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Essay On Feminism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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Feminism in The Scarlet Letter

Theories and ideas associated with feminism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter are extremely common.
One of the first main points needed to be considered in The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne's own misogyny and that of the time period he is writing. Misogyny can be described as “ the hatred of, contempt for, and prejudices against women or girls”. (Wang) In the time of the Puritans, women were expected to stay in the home, cook, clean, and take care of children. In addition to the beliefs of the time, women also had to be strict followers of the Bible. The Scarlet Letter, being written in this time, had to follow these ideas. We see his examples of this by how harshly Hester Prynne was punished. However, Hawthorn is of a different time than the puritans. He was writing during the emergence of women’s rights in the United States. “The first woman's-rights convention at Seneca Falls, N.Y., was held in 1848, two years before The Scarlet Letter was published.” (Seabrook) We see this in Hawthorn allowing Hester to create her own business, take care of a child on her own, and overall be a strong female character. In addition, he showed both genders could equally be corrupted. “Hawthorne equally exposed the …show more content…

In The Scarlet Letter, the scarlet letter “A” on Hester’s chest changes meaning among the people from adultery to angel. Society slowly realizes the Hester is a kind, wonderful woman through her good deeds. Considering the change of women’s rights in Hawthorne's time, The Scarlet Letter is a source of optimism for the struggling suffragettes. “Hester Prynne can be seen as Hawthorne's literary contemplation of what happens when women break cultural bounds and gain personal power.” (Seabrook) Hawthorne’s writing can be used as an argument of the good things that can be done by women, despite the prejudices brought upon

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The scholarly article that I read is “Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Feminists: The Scarlet Letter” by Louise DeSalvo. In the article, DeSalvo gives a short background of Nathaniel Hawthorne before he begins writing his novel The Scarlet Letter. After the death of his mother, Elizabeth Hawthorne, he began writing his novel. Elizabeth Hawthorne had become pregnant with her first child, Nathaniel Hawthorne, outside of marriage and she had been socially ostracized just like Hester Prynne. Elizabeth Hawthorne was also husbandless and she raised Nathaniel on her own on the fringes of society.

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In the Scarlet letter, Hester takes part and rejects the gender roles of her society. This reinforces and undermines patriarchal ideology. For starters, she is seen as a powerful and able woman. " She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy…Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize…so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength."

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Throughout the passage, Hawthorne uses clear, distinct diction to create a sense of firmness to assert Hester’s views regarding her outlook on her own existence and that of women in general. Diction, a facet of writing comprised of both mood and word choice, is very influential in creating a framework for explanation and sustaining a particular message or theme. As a result, the author can ‘push’ a certain message, per se, to the reader by developing a distinct mood in writing. In the case of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne developed a negative mood to represent Hester’s negative view. For example, in the lines, “She discerns, it may be, such a hopeless task before her.

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The Puritan belief and lifestyle plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. The story takes place in Puritan New England, and opens with a scene presenting to the audience that a young woman named Hester Prynne has committed adultery. Wearing her punishment proudly, a scarlet letter “A” on her breast, Hester continues to live in New England where she raises her daughter and creates an embroidering business for herself. All the while, in the heart of the town, Hester’s lover and the child’s father, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale silently suffers and is ultimately overcome with guilt from his secret sin until the point of death.

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Reaching back to Hawthorne’s story, he was able to bring forth the ideas of double standards as well. Double standards

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Hester subverts the power structure which condemns her both by her decorative presentation of the scarlet letter and the conversion of the scornful badge into a badge of capability. Through her good works, Hester achieves the conversion of society’s scorn into something more acceptable: “They said that [the scarlet letter] meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 106). As Hester proves herself as a capable and virtuous woman, the townspeople start to regard the A less as a badge of shame and more as a badge of capability, thereby reducing the Puritan intent of punishment. In the process of subversion, Hester also carves a role for herself in the community as a caretaker for the sick and the poor. She involves herself in the community without sacrificing the traits which society condemns; she still refuses to apologize for her sin.

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Do the wars of the ancien régime and/or French Revolution include the elements you identified in question 1? The wars of the ancien régime were destructive and could produce mass casualties. The Thirty Years’ War, for example, produced mass devastation but it is not considered a total war because societies were not mobilized against an enemy and dedicated to the complete destruction of that enemy.

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Although she is looked down upon by the society in the beginning of the novel, she is transformed into a symbol of strength, something typically reserved for men, towards the end of the novel. “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 146). Through her suffering, Hester had become an inspiring symbol of strength for the community.

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Hester Prynne is the very embodiment of feminism because of her refusal to adhere to the societal norms, her independence in thought, and how the view of the society around her changes through the novel. One of the main reasons why Hester Prynne is an important and progressive feminist character in The Scarlet Letter is her refusal to follow societal norms or to be put down by her peers. A primary example of her refusal to be put down by her peers is when Hester brandishes her

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Puritan society in The Scarlet Letter was male dominant which affected the portrayal and view towards women. From the start, men were given roles and opportunities

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In “The Scarlet Letter” he depicts it as an oppressive 17th – century Puritan society. “The style of Puritanism that Hawthorne presents is drab and gloomy, preoccupied with judgment and punishment, unrelenting and dogmatic,”1 writes Deborah L. Madsen in her book, “American Exceptionalism.” Hester Prynne, the main character accused of adultery, is persecuted by Boston community. Not only adults despise her, but also children who, blinded by the decayed values and norms, humiliate her and her child, Pearl. The character of Hester symbolizes the fight against Puritan enslavement, the need to modernize the prevailing norms that cause nothing but harm to American society.

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When Hester finally takes off the scarlet letter “A” and her cape in the wilderness, it not only represents the beauty she held despite the emotional punishment she underwent, but it also represents her removing the Puritan and patriarch society holding her back. Hester’s feminist conscious is intricately portrayed throughout the

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The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, functions as an evaluation of Puritan ideas, customs, and culture during the 17th century. Through this evaluation, we can get a good idea of what core values and beliefs the Puritans possessed, as well as the actions they take in cases of adversity brought about by “sinners”. Some Puritan virtues created stark divisions between groups of people, some of which led to discrimination under certain circumstances. One of the most prominent of these is the treatment and standards of men and women, a concept that surfaced during some of the major points in The Scarlet Letter. The divisions that were created by Puritan standards of men and women played a great role in shaping the plot of The Scarlet Letter, determining the fate of many of the characters.

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(Hall, 127). This idea of a fair and just society was the centerpiece of Puritan society, and it subsequently led to the virtue of community over the individual which was previously discussed. When it comes to The Scarlet Letter, the ideology that Puritan morality is fundamental to everything is truly front and center. Hester’s struggle due to her past sin is a perfect example of this; The ministry attempted to purify and protect the community by excluding Hester from societal affairs, even going as far as attempting to strip Hester of her custody of Pearl. Overall, Hester’s forced

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In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)

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