Scarlet Letter and a Pair of Eyes

In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne seems to intimate that what Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmsdale shared wasn’t quite as sinful as is supposed. The real sin seems to lie in the marriage of Hester with Chillingworth. Similarly, “A Pair of Eyes; or Modern Magic” by Louisa May Alcott also portrays the marriage between Max Erdmann and Agatha Eure in a sinful light. Though Hawthorne takes the route of abandoning the marriage for infidelity, Alcott focuses …

…one partner must ultimately dominate the other… (Alcott) felt marriage would entail forsaking her art for a spouse,” (168). She is replenished by her writing and will devote her time and energy to it. Alcott is afraid that she will love her work more than her husband. Of the four possible options for a husband: join her work, solace in other pleasures, separate, or force her to give up her writing, only one is truly terrible.