This document provides a comparison of the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the 2015 Indian film Hamari Adhuri Kahani. Both stories deal with adultery, which was historically punished more severely for women. The Scarlet Letter, set in 17th century Puritan Boston, focuses on Hester Prynne who has a child out of wedlock and faces ostracization. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is set in modern Mumbai and focuses on Vasudha who falls in love with Arav while married to Hari. Both stories depict the women as independent but still facing criticism for their choices. They also show how the lovers' relationships tragically ended despite their deep

1. Welcome
Friends

2. Jayati Rudreshkumar Thakar
Roll. No. 30
Batch 2015-2017
M.A. Semester: 3
Email Id: jjayti.thakar94@gmail.com

3. Comparison and Contrastive study of
Scarlet Letter and Hamari Adhuri
Kahani

4.  Adultery (anglicized from Latin adulterium)
is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable
on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds.
 the concept exists in many cultures and is similar
in Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
 Adultery often incurred severe punishment,
usually for the woman and sometimes for the man,
with penalties including capital punishment,
mutilation, or torture.[2]
 Such punishments have gradually fallen into
disfavor, especially in Western countries from the
19th century.
(Wikipedia)

6.  Written by Nathaniel Hawthorn.
 A Novel form
 Semi- allegorical, historical fiction; romance
 Published in 1850, in film version 1995 defers
from novel in many extent.
 Setting time- middle of the 17th century
 Setting place- Boston, Massachusetts

7.  Is a 2015 indian rimantic drama film
 Directed by Mohit Suri
 Produced by Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt
 Setting (place): Mumbai (India), Dubai

8. THE SCARLET LATTER
HAMARI ADHURI
KAHANI
 Hester Prynne
 Reverend Arthur
Dimmesdale
 Roger Chillingworth
 Pearl
 Vasudha
 Arav
 Hari
 Saanj (Son of Vasudha
and Hari)

9.  Hester=Hasty, Prynne=some
guilt relates
 Independent woman
 Hester, a woman of free will,
courage, and boldness.
 Decides to live alone
 Ready to do things all alone
 She runs the horse- cart, people
stares at her with strange.

10.  She defers from rigid puritan mindsets
 We can consider her as a modern woman
 She accused as a Adultery sinner by the society
 Mark of ‘A’ on her dress
 Still stay firm
 Raise Pearl alone facing the social hatred
 But her silence
 Her fall also happens because of her strong and
bold nature. Her strength becomes her
weakness.

11.  A young man
 Famous in England
as a theologian and
emigrated to
America.
 He is an intelligent
and emotional man
 Good speaker
 His love for Hester
and Pearl

12.  His cowardice
 His guilt – tormenting
himself physically and
psychologically
 The mark ‘A’ (Adultery)
emerges on his chest
 Finally he get against of
his nature
 He broke his silence
 Accepts Hester as his wife
and Pearl as his daughter.

13.  A beautiful girl child of Hester and
Dimmesdale
 Hawthorn beautifully uses the character of
Pearl
 Exposes truths with her out spoken nature
 Reveals the fake masks from the people
 A good questioner in very early age
 A devil’s Child
 In film version Pearl as a narrator of the story
 Differs from Hawthorn’s Pearl

14.  A scholar
 Hester’s husband in disguise
 Much older than Hester
 Belatedly comes to America
 Captured by native
Americans
 Came to know about
Hester’s extra- marital affairs
and her illegitimate child
 He took a way of revenge
 At the end he commits
suicide.

