Degradation Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The novel, The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses the degradation of Hester Prynne in the Puritan society in Boston as a result of adultery to express how the patriarchy might affect a woman's femininity. Minister Arthur Dimmesdale is the symbol of patriarchy as he goes unpunished, just as Hester Prynne is for feminism in this time period, as she struggles with the consequences of adultery. Throughout the novel, Hester is used to express how the men of Puritan society were able to control a woman’s fate and easily strip them of their personhood, more specifically their womanhood. Womanhood can be described as the state of being a woman. However, qualities of womanhood can include motherhood, nurture, marriage, productivity,

(52) To Hester, the scarlet letter on her chest simply symbolizes the sin of adultery and is able to flaunt it as if it were a beautiful thing in front of the citizens of her town. However, to the Puritan society, it not only symbolizes the shame and sin of adultery but also how Hester is now only an adulterer, nothing more nor nothing less. The Puritan society, especially the men who issued the scarlet letter as a punishment to her, has disregarded other aspects of Hester Prynne’s life such as her motherhood, not being a charitous woman or an embroiderer, only an adulterer. This can be recognized within several parts of the novel of how the Puritan figures consistently discriminate against certain rights and beliefs as a result of her sin In many cases, throughout the world’s history, Mothers are appreciated and recognized as one, and how they raise the future. However, if the Puritan society in The Scarlet Letter does acknowledge Hester as a mother, they associate it with her sin and how awful of a mother she must be as a result of her