Gender Equality And Non-Conformism In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne can be regarded a work of feminist literature. It is a story about Hester Prynne and her daughter and the hardship Hester had to go through in the Puritan society. The Puritan society then overlooked humanity and Puritan rules were imposed on the people. The narrator in the novel depicts women’s low status and the hardship in the puritan society during the seventeenth-century. Hawthorne emphases a unique character of exceptional courage, gender equality, non-conformity and self-reliance associated with a woman in the time when the society was not in favor of.

A female with a complete different characteristics from the rest of the people in the society especially women is portrayed in the Hester Prynne exhibits characteristics which is almost opposite to the rest of the people. Although, she was very kind,the Puritan society considered her as an intruder and humiliated her because of the sin she committed. Hester Prynne was kept standing on the scaffold for three hours and made to wear the Scarlet letter A until she dies. She had to undergo through all the agony and embarrassment. Moreover, she does not reveal the name of her

Hawthorn depicts Pearl as individualist escaping from the harsh Puritan society. She is described as wild rose, beautiful and did not abide the Puritan’s law. Hester let Pearl to be carried away by her own desire without any restrictions unlike other children in the society. She was wild and free being close with the nature. In fact, Pearl says her father is nature that terrifies puritan society. Nature symbolizes happiness, nourishing with love, protection and forgiving.Thus, Hawthorn describes Pearl as a beautiful child but Puritan children as dirty, naughty and ugly(Hawthorne, 1850).A child who is brought up by an independent woman away from the Puritan society has been seen as a completely different from the rest of the