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Modern Feminism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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A famous quote from G.D. Anderson states, “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” This quote captures the true purpose of feminism. Modern feminism is perceived as women who hate men, want the right to choose life or not, and equal pay, but true feminism is about fighting about the oppression of women. Although The Scarlet Letter is not a novel about “modern” feminism, a reader can find the roots of what modern day feminism is based on in the powerful classic novel from the 17th century. Hester Prynne is a woman who is labeled by her personal sin and put on display while the whole community shames her and hardly questions who her lover is. At first …show more content…

This is an unavoidable similarity between the two women. Another strong similarity is that both women faced shame, but overcame it with grace and powerful feminist voices. Although one notable difference between the two women is that Hester would not discuss who the other man was and would not stand up for herself in the beginning of the story. Ann Hutchinson is the opposite in that sense, she would gladly stand up to the bigots and state what she believed in, even when unacceptable. Ann Hutchinson plowed down the feminist path by being loud and stern, meanwhile, Hester is not vocal about her feminism throughout the novel because she believed the law of their society could not be changed by …show more content…

Pearl and Jesus are a well thought comparison because even though Pearl was not well liked, but she made a point to show kindness and grace against the evils she faced through life. Although the comparison of the symbol of adultery and the symbol of virgin purity seems far-fetched, it is a wonderful comparison due to the shame Mary faced for also being an unwed mother. Hester Prynne is a strong character who faced hardships but used those times to make her a better person, despite the hatred. She protected her lover and took responsibility for her actions and raised a strong feminist daughter, Pearl. Instead of running, Hester stayed in a community she knew she was unwanted to face her punishment and attempted to show everyone love and compassion even if they did not return her grace. Feminist stand up for not only themselves, but for what is right, this is what Hester Prynne, Pearl, Ann Hutchinson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to

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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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Hester Prynne was suffering the most in the book “The Scarlet Letter” that Mr.Dimmesdale couldn’t relate because the strong independent women had to suffer through punishments, promises, and responsibilities. Hester Prynne is a beautiful young lady as described in “The Scarlet Letter”, but what a puritan village made her suffer through changed the women she was before the scarlet letter was attached to her chest: “Her sex, her youth, and the richness of her beauty came back from what men call the irretrievable past” (Hawthorne 321). She was once known to be a gem of god until the puritans punished her in harsh ways. Because of the Scarlet she lost everything almost instantly such as the village putting her in her own world where she felt

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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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The book the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a book about Hester Prynne a woman living in the 17th century. Hester commits the sinable act of adultery and is punished being forced to wear the scarlet letter A on her bosom. The symbol punishes her as an adultress and marks her shame, making her an outcast in the male dominated society, as she has gone against the strict restrictions society has imposed. So due to this, in regards to John Updikeś claim about Hester, I agree that she is “a mythic version of every woman’s attempt to integrate her sexuality with societal demands” through wearing the scarlet letter. Although the scarlet letter was meant to be a symbol of punishment, it gave Hester liberation from the social norms.

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Hester Prynne is guilty as charged for committing a sin towards her Puritan religion, committing adultery, and refusing to give up the identity of Pearl’s father. Hester deserved the punishment she was given. She knew what cheating would turn into, and the consequences of it, but she did it anyway. Thank you for taking the time to read this

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401 Words | 2 Pages

In novels, there are major characters and minor characters. The purpose of a minor character is to be a foil for the main character, or to highlight their weaknesses or strengths. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the minor character Bob Ewell is the foil character to Atticus Finch the main character. To Kill a Mockingbird implies multiple themes throughout it. Atticus and Bob Ewell highlight the theme of courage and cowardice within the novel.

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Throughout history, women have repeatedly challenged patriarchal societies for their belittling actions. In a patriarchal society, women struggle to reach equality because the male leaders overrule and demean women. For example, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a woman who is looked down upon for committing adultery. With this sin comes years of difficulties in Hester’s daily life as she tries to gain control of her own life and family. Despite all the negative attributes associated with her, Hester Prynne is a winner because she is an independent, powerful woman who challenges a cruel, patriarchal society by making it matriarchal.

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Women are now demanding rights such as reproductive rights, equal wages, and a change of mankind’s oppressive language, all of which have never been thought even close to possible before. This is all due to the network of communications that women have been able to build, much of it on their own. It all began with literature such as The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which opened up a feminist dialogue, leading to the modern day equivalent of Tumblr and feminist hubs all over the internet. The Scarlet Letter was a revolutionary piece of literature that remarked on the nobility of women and the unjust scapegoating of women as a whole. It contains still controversial topics of women and their sexuality and man’s role in determining the same women’s lives.

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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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Term gender role is described as a set of social norms of what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate or desirable for a person based on their sex ussualy centered around opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity. Gender roles traditionally were often divided into distinct feminine and masculine gender roles, until especially the twentieth century when these roles diversified into many different acceptable male or female roles in modernized countries throughout the world. Gender roles are closely linked with gender stereotypes.

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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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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published in 1850. It focuses on the life of the main protagonist, Hester Prynne, living in a Puritan community. Both Yamin Wang and Maria Stromberg offer insight into The Scarlet Letter and analyze multiple aspects of the story.. Both Wang and Stromberg claim that there is an underlying ideology hidden in the texts of the book. Wang approaches the story from a feminist approach and states that Hester represents the feminism in the Puritan community, and she analyzes the Puritan’s outlook on women in their society.

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The Scarlet Letter: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter proves that feminism goes against all Puritan moral and religious grounds. Hawthorne’s purpose is to show how feminism goes against all Puritan moral and religious grounds in order to show the reader how Hester broke the moral and religious standards. Hawthorne supports his claim when Hester commits the sin and is not ashamed, when Hester makes decisions for Pearl and herself, and also when Reverend Dimmesdale comes to Hester’s aid in supporting her decisions.

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Amanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.

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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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