Imprisonment is defined as placing a particular entity in forcible detention. With Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' and Bernarda's servants and daughters in Federico Garcia Lorca's 'The House of Bernarda Alba', there is a constant reflection on the collision between personal research and freedom and imprisonment that subjugates the lives of the characters. Additionally, Hester and Dimmesdale are imprisoned for the consequences of their own actions, an adulterous affair; while the residents of the Albas family are involuntarily confined, due to Bernarda's lust for power and high social stature. The imprisonment present in both works also deprives the characters of the joy of their lives. Nonetheless, it is interesting to analyze whether the characters could escape their respective forms of captivity or endure a state of confinement. In “The Scarlet Letter,” set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts, Hester Prynne lives ashamed and alienated from the rest of the Puritan world. community because of her relationship with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. After being tried for adultery, she is sentenced to live out the rest of her days wearing a scarlet red letter on her chest, to show the nature of her sin to the Puritan community of Massachusetts. These conditions also serve as the catalyst for Hester's imprisonment, forced to live as an outcast in society alone with her daughter Pearl. Although she is given the choice to leave Massachusetts, she decides to stay to serve her punishment for the atrocities she committed. “The chain that bound her here was made of iron rings and was galling to her innermost soul, but it could never be divided… middle of paper… to achieve high social stature and wealth. To do so, Bernarda must suppress her daughter's aspirations to achieve personal freedom and live a happy, lasting life. Furthermore, there appear to be similarities between the main characters of both stories, as their aspirations to pursue happiness are quashed by their prison sentence. their lives. However, it seems that the only way out of such captivity to personal freedom is through death via the redemption of the soul. The Reverend Dimmesdale, having publicly confessed his sin and exposed the scarlet mark on his breast, "stood, with a blush of triumph upon his face, like one who, in the fit of the keenest grief, had won a victory." . (Hawthorne, 217) This shows that Dimmesdale could only achieve personal freedom through death, as he takes his last breath after his parting words and dies.