Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: In the first part of this term paper a short overview of the situation of women from the seventeenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century will be given. Further on, it will then be demonstrated how women challenged the existing female images and how they fought for equal rights. The main part discusses if the heroine of the romance, Hester Prynne, can be considered as a representative of a new female image or if she fits into the image of a traditional woman of the seventeenth century.