Hester Prynne and Nora Helmer: A Comparative Analysis
“I hope she’s a fool, that’s the best a girl can be in this world, a beautiful fool.”
That’s a line from the book turned movie, The Great Gatsby. In the years I’ve been here wandering the world, virtual and real, I’ve been slapped by the incandescent standards of the universe and its smallest slice of how women should be. A woman is always portrayed as a godsend, pretty and elegant, or royalty in distress saved by a hero who makes her swoon, or an evil witch behind the failure of every man. But a woman is not a gift, she is not a possession, she is not an asset. A woman is not someone to save, if she is to protect herself, then from what?
Returning to criticism, this essay leads us to compare two iconic female characters from classic literary pieces, “The Scarlet Letter” and “The Dollhouse”: Hester Prynne and Nora Helmer. Their similarities and differences are simplified in the following bullets:
• Physical beauty
Hester Prynne and Nora Helmer are two women depicted as beautiful and doll-like. Hester Prynne, though not of elite upbringing, is dazzling in her youth that she had Chillingworth marry her to accentuate her name. Chillingworth thought of marrying Hester in a good part of his personality, as he is known to be physically inactive (but interesting) other than being too smart for anything. The same happens in the case of Nora. Torvald, her husband, married her for the same reason: to embellish her name and image. Nora is beautiful and is a good accomplice of her ego. Both were chosen to be trophies and not wives.
• Sacrificial tendencies
They say that women always sacrifice for the people they love. And that thing of sacrifice is observed in both characters. Hester sacrificed not only her life, but her entire dignity as a person. She was haunted by the public eye, considering the society she belongs to (she actually chose to stay there). Puritan society believes in life as a form of torment and punishment, so “sins” are paid for in life on earth, making it a dimension of hell. She took all the blame for Pearl’s existence, which is the fruit of her infidelity to her husband. Meanwhile, Nora on the other hand tried to save her husband, which is a mortal sin in his time. She signed (forged) a signature to gain access to banking procedures, which is an act seen as a form of rebellion against a man’s authority over his wife. Women are not allowed to act and participate in financial matters, even if it is about her and her family. But they both did it anyway for the man they love. Hester protected Dimmesdale’s name, because he is a clergyman, and Nora tried to protect Torvald because he was ill that time.
The two symbolize the change of perspective of a woman on herself, since both came out of the stereotype dictated by society and its people. Nora left the dollhouse and the chains of her husband’s lack of ball to accept that he too needs help, and Hester came out of the barrier of the scarlet letter. The difference is, Hester still needed Dimmesdale to break free from society’s curse, while Nora escaped on her own while leaving the house.
