emily dickinson, sexual feelings, began to realize, scarlet letter, nathaniel hawthorne

Research essay sample on Began To Realize Emily Dickinson

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