Over time, many views and opinions have been argued on the current and historic responsibilities within maternity and paternity. Mothers and fathers have often been given a set of implied responsibilities toward their children that have come to be set by the views of the society in which they live in. Eventhough motherly and fatherly figures may seem distinctively different from one another, the responsibilities which they carry towards their children are similar. These duties that mothers and fathers both have as parents are reocurring and supported in literature, life, historic, and current events.

Pearl is a very smart young girl in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, yet she lives with and only knows her mother. Little Pearl is not aware of who her father is, this is arguably the biggest factor which decides Pearl and Hester's way of life. Hester is charged with adultery during the absence of...