Weak and powerless are so me of the words that describe women’s role in Puritan society. Men were the breadwinners and women were confined to the household. Most women lived their lives under the authority of men, but because of her unusual place in society Hester was able to overcome this. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne switches the typical male and female roles to prove that when given the opportunity, women can be strong and independent members of society. Hawthorne uses Hester’s reaction to her punishment of wearing the letter A, to show women can survive in society without being dependent on men. Additionally, Hawthorne uses Hester’s relationship with Chillingworth and Puritan authorities to represent how women can be dominant. Furthermore, Hawthorne breaks down normal gender characteristics by switching the typical male and female traits of the characters in the novel.
Because Hester was able to take care of herself and Pearl socially and economically as a single mother, Hawthorne proves that women can survive in society without being dependent on men. Hawthorne states “The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread” (137). Hester was an outsider in her community and was able to look at society and the world with a unique point of view. Unlike most women during the seventeenth century, Hester was not confined to the household and was not under the authority of a husband. Hester defies the stereotype that women are weak and frail and cannot survive on their own. Because Hester does not have a husband to provide for her and Pearl, she is forced to provide for her family economically. “She possessed an art that suf...
... middle of paper ...
...y become active members of society, just like men, if they are allowed to be gender neutral. Hawthorne breaks down normal gender characteristics by switching the typical male and female traits of the characters in the novel to prove that when society allows women to be gender neutral they can be just as important and able members of society as men.
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester as a symbol of women’s liberation from male authority. Hawthorne believed women could be strong, independent and able members of society if only they were given the opportunity to prove themselves. Hester was a single mother that successfully provided for herself and her daughter and additionally stood up for herself when threatened by male authority. Hester is proof that when women are not under the restrictions of society they can be just as independent as men.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a truly outstanding author. His detailed descriptions and imagery will surely keep people interested in reading The Scarlet Letter for years to come. In writing this book he used themes evident throughout the entirety of the novel. These themes are illustrated in what happens to the characters and how they react. By examining how these themes affect the main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, one can obtain a better understanding of what Hawthorne was trying to impress upon his readers.
With a strong female protagonist and two mentally weak males, it is hard to consider Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter anything but a feminist treatise. He obviously intended to put down not only Puritanism, which is an obvious aspect of the novel, but to establish a powerful, secure female in American literature. Hester proves, although she has sinned in the past, she can confront her mistakes, take care of herself and her child, and help others at the same time. She can withhold a position in society that many can respect because of her character something the males of the story obviously could not succeed at doing.
She is not a feminist because the patients view her as a cruel tyrant rather than an equal. Similarly, Hester is mistaken for an elite in her community. In a public gathering, Indians assume “that the wearer of this brilliantly embroidered badge must needs be a personage of high dignity among her people” (368). For the Indians to think this means that she actually is of nobility, and Hawthorne includes this account in his novel to portray this to the reader. The scarlet letter comes to mean much more than a punishment as it becomes part of Hester’s character when she defies cultural gender injustice. By the end of the novel, it reveals that she is someone greater than just an outsider. Although not admitted by the people of the Puritan culture, they view her as an honorable and admirable woman above the others, just as the Indians do. Because others see Hester and Ratched as greater than equals and their struggles as a fight for power rather than equality categorizes them as not
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne has introduced a character that has been judged harshly. Because, she has been misinformed of her husband’s death; therefore, she was greave and had sought comfort resulting in a baby from the lover whom gave her comfort. When her secret had been discovered she was isolated for committing a treacherous crime of adultery, as one of her punishments she was forced to wear an A on her chest. The novel presents a structure of a society, using symbolism and diction to give underline meaning to the themes, portraying religious tendencies ruled by the philosophy of good and evil.
