Hester Prynne Double Standards

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Recently in the media we have seen women publicly put on trial for finding their private photos suddenly made very public, and shamed because of the nature of the photos. However others claim that if they been men, the photos would have been celebrated. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne, protagonist, was embodied with deep contradictions like being holy and sinful and bad and beautiful. The passage was filled of probe themes like sin, redemption, guilt, revenge, resilience and hypocrisy. Society have played a sexual double standard and plays in contemporary culture because Hester Prynne was exposed by her adultery, The New Ivory Soap Advertisement chastising women, and the exposure of Amanda Knox. One way society, historically has had a double standard is how Hester Prynne was publicly punished for committing adultery. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester had an affair with the governor named Dimsdale, which everyone found out about because Hester was pregnant. The people of the town made Hester wear…show more content…
After the story was revealed many newspaper were questioning Amand Knox decisions and criticizing her. “‘Knox knew, it seemed, no boundaries, leaving a vibrator in a transparent wash bag and enjoying one-night stands,”wrote Tobias Jones in a 2011 article in the British newspaper The Observer. One-night stands? How could she?!? Of course if a guy has one of those, it’s a triumph: all the pleasure, none of the commitment. And boys, after all, will be boys.”(Source B). This quote shows that the newspaper seems to understand Amanda Knox story from a man perspective, stating that it’s okay for a men to have a one night stand but not a women. Therefore, society historically had a double standard as one night stands were okay, unless it was a women
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