Hester Prynne, of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and Margaret Fuller, Themid-nineteenth-century Campaigner for the Rights of Women
"Endowed in certain respects with the sensibility of Margaret Fuller, the great campaigner for the rights of women, Hester Prynne is as much a woman of mid-nineteenth-century American culture as she is of seventeenth-century Puritan New England."
Is this an accurate assessment of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter?
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was an author, critic, editor and teacher who "possessed more influence on the thought of American women than any woman previous to her time" [1]. She contributed significantly to the American Renaissance in literature and to mid-nineteenth century reform movements. A brilliant and highly educated member of the Transcendentalist group, she challenged Ralph Waldo Emerson both intellectually and emotionally. Women who attended her "conversations" and many men of her time found Fuller's influence life-changing. Her major work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century published in 1845, profoundly affected the women's rights movement which had its formal beginning at Seneca Falls, New York, three years later.
Hester Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, which is set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England. As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Roger Chillingworth, who sent her ahead to America to live but never followed. While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl. Found guilty of adultery (through the absence of her husband and the birth of Pearl), Hester is punished by being forced to wear a scarlet lette...
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...on, 1996
4 The Scarlet Letter, p.263
5 Puritanism in Early America, edited by George M. Waller, p.6
6 The Scarlet Letter, p.53
7 Ibid. p.144-5
8 Ibid. p.195
9 Ibid. p.165
10 Ibid. p.86
11 Ibid. p.263
12 Charles Capper, in An American Romantic Life. p.ix.
13 The Scarlet Letter, p.165.
14 Ibid. p.263
15 Ibid. p.263
16 An American Romantic Life, p. xi
17 The Scarlet Letter, p.94
18 Ibid. p.263
19 Ibid. p.263
20 Margaret Fuller, Julia Ward Howe, 1889
21 The Scarlet Letter, p.113
22 Ibid. p.117
Bibliography
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. History of Woman Suffrage, 1881
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter, Oxford World's Classics, 1990
The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Ninth Edition, 1996
George M. Waller, (Ed). Puritanism in Early America
Charles Capper. An American Romantic Life
Julia Ward Howe. Margaret Fuller. 1889
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“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
In the nineteenth century the inequality of women was more than profound throughout society. Margaret Fuller and Fanny Fern both women of the century were much farther advanced in education and opinion than most women of the time. Fuller and Fern both harbored opinions and used their writing as a weapon against the conditions that were considered the norm in society for women. Margaret and Fuller were both influential in breaking the silence of women and criticizing the harsh confinement and burden of marriage to a nineteenth century man. Taking into consideration Woman in he Nineteenth Century by Fuller, Aunt Hetty on Matrimony, and The Working-Girls of New York by Fern, the reader can clearly identify the different tones and choice of content, but their purposes are moving towards the same cause. Regardless of their differences in writing, both Fern and Fuller wrote passionately in order to make an impact for their conviction, which was all too similar.
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The Trail of Tears was one of the deadliest and most gruesome act of violence ever carried out in the 19th century. It would result in the death of 4000 Indians in a forced relocation of 15000 Cherokee. This march was directly carried out by the United States Government and the Jackson administration. It was characterized at the time as a humanitarian alternative to letting the Native Americans die at the hands of land hungry white settlers. However, this event was inherently evil as it was purely based on greed, racism, and the unspoken purpose of prolonging southern society; it was also unconstitutional in multiple aspects.
Feminism and The Scarlet Letter  Feminism has been taking the world by storm. From feminist critiques on video game characters to petitions for more female leads in film, this movement has come a long way. That is why it is so incredible that the character Hester Prynne from the novel The Scarlet Letter appears to be a strong female protagonist, a novel written long before the feminism movement began. Some critics lavish praise on Hawthorne’s depiction of a powerful female character, but others view Hester as simply a representation of what men want in a woman. Although some of Hester’s actions are questionable in terms of feminism, she makes up for it in her battle against the Puritan societal constraints she is bound by.  Throughout
Eric Foner, “The Trail of Tears: Forced Removal” in Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History, Vol. 1, ed. Eric Foner (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011), 163-4.
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Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
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