How Is Hester Prynne A Feminist Novel

Who would have guessed a sense of feminism would be located within a book published in 1850, over 100 years before the feminist movement? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter gives a glimpse into an adulterous woman’s life in a strict Puritan town located in Boston. Her name is Hester Prynne and her triumphs and tribulations are held within the novel. The reader gains an emotional connection to Hester and wants her to be happy. Support for an independent and shamed woman was controversial but may have helped spark a need for equality within the readers then and even now.

A feminist is defined in the British Dictionary as a person who advocates equal rights for women. However incredulous