Parents Essay, Research Paper
Relevence of The Scarlet Letter to Teenage ParentsThroughout life, people are told all about the stories of the olden days. Vastly these stories are becoming more and more unrealistic because of the changing times. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a married woman named Hester Prynne, has a child with a man who is not her husband. Because she commited adultry, Prynne has to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom. Throughout the novel, Prynne has to go through many cruel treatments. This novel is a good example of a classic olden day tale. Although today’s teenage parents face many difficult times, none can be interchanged with the treatment of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. In bad situations, two people are usually fighting against each other. More often then not, when a teenage girl becomes pregnant she will be blamed for not using birth control. In many of these situations, the blame comes from the father. There is always a person who is right and a person who is wrong. In the novel, Prynne has sex with one man while she is married to another man named Roger Chillingworth. When Chillingworth hears of this he says to Prynne, “We have wronged each other.” [sl04.html#g19] Instead of blaming her for being unfaithful, he takes half of the blame because he was gone for so long. No one likes to have to solve a problem on his own. In today’s society, teenagers will often blame someone else when becoming a parent without planning. The father is usually the person involved. Instead of letting one person live peacefully, a teenage parent will find someone else. Her problems then become the other person’s problem, and eventually the teenager only has half as much to deal with. When Prynne is asked who the father of the child is in exchange for the scarlet letter, she replies by saying, “It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And with that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” [sl03.html#g30] In this situation most teenagers would exchange the name as long as they no longer had to be humiliated.
Now adays, no one would ever die over the fact that he was the baby’s father. At the end of the novel, Prynne’s secret lover Rev. Dimmesdale dies in front of a crowd . He does so because he kept the secret in so long. “God knows; and He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflicitions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always red-hot! By bringing me hither, to die this death if triumphant ignominy before the people!” [sl23.html#g36] If by chance a teenager did die from holding in the secret, s/he would never do it in front of a crowd of people. Teenagers like to keep themselves secret as much as possible in these situations. Punishment often depends on the crime. A teenage parent would probably only have to pay the price of losing her social life and having parents not trust her. With Prynne, the punishment was much more severe. She had to stand before people for three hours with the scarlet letter exposed. While walking out to her standing point, many people talkied about how weak of a punishment she had been given. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there no law for it? Truly there is, both in thhe Scripure and the statute book.” [sl02.html#g07] No one would ever even think of death to a teenage parent. This is unheard of. During the time that The Scarlet Letter was written, punishment was far greater then today’s is. Nathaniel Hawthorne proves to the reader that his novel cannot compare to today’s teenage parents. 2198085