Women’s Oppression and Resistance in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and Malika Mokeddem’s L’Interdite (1993)

Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Malika Mokkedem's L'Interdite are two novels written in two different periods of time. The former is in the early strict seventeenth century and the later in the violent backdrop of the civil war and the oppressive atmosphere created by the FIS in Algeria. The purpose of our dissertation is to study the ways the two female protagonists challenge in the two different patriarchal societies; both authors created powerful heroines that rebel in a society where women suffered from all kinds of harshness, suffering, as well as men dominance. It aims at proving that each of them struggle and resist against the society conducted by men. The textual framework is based on how Hester Prynne and Sultana Medjahed become totally different from the traditional women who were always obedient to the unfair rules enacted by men. The two heroines could hardly resist proving themselves as a strong women as well as having their own freedom and identity is their main objective.