Female containment in the scarlet letter!!!

[lostinenglish]

i have to do a presentation on female containment in the scarlet letter. so you have ANY idea where in the book this is channeled or could be found???
also any major quotes????
thanks

[marie h]

Hi,

youcan find female containment throughout the book since they did not have their say in anything. hester is considered as a whore and made to wear the scarlet letter all her life long but in trials in the 17th century, men did not get any punishment for adultery.
at the end of the novel, women go to hester's and she helps them as well as she can:in another view of hester, chapter 13: "Indeed, the same dark question often rose into her mind, with reference to the whole race of womanhood. was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among them? (...) As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down, and built up anew. then, the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit (...) is to be essentially modified, before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position.".
what's more, all the puritan leaders are males and make the laws and so on. it's a patriarcal world.

Hope it helps!

marie h

[livelaughlove]

There are a few examples you could use: first of all, Hester's prison confinement where she went after being on the scaffold (if you have read the book, this is where she went "crazy," and needed the aid of Roger Chillingworth).

Also, it could be argued that the scarlet letter contains Hester, and how it restricts everything in her life.

I'm sure there are lots more, I just can't think of more off the top of my head.

Good luck!