Date of Graduation
1999
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
Committee Chair
Deborah Janson
Committee Member
Jürgen Schlunk
Committee Member
Johan Seynnaeve
Abstract
This thesis examines the impact of rigid moral codes on women by comparing two works, Lessing’s Miss Sara Sampson, (1775), and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, (1850). Although the works were written in different centuries and continents, they share a common theme: the clash between patriarchal control and women’s quest for self-determination. In each work, a beautiful young woman violates the social code by becoming involved in an illicit love affair, and because of this transgression and her refusal to renounce her love, is severely punished. Also in each work, the father-daughter relationship is highlighted and can be seen to symbolize the dominance of patriarchy that characterizes both societies. While women’s exemplary moral behavior is supposed to help distinguish both the Puritan and German bourgeois societies for whom the works were written, women are shown to have paid a high personal price for such distinction–a cost they are still paying today.
Recommended Citation
Kleine, Karsten Dieter, "Comparing moral values in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's "Miss Sara Sampson" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"." (1999). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 10436.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10436