Having been inclined towards literature since a young age, writing an extended essay in the subject English seemed to be an ideal decision for me. While I was brainstorming ideas, I realised my interest lay in writing a feminist piece. However, I wanted to write on a topic that was unexplored. I researched about different novels with feminist angles however, my supervisor advised that I explore other themes as well. After discarding several ideas, I decided to explore the theme of marriage, religion and motherhood through two contrasting novel i.e- The Scarlet Letter and Amar Jiban. In addition, I had to reframe my research question several times due to unavailability of sufficient research material and the topic being largely explored. However, I ensured that my final research question had adequate scope for analysis to support and contradict traditional claims.

(The Scarlet Letter) being a classic novel, it was extremely challenging to understand and analyze the novel. Moreover, Amar Jiban, written in 18th century was not a very popular novel which made it difficult for me to find analysis and proper research material for the same. My supervisor advised me to look at academic essays with in-depth analysis. Having thoroughly read research material which presented diverse perspectives, I was able to understand the context better.