Hester Prynne, the leading character of The Scarlet Letter, and Edna Pontellier of The Awakening, are both women with striking similarities and distinctions. Both of these women live in a culture in which women have no rights and must live a life predestined by their society. Mutually Edna and Hester strive for independence, although they do not share the same reasoning behind their aspirations for independence, they do share the goal. The two of them are also troubled with love and relationships, Edna with Robert and Hester with Arthur. Moreover both women are flooded with emotions and instead of keeping it inside and controlling them they allow their emotions to control them. On the other hand there are a few differences between the two also. Hester is a beautiful and elegant women and Edna is "handsome" in a manly way. In addition Hester is dreaming of independence in hope for love and Edna is leaving love in hope for independence. Furthermore, Hester is very giving and charitable and loves her child incredibly, although Edna is selfish and only thinks of her own rights and wants and does not wish to devote her life to her children. However, through different actions both achieve independence and become their own individual. .
Hester lived in the Puritan culture and Edna lived in the Creole culture. The two cultures are very similar in the sense, that they are both very demeaning to women. The Puritan culture is very strict and does not even allow Hester the right to love whomever she"d like. Similarly Edna lived in the Creole culture, in which women are prisoners of a society created by domineering men. It is because of these cultures that Edna and Hester .
both share the same ambitions of independence, both women have realize that they are being deprived of independence and must live life as they are told, not as they would like. Hester first lost her independence to the letter "A" stitched on her chest by the puritans and this left her unable love, but gradually as she became more independent of the culture and her emotions overran her she realized that she must be with Arthur.
