Freedom is the power to act and to do as one pleases without any restraints. It is a right and privilege for every single person; no matter their age, gender, sexuality or race. Both authors wrote and published their work at different times, but they seem to share the common theme of freedom. Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne both highlight, as well as challenge this idea, as they present characters that begin the story feeling trapped and confined by social and legal systems, but later manage to find a way to escape and relieve their troubles. In “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain uses Huck Finn’s character to represent the challenges and actions he must take in order to escape a society that is trying to control and civilize him. While …show more content…
She gains a sense of liberty after having to stand “upon the pedestal of shame, with glazed eyes, and an air of weary indifference” (Hawthorne 62). Consequently, by having Hester stand on the scaffold for three hours, she is able to relieve a part of her mind by confessing her sins and enduring the humiliation. Once she has paid her crime, Hester in the same way as Huck attains the right to go where she desires. Hester also gains a sense of personal liberty, where she learns to endure the judgement and cruelty imposed by the society and does not allow for her shame to consume her. In the scene where Hester is making her way out of the prison gates, both the letter “A” and her baby are exposed, but she “wisely [judges] that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another,” so “she [takes] the baby on her arm” and “[looks] around at her townspeople and neighbours” (Hawthorne 47). Her decision to keep both her baby and letter revealed to the world portrays her first step to independence, where she goes against the idea of what the society expects her to be, which is someone who is weak and shameful. Though the evidence of her crime is clearly displayed across her chest and in her arms, she approaches the situation differently by embracing both the child and the mark as two significant things that make up who she is and by doing so, she is able to free a piece of her mind. In addition, similar to Huck’s development in discovering his “true” self and not someone who people want him to be, Hester slowly discovers how to set herself free from societal beliefs and control. She manages to take control of her life and eventually “[finds] in her,--so much power to do, and power to sympathize,-- that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its