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Women In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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Traditionally, the female image tended to center on two opposite aspects. The first, based on religion, was that men and women were placed in unequal positions since the day God created them. Criticism of Eve’s decision to consume the forbidden fruit and the ease with which she was convinced into temptation led to the common conclusion in the 1600s that women were more emotional, weren’t capable of reasoning and organization, and were associated with viciousness and dissoluteness in the men’s eyes. The second image was based in humanist concepts based in the Renaissance. Not only did it change the concept that regarded women as demons, but it endowed women with another new meaning: that women have the ability to rescue men’s souls and lead …show more content…

The “tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free (137).” She no longer has to subscribe to the same set of rules as the other Puritan women because the scarlet letter is Hester’s “passport into regions where other women dared not tread (137).” Thus, it is easier for her to have an irregular lifestyle. It is because her life has been displayed for the public to see that Hester is able to let go of her reservations, expectations, and inhibitions.Furthermore, Hawthorne presents various scenes in which Hester and Dimmesdale are equals. When Dimmesdale and Hester both stand on the scaffolding, they symbolically stand together at the same elevation as two lovers who have committed an act of sin and are equally judged by God. In fact, they share the same tombstone even after …show more content…

This corresponds with the religion-based view of women in the 1600s. As a symbol of her rejection, she begins to hide her hair in a hat, her long hair being a traditional symbol of femininity. When Hester accepts who she is in the forest and decides to remove her scarlet letter and let down her hair, she grows a “radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood (139).” This combination of a transcendentalist respect for nature bringing out raw truths and humanist veneration for women culminates in an early meaning of what it is to be a feminist. Even heaven recognizes this change and welcomes it with “a sudden smile of heaven” as “so burst the sunshine.” Since she is no longer allowing herself to be defined by sin, both heaven and nature have accepted her. In this way, Nathaniel Hawthorn is sending the general message that society shouldn’t let the original sins of Eve define women in

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Hawthorne explains how Hester is viewed as a woman who has lost all of her previous glow due to the shame she has had to carry and isolation she was forced into. He states that “her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap” that it never “gushed into the sunshine.” Hester’s hair is used as both a literal loss and a symbolic loss. Yes, she no longer displays a physical feature that added to her beauty, however it also represents her loss of character. Her public shaming, isolation, and abandonment from society turned her from a vibrant woman to an extremely gloomy one.

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However, in reality, Hester's infamy was strengthening her, while Dimmesdale’s self-humiliation was weakening him. Although it may seem that his hesitance towards confessing his sin was killing him, it can be seen as the only thing keeping him alive. Hester may have been tormented by her mistake but she ended up being

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The Scarlet Letter In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester makes the right decision to remain in the town because by doing so she serves an example of why Puritan rationale is defective, and the town is where Dimmesdale lives. Puritan logic is fallible because Hester is accused of her sin; meanwhile, others in the town are also guilty of sin. For example, when Hester is exiting the jail to begin her ignominy, the town gossips brand her with denunciative labels, such as “naughty baggage” and “brazen hussy.” Hester lives in seclusion, and “a small vacant area” is always around her that no one is inclined to enter.

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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the nineteenth century, provides insight into the social stigma surrounding gender equality in his own community and era. Throughout the chapters, Hawthorne's uses Hester to provide a direct reflection to the lives of women in the nineteenth century. Hawthorne employs devices such as specified diction which pertains to each individual character, multiple shifts in the tone used in order to draw attention to shifts in judgment or beliefs of characters, and imagery in order to validate his overall personal belief that women deserve the autonomy and respect that men have possessed for centuries. Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter as a novel for social change by characterizing Hester as a woman

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This shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.

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Yet, despite the heavy burden she has to bear, she acts more civil than most of the characters do in the entirety of “The Scarlet Letter”. Instead of her guilt and shame tearing her down, she chose to rise above it as seen in this quote; “she [Hester] repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, stepped into the open air, as if by her own free will.” (50 Hawthorne) No doubt at this time, Hester’s heart is filled with pain and worry. After all, these were people she has known for some time and perhaps has even befriended.

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Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the blindness of the Puritan people through the treatment of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale’s external characters. Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress and mistreated by society because of their unwillingness to see her true character. Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, leads the town to believe he is an honorable man and skillful doctor, when his true intents root from his vindictive nature Finally, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and the father of her baby, acts as the perfect man therefore the town views him as an exemplar model, while he is truly a sinner. In the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as a strong, resilient woman, though the members of her community

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She is a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but also the physical scarlet letter, a sign of shame, is shown as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece which

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719 Words | 3 Pages

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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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 a traditional culture at the time, the female image was inferior to men in many different aspects. Women have an inferior intelligence compared to men, inferior role in society, and inferior status. Later on, women were respected more as wives and mothers. Women remained in homes, raising children, and “rescuing men’s souls and leading them to the holy paradise” (). In his writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a new female-image, one that focuses on remaining a pure reputation.

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852 Words | 4 Pages

The Scarlet Letter covers much pain but the underlying romance throughout provides readers with a little happiness. Throughout the book, readers are rooting for the future romance between Hester and Dimmesdale. In being exposed to Dimmesdale’s extreme guilt as well as Hester’s constant suffering, everyone desires the happy ending where they run away together in order to make better life. The underlying tone being romance and devotion, Hawthorne continuously plays on the idea of forbidden love. He subtly expresses this idea through Dimmesdale’s emotional remarks such as “love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world” (Hawthorne, 282).

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959 Words | 4 Pages

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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Throughout the novel, Hester is fraught by the Puritan society and her suffering is an effect of how evil society is. Hester continues to believe that the crime she committed was not wrong and she should not be punished for it. Her desire to protect and love Dimmesdale, turn her into a stronger person and become a heroine in the book. Although society still views her as a “naughty baggage” (Hawthorne 73) and is punished for her wrongdoing, Hester never thought to take revenge on them, yet she gives everything she has to the unfortunate and leaves herself with very little. She continues to stay positive no matter what society has for her.

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