What Is Hester Prynne's Role In The Scarlet Letter

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne condemns the Puritan’s outdated stance on the female gender by contrasting their ideas of women with Hester Prynne’s desirable intrepidness and self-sufficiency. To begin, through highlighting Hester Prynne’s intrepid character, Hawthorne rebukes the Puritan’s inferior view of women. Reverend Wilson, a minister in Hester Prynne’s town, demands Hester to confess to the colony the father of her baby. Standing upon the town’s scaffold in ignominy in front of the entire colony, Hester boldly refuses to disclose the name her baby’s father (40). Her fearless refusal to Reverend Wilson’s appeal demonstrates a sought-after female defiance to male authority. Hawthorne designs Hester Prynne’s intrepidness and the defiance to Wilson to appeal with the modern readers of Hawthorne’s time causing the readers to denounce the …show more content…

“‘I have thought of death,’ she said—‘have wished for it…yet, if death be in this cup, I bid thee think again, ere thou beholdest me quaff it. See! It is even now at my lips’”(42). The Puritans retained the thought of the ideal subservient and submissive wife. However, in this instance, Hester daringly disregards the notion of a subservient wife and challenges her husband by pronouncing her contentment for death. In turn, Hawthorne draws the reader into thinking negatively of the Puritan’s attitude toward women. Furthermore, Hester confronting Chillingworth demonstrates another occasion of Hester’s intrepidness. After years of keeping the secret that Chillingworth is her husband, Hester fearlessly speaks again with Chillingworth. “‘I must reveal the secret,’ answered Hester, firmly… ‘What may be the result, I know not’” (97). Hester confidently speaks with Chillingworth about breaking her promise to him, and she also expresses her fearless attitude about the

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