Am I self-indulgent?
Am I vain?
Am I egotistical?
Am I narcissistic?
I guess the answer is yes for each of those questions, I am a young adult so what do you expect?
All we care about it ourselves for the most part at this age
But it's to be expected
Still not the most positive qualities to have
But I learned a hell of a lot upon reading "The Scarlet Letter" junior year of high school.
Thank you Hester Prynne! And thanks for nothing to the skanky Demi Moore movie version that my teacher adamantly refused to show us, given that "Oh Hester and Dimmesdale just have sex the entire time! It's pornographic!" Which brings me to another, far-fetched topic out of left field: Dimmesdale versus Chillingworth. Who has the creepier last name? My vote is on Chillingworth. That just screams ENFEEBLED, DECREPIT, IN-DESPERATE-NEED-OF-VIAGRA OLD FOSSIL! No offense Chillingworth. But what do you expect when you arbitrarily and sans any kind of warning vanish from your hot wife for years on end? Seriously, do you expect her to NOT get laid? If someone did that to me, I would be like "FUCK THEM!" about a month later and go to the lesbian bars to go femme-hunting! How sick is that Bostonian Puritan society? She did not commit a sin! Why the hell is that the primary theme of the novel? Oh right, Hawthorne wrote it in the 1800s. Tossing poor Hester and little Pearl in the slammer because Hester was essentially a divorcee, a single woman who needed to get laid? Don't just cut her some slack, expunge that shit from her record! The psychological torture she had to endure was sickening. She did no wrong. Oh Hester and Dimmesdale. Forbidden love. That book was so torrid! And so was their affair! Yes, Pearl somewhat, more or less resembled the Spawn of Satan, but what it boils down to was she was merely just eccentric and had a few screws loose. No harm in that whatsoever! And she was way ahead of her time, shall I say? Definitely alarmingly articulate and astute for her age. I love little Pearl! One of my favorite bastard children out of wedlock of all time!
Anyway, oh my talk about a severe tangent! Okay, so back to the root of this diatribe. Hester and self-worth/self-reliance.
Before I delve into that just one more contemplation: that damn scaffold! I wouldn't mind getting up on some scaffold and proclaim I'm a whore because well, people would know deep down it wasn't true. But would I do that clad in a bonnet, a frumpy dress, with my illegitimate child hanging from my arms? Sure, why not, just call me an anti-heroine! Or I daresay, even a straight up HEROINE.
Hester should get kudos for moving on from her ambiguous, aloof, cryptically crafted husband, that Chillingworth. Even in spite of her obsolete, antipathetic neighbors. Fucking societal norms always screw with us. Hester is an anti-conformist and should be crowned with rubies and a golden throne for being just that. She is a courageous, iron-willed trailblazer. FUCK SOCIETY! That's the Holden Caulfield way! And the Hester Prynne way!
I've noticed I truly love novels where the characters go against the grain and are shunned and misunderstood by their society because they don't succumb to the cultural norms and instead, choose to pave a brand new path.
Hester is complex, yet simple. She lives a rather unremarkable life, however simultaneously everyone is enthralled with her and watch her every move. So she is most certainly not monotonous by any means. She is stoic to the point of stone, which is perfectly aggravating, however, I know there is so much bubbling just beneath the surface.
This makes her more endearing and enchanting.
She never did need a man. Hester Prynne is truly one of my top feminist characters from literature. She is so far ahead of her time, her vision is simply riddled with blind spots!
Her exceptional ability to persevere even in the most dire circumstances.
I think Hester Prynne is a fabulous role model. I aspired to be just like her in high school. She is almost saintly in my eyes. She is a savior I think for her misogynistic, shithole of a town.
Okay so I couldn't find a halfway decent picture of Hester. I mean honestly, in the slew of movie versions and mini-series they've had on the historic novel, there has been no wildly attractive Hester! I mean Demi Moore...come ON. Let's get real now! I'll just use my iMaGiNaTiOn
I suppose!
No comments:
Post a Comment