True Womanhood In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Nineteenth century America saw the rise of the Cult of Domesticity, the middle class ideal of “true womanhood” characterized by emphasis on purity, piety, domesticity, and submissiveness. In setting a standard for female behavior, society also set a standard for masculine or “manly” behavior. The imposed definition of true womanhood and its subsequent rejection by feminist leaders aroused in Hawthorne an unease about his own gender and place in society. He saw a system which characterized his means of livelihood as “unmasculine” and aroused in him unease over some of his more “feminine” behaviors. Through a feminist lens, Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter attempts to convey that the imposition of strict gender roles on an individual

Dimmesdale’s repression of his guilt irreparably destroys him; however, his relentless self-punishment simultaneously causes his redemption when the truth pours forth. When Dimmesdale reveals his A upon the scaffold before the crowd after his election speech, he carries a “flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory” (Hawthorne 161). Dimmesdale expends the last of his energy to symbolically remove the weight of his guilt from himself. By acknowledging his sin before the crowd, he wins a victory over those who would subdue him--the Puritans for example, because while they view him as angelic and pure, their indirect indoctrination caused his downfall in the first place. Acknowledging his sin just before his death strips society of the ability to condemn him in life, allowing him to maintain his identity in death. Hawthorne attempts to convey through Dimmesdale the primacy of self-acceptance to resolving one’s gender conflict. By owning his role as a sinner, Dimmesdale passes on more freely into the beyond. Similarly, Hester resolves her conflict almost from the beginning by refusing to declare her sin as anything but natural. Robert Milder observes that “what the world calls sin, [Hester] proclaims in effect, is not "sin" at all but something natural, life enhancing, and holy” (Milder). Hester’s

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. Hawthorne attempts to emphasize the difference between sin and virtue through Hester’s ability to lead a productive life in the community and still maintain her identity. In maintaining a productive life and her identity as a sinner, Hester reconciles her internal conflict. One critic notes that Hester’s process of reintegrating herself “exemplifies what it might mean to locate a life at once subversive of and engaged with one's community” (Millington). Seemingly in defiance of her imposed