Women In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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

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

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