In the book, Chillingworth is a physician who had been captured by Native Americans sometime ago and subsequently released by them into Boston, Massachusetts, who was strictly a Puritan settlement at the time. In the years of his imprisonment by the Indians, he was taught many native herbs and plants of the New World, and their uses on the human body. Through this, he entered Boston as a physician, known to have "gathered herbs, and the blossoms of wild-flowers, and dug up roots, and plucked off twigs from the forest-trees, like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was valueless to common eyes." ( The Scarlet Letter , p. 120). Chillingworth had the knowledge of a particular drug, Atropine, which caused a sickness that closely resembled the condition of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth's motive for retribution to Dimmesdale for his adultery was very clear throughout the book, "There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine." (p. 80). Chillingworth's vengeful nature consumed his life and his only goal in life became the torment of Hester's adulterous husband, Dimmesdale. He was already showing signs of sickness, assumed by the reader to be attributed to his guilty conscience, and these were only amplified by the poisoning Chillingworth had inflicted upon him.
Hawthorne uses many aspects of Hester Prynne to display her as a feminist character and demonstrate women’s rising for their rights and freedom during that time period. Her actions demonstrate her strength and her value as a person independent of the expectations placed on her as a woman. The actions of society placed this character in a feminist plight, a fact plainly addressed in her thoughts. Hester Prynne, compared to other women during that time period was different because she always fought and stands up for herself and her only daughter. It was her inner strength that helped her to stand out from the crowd and make differences in the society on behalf of women’s struggling for rights. Hester Prynne, from every prospective can be defined as a true feminist because of her own actions and circumstances that led to changes in the society.
...nce. She could have stayed in a place where no one knew of her sin, but she had transformed into an independent woman who decided for herself what she did with her life. Hester’s sin proved to be a lot more life changing than she bargained for. Her whole life was turned upside down, from a new child, to social banishment. Hester couldn’t live how she once did, speak to those she once knew, or act the way she once did. However strenuous life was, Hester still prevailed in a society controlled by sin. Hawthorne states, “Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power to sympathize- that many people refused to interpret the scarlet ‘A’ by its original signification. They said that it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (152).
Hawthorne was a talented and skilled writer, who was greatly influenced by the the community in which he lived. Instead of giving in to society dashing his hopes of becoming a successful writer, he wrote about Hester to express himself and explain his conflicts with the crooked, oppressive society and beliefs of the time. He discusses the problems in a way that every reader can relate to and sympathize with the characters. He skillfully transforms a symbol of shame and sin into a symbol of maternity and nurturance. The Scarlet Letter is truly a symbol of believing in people's capabilities. It is a symbol of resistance to society if all it causes people to do is reject their identities and who they really are.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well known novel, The Scarlet Letter, extensive diction and intense imagery are used to portray the overall tone of the characters. In particular, Hester Prynne, the wearer of the Scarlet Letter, receives plentiful positive characterization throughout the novel. Hester’s character most notably develops through the town’s peoples ever-changing views on the scarlet letter, the copious mentions of her bravery, and her ability to take care of herself, Pearl, and others, even when she reaches the point where most would give up and wallow in their suffering.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was not a Puritan. But Hawthrone’s forefathers were Puritans, so he had an understanding of their belief system and their basis behind it. He stated that he hoped the sins of his forefathers had been forgiven. Hoping to expose those ideas which he understood, yet despised, Hawthorne purposely presented many important Puritan beliefs as import aspects to the Scarlet Letter. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne addresses three main Puritan beliefs: providence, predestination, and the strict code of ethics that the settlers of New Englanders lived by.
In contrast to the typical Puritan women in Boston, Hawthorne depicts the female protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, as physically discrete. Hester has a perfect figure, a rich complexion, dark hair, and deep eyes. She dresses in modest clothing, but the symbol of her sin, the golden embroidered scarlet letter, remains the focus of her attire (Bloom 219). Hester’s breathtaking features and the scarlet letter give her a sense of individuality.
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The Scarlet Letter’ was considered by many as the controversial novel of its time, given its themes of pride, sin and vengeance. It was also set in a time when very few were thinking about the equality of of men and women, but Hawthorne managed to bring gender-based inequality to light through the novel’s male-dominated Puritan setting and by reversing the gender roles of characters, such as Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.
The novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was an objective description of the life of Hester Prynne, an adultress. The novel does not go into specific details of the thoughts of the woman except to describe the mien of her character. Throughout the novel she faces humiliation by the other people of Boston, but never loses her sense of pride. Hester Prynne suffers enormousely from the shame of her public disgrace and from the isolation of her punishment; however, she retains her self-respect and survives her punishment with dignity, grace, and ever-growing strength of character.