The scarlet letter: searching for human dignity in the matter of gender

Abstract

The work aims at the intersection between the cognitive fields of law and literature, in order to understand the gender matter of human dignity in the light of the artistic literary novel The Scarlet Letter, by Hawthorne. The dialogue between law and literature allows the enrichment of both spheres of knowledge. Thus, this paper aims, at first, at a theoretical approach between law and literature, for the purpurse of the novel analysis, to enable the extension of its significants metaphorically to contemporary concrete world. Finally, it looked to the understanding of human dignity within the gender issue, based on the critical analysis proceeded by the narrative of excluding the dignity from the heroine Hester, in Hawthorne’s novel.