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Feminist Ideals In Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter is a perfect example of how one person in a society can defy the traditional social structure. Throughout the literature, Hawthorne presents numerous examples of feminist ideals through the character of Hester. After analyzing and interpreting the meaning of the novel, Hawthorne specifically targets gender roles in societies by making the protagonist of the story a woman. Hawthorne questions the expectation that men should retain all authority and purpose by creating a character that specifically rejects these traditional norms.
Hawthorne continuously demonstrates feminist ideals by characterizing and portraying Hester to be the character that breaks gender roles in Salem society.
Hawthorne expertly begins the novel …show more content…

In the beginning Hester was portrayed to be every mans desire, the perfect woman. However, after her years with the Scarlet Letter she began drifting away from the society's standards of what made her ‘beautiful’ and she became her own personalized version of it. “It might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and partly to the lack of demostantion in her manners… That her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine… there seemed to be no longer anything in Hesters face for love to dwell upon ; nothing in Hester's bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of affection.” (Wahl) She completely changed her physical appearance, not because of her humiliation but because of her realization of how societies standards negatively affects women. She no longer wanted to fit the desires of man, she wanted to fit her own desires. Hester's change in appearance was looked at negatively by Salem society because they could never understand it's true underlying meaning; that beauty is a board standard determined by society as a whole instead of individually. “The Scarlet Letter had not done its office.” (Wahl) It was presented to Hester as a cruel punishment for bearing a child outside of her marriage. It was meant to humiliate her in public for the rest of her days. The Scarlet Letter was meant to make its victim an outcast of society and instead it empowered Hester and helped her realize the damaging gender standards in her

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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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While her punishment changes her physical appearance, it has a far more profound effect on her character. Hester seems much older and worn down with the scarlet letter on her bosom. To Hester, the scarlet letter is a

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By wearing the “A,” Hester was publicly humiliated, however, her development in character causes a change in the meaning of the Scarlet Letter, which leads her to taking pride in the letter as it grows a part of her. After Hester’s sin the Puritan community places a false

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She is brave and does not deny that she sinned. She realizes that she needs to let go of the misery that the scarlet letter has brought upon her. Rather than letting it define her, Hester uses the letter. She helps out in the community. It does not define who she is.

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The Scarlet Letter shows the church unaccepting of Hester and Pearl because of adultery. Finally, in The Scarlet Letter Hester realizes that all of her struggles are finally coming to ease. After the shamming has stopped, Hawthorne says, “Hester strong, calm, steadfast enduring spirit almost sank, at last on beholding this dark and grim countenance of inevitable doom…” (Hawthorne 241). In the end of The Scarlet Letter Hester has moved on along with the townspeople and she is finally being accepted in society.

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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,

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John Updike described Hester Prynne, the main protagonist, as “a mythic version of every woman’s attempt to integrate her sexuality with societal demands.” In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was used as a symbol of women’s struggle and acceptance to meet society’s expectations as a woman and especially as a wife. These expectations being; loyal, the proper mom for her child and following the guidelines of the Bible by not committing any sins, etc. She was labeled as an adulterer but above everything else she became a power identity and a symbol of bravery. Before understanding why Hester was a mythic version for all these reasons, it is important to first understand who Hester is, what she did and why she is such a crucial character in this 1850 romance novel.

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The Scarlet Letter is about the Puritan society and the outcome of the immoral decisions of the protagonist, Hester Prynne. Nathaniel Hawthorne has an overall unfavorable view against Hester and her choices, so his storyline involves many consequences for her. The author chooses to stand from a Puritan’s point of view in the novel since Puritans are against sinning. Hester Prynne wears the scarlet letter as an accessory as well as an acceptance of her consequence for not sharing any details about her sin. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is critical of any character committing a sin, so Hester Prynne exemplifies his criticism as she portrays an immoral protagonist.

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Nineteenth century Romantic writer Nathaniel Hawthorne saw these stereotypical gender roles beginning to shift. He uses his novel, The Scarlet Letter, to portray his idea of changing gender roles. The female protagonist of the novel, Hester Prynne, possesses many traits and engages in many activities that would conflict with the gender stereotypes

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The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

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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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“Never after did it quit her bosom. But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester’s life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon in awe, yet with

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The scarlet letter is designed to remind everyone of her wrongdoing, but it eventually begins to lose track of its significance and true meaning. Although Hester carries herself with confidence, the repression of her community harms her elegant disposition as "All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline…" (Hawthorne 125). Hester loses her once passionate and loving self as shame and guilt consume her thoughts. Hester's vitality vanishes because of the guilt

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In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively conforms to the conventions of the gothic genre for the purpose of characterizing the Puritan society as oppressive, portraying the hypocrisy found within the society and highlighting the consequences for not confessing

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Receiving the scarlet letter changed every aspect of Hester’s life. Especially at the start of the story, the letter symbolized the solitude and great suffering Hester faced just because of a letter placed on her bosom. The “A” also depicted how no one viewed Hester the same way as before her peccant actions. “…she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance” (Hawthorne 109). The pejorative community Hester lived in never saw Hester as the beautiful, young woman she was, but now, as a horrible fiend.

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