demi mengenang cupunya masa kuliah share aja tugas literary dr Bu Yayuk dengan segala English yang buleputen tanpa editan,, *isiiiiin
AN
UNFAIR NARROW WORLD FOR WOMAN IN THE SCARLET LETTER
- Introduction
God has created humans in male and female. They were made to be couple
to live their life. They are made to live together and to share each other so
that each of them will obtain the same share in everything.
However,
the fact sometimes is not that way. In some
cases the reality shows different thing, especially talking about what so
called Gender. The gender distance of this era, despite of various movement
against it, is still a very hot and interesting issue to discuss where a man is
considered more than a woman in many things. It is not bad if we see what The
Almighty Allah has said in His Holy Book Qur'an, An-Nisa' 32 and 34. In the
verse 32 Allah said that He has given
things more to men and prohibited women to be envious and even in the verse 34
He said that men are the leaders of women. In these two verses Allah said
clearly that He has given men more parts than women. However, further
discussion is needed. Does it mean that men and women are different? Many more
explanation related to the field are still needed so that men will not be big
headed claiming that they have full rights to treat women the way they want. Vice verse, women will not
give up by claiming that no choice except accepting the destiny to be the
servants or slaves for men. Not purposing to deny the holy Verse of Allah, but
it is to dig more and more the secret of what He said in his Holy Book.
It
can’t be denied that in society women play a
big role to determine the value of the society. Women's behaviors are always
noticed. The way they talk and the way they act will be always seen as
something attracting. Following the natural rule, a woman who did this is
called This and who did that is called That. To be a silent woman
seems to be not enough to do. A woman should be like this and like that
following what the society wants and thinks because they are the most powerful judge.
In
my writing then, I'd like to identify the problem faced by the women as the
centered eye catch in society in the novel concerning unfair judge and treatment
of the society and the feeling of women at that time by analyzing the
characters' feeling.
- About the Novel
The novel is
entitled The Scarlet Letter. It tells about women's life in several centuries
ago. The story is about a woman who lived in her loneliness and was left by her
husband. She lived in a town where
she was not familiar with before. Everything was getting worse when she was in
love with an honourable man in the town
till pregnant. She lived in a town in which an adulteresss had no place to hold
her head high.
It
cannot be denied that to be pregnant without
having a husband is an awful thing. This woman will be considered immoral woman. This might be because
the religious values held by the society at that
time. A society with very strong religious
values will take it as a very big problem. However, in any cases we should not
judge a thing from one side without seeing
other possible side about the case.
In
this novel Haster Prynne is a wife of a man named Prynne. Her husband sent her alone to a town she was
not familiar with. She did not get anything that wives usually got from their
husbands. The problem began when she was pregnant without her husband by her
side. A very big mistake done so that the society blamed her, want her punished,
and wanted to know who actually the father of the baby was. A mysterious man
appeared and frightened Hester and her daughter. The man was her own husband,
Prynne, who came to find out who was the father of her daughter. Hester had
tried to keep silent not to tell anyone the father’s name who was actually the honorable man named
Arthur Dimmensdale. People admire and respect him so much so that Hester could
not see the man she loved being punished by the society. But finally, she could
not keep silent anymore when Prynne tried to hurt Arthur. They planned to run
away from her husband and the people, but finally they decided to tell the
truth about the fact that the society wanted to know. After the big secret was
revealed Arthur and her husband died and she left the town with her daughter.
After years, she came back to the town still brought her bitter love story. She
said, "One day, when God is ready, there will be a new world-a better
world for women. We will be the same as men. Everybody will understand that
only love can make us happy. One day. But not today.” This last sentences show that Hester felt so sorry that women at that time including her
must experience an awful thing, especially in holding their rights. At least
their rights to live their own life.
- An Unfair World for Women
The novel
seems to uncover how the women's life was in several centuries ago. The women
had no rights to choose a choice and to determine their own life. This was seen
from the fact that they had to get married with someone they might not love or
even never recignized before. Whatever and however the men were, they just had
to accept them without complaining because there was someone who had already
determined everything for them as if they did not know their original life. This
is what is meant by an unfair world for women. Women had no rights to live
their own lives. When they are married with husbands they had to accept
whatever decision their husbands decided because they
were now owned by their husbands. For example, Hester was sent alone to a town
she was not familiar with before without her husband accompanying her so that
she was very lonely. Worse she became pregnant. What will the world say?
In this
context the woman as the one who is pregnant will be the only one who is
blamed! She will be considered an adulteress! Without considering and determining how is actually the background of her life.
People blame her and want her punished.
There are no spaces for for such a woman. She is humilated and blamed for the
mistake. People do not want to know why such a thing could happen. No woman
wants such a thing happen to her.
Let's take a
look at Hester's life. She was married with a man she did not love. Then, she
was sent to a town alone and lived there alone without accompanion and responsibility
given by her husband. As she was left alone her rights as a wife were not
fulfilled, so how could live as a good wife to do her duties to his husband?
However people did not take it to account. An adulteress remains an adulteress.
Hester as the adulteress acknoledge her mistake but still try to to cry to the
world what an unfair world she experienced. Till the end of her love storywhen
the society began to accept her ahe still wish for a better world for women
where love is the only thing that can make them happy.
- Conclusion
To be pregnant
without having a husband is indeed an awful thing that should not happen, that
we should avoid. However we could not close our eyes from the reality that it
can happen to the people around us. We should not be so close minded that we
close every door for women with such problem. When such a problem appears it is
not the time to blame someone, but rather to find the way out for all. We
should be smart society who can prevent
a bad thing appear and be a wise society who can solve the problem
appearing peacefully.
