What does this quote mean from The Scarlet Letter?

What does this quote mean from The Scarlet Letter? 2?

  • "Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune, when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her sensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the marble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality" (130).

  • Answer:

    What it means is that in the context of suffocating gender stereotypes in which a woman is expected to think and feel and be content with a type of happiness imposed upon her, that the man who comes along who can truly ignite her innermost sensbilites will win out over the man who offers her the conventional norm. So.....here is metaphor... In the 1960s a report called the Kinsey Report came out about womens sexuality. Up to that point in time it was assumed, erroneously, that women didnt really enjoy sex. The Kinsey Report discovered the exact opposite. Surprise. Surprise. So, would you rather have a lover who let you enjoy sex as it was meant to be or would you prefer a lover who assumed you didnt enjoy sex and just got on with the deed? Thats what the quote means - except it is talking about happiness in general.

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What it means is that in the context of suffocating gender stereotypes in which a woman is expected to think and feel and be content with a type of happiness imposed upon her, that the man who comes along who can truly ignite her innermost sensbilites will win out over the man who offers her the conventional norm. So.....here is metaphor... In the 1960s a report called the Kinsey Report came out about womens sexuality. Up to that point in time it was assumed, erroneously, that women didnt really enjoy sex. The Kinsey Report discovered the exact opposite. Surprise. Surprise. So, would you rather have a lover who let you enjoy sex as it was meant to be or would you prefer a lover who assumed you didnt enjoy sex and just got on with the deed? Thats what the quote means - except it is talking about happiness in general.

Vicky Parker

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