15.  Red scarlet color bird= symbol of passion
 The forest= place of having dark secretes, a
danger
 The brook= symbol of ‘threshold’ and
‘woman’s boundary’
 Male deer and grown horns= symbol of
sensuality
 Grapes = symbol of voluptuousness

16.  A Independent Woman
 Unwillingly married to her
husband with insist of her
father
 Grown up with typical
Indian traditional values
 Falls in love with Arav after
her marriage
 Still cannot take a step
ahead (here, she differs
from Hester)

17.  Independent but weak
 Still tied with old rigid mentality
 She accepts that she is a property
of her husband
 Took too much time to depart her
mangal- sutra from her neck
 Finally, she recognize her hidden
fire of love and decides to fought
for that
 Still could not resist to help Hari
 Her goodness become her reason
of fall
 After Arav’s death she lived all
alone in the wait of her death.

18.  Arav is a well-
known business
tycoon who falls for
a married woman
Vasudha; who is
employee in his
company.
 He unlike
Dimmesdale

19.  Has guts to confess
his love for
Vasudha
 Arav was readily
wanted to accept
Vasudha’s son
Saanj; and wanted
to give his name to
him. (defer from
Dimmesdale)
 He dies for
Vasudha

20.  Hari is a husband of Vasudha
 He claimed as a part of some terrorist activities
 He got imprisonment
 He used to do physical/ domestic violence
with his wife
 Even his attitude for her mother was quite
similar after his father’s death
 Violent in nature

21.  Tried to take
advantage of
Vasudha’s goodness
 At last he got mad
 Loves Vasudha a lot
 Tries to get her back,
but fails
 At the End after
Vasudha’s death he
spreads her death
ashes in that yard
where Arav died.
(end is similar to
novel’s end)

23.  Barren Land- symbol of tragedy or departure (gives justice
to the title)
 Flowers- in adverse life one finds flowerence of a flower, but
it dies with the setting of sun too.. (temporal)
 Religious and Indian mythical symbolisms
 1 Seeta and Radha
 2 Durga
 3 Mangalsutra
 4 Vermillion ‘Symbol of Chaining a woman with a man’s identity’

24. SCARLET LETTER HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI
 Hester as a independent
woman
 Hester do not hesitate to
express her feelings with
Dimmesdale
 Dimmesdale is coward
personality
 Puritan old mindsets
 There is society
involvement
 Here, ‘Adultery’ is a
Crime
 Vasudha as a independent
woman
 Vasudha afraid even to
feel love for Arav
 Arav therefore stands as a
Strong personality
 Traditional Indian values
 Here it remains a private
matter of two (symbolism
of modernity)
 It is not legally
considerable as a
‘Adultery’, but it happens.

25.  Chillingworth is a
scholar, he loves Hester
 He dies
 In novel Pearl is an
Active voice against
wrong things (in novel),
not in film version
 Dimmesdale dies early
 Hester dies at old age
 Hester lived independent
life till the end
 Though at the end both
meets in grave yard
 They lived for each other.
 Hari also loves Vasudha
 Hari remains alive
 Saanj is a passive voice
 Arav dies early
 Vasudha dies at old age
 Vasudha lived also an
independent life till last
breath
 At the end their incomplete
story completes with their
heavenly meet. (a fictional)
 They lived and died for
each other.

26.  In both the stories ends are similar where the
lovers did not have quality family life. Both
have tragic though happy ends.
 It centrally suggests the woman condition in
post- puritan America and modern India.
 Hester seems modern in compare to her time
wherein Vasudha is still more rigid and
orthodox to express her desires in compare to
her contemporary time.

27.  South Korea was one of only three
Asian countries to still criminalize adultery,
alongside Taiwan and the
Philippines. All European nations have
decriminalized adultery and, while it is not
considered a criminal offence in most Western
parts, it may still have legal consequences,
especially in divorce proceedings.

28.  Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code deals
with Adultery. As per the Indian law, a woman
cannot be punished for the offense of adultery.
Only a man who has consensual sexual
intercourse with the wife of another man
without his consent can be punished under this
offense in India. If someone "lives in adultery",
the partner can file for divorce.

29. Submitted to:
Smt. S.B.Gardi
Department of English,
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University,
Bhavnagar,
Gujarat,
India.

30. Thank You
Friends