Throughout history, society has developed a stereotyped view of women’s roles and place in the community. Even in our modern civilization, society pressures women to live inferior and obedient lives, submissive to the conformations of the lifestyles, which surrounds the women. This submission often leads to the feeling of entrapment and the neglect of one’s beliefs and needs. As a result, women often lose their identities and become lost in the ambivalent obligations between self and society. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist, Hester Prynne manages to respect her own decisions and independence, despite the society and surroundings that defy them. Hester asserts that the fulfillment in love and life are worth fighting for, regardless the Puritans reactions towards her.
             The Scarlet Letter delineates Hester Prynne’s struggle between the Puritan based society, rigid with religious laws and traditions, and her qualities as a strong willed-independent woman. The “traditional” and “ideal” Puritan wives do not speak their minds and are subjugated to the accepted ways of Puritan life. The sentiment gave the impression to the community that women cannot be self-sufficient, and in order to maintain a high morality and security a man is necessary. Hester defies her marriage and society by consummating a sexual relationship outside her accepted marriage. She confidently follows her own feelings and emotions, aware of the consequences and numbing herself from the degradation of the Puritan people.
             Hester’s also refuses to compromise her personal desires and self-expression in order to fit society’s traditional stereotypes about women. Her adultery transgressed the societal laws of devotion to husband and God, therefore shunning her from the town and respectability. Hester is an anomaly in the Puritan society because she chooses to live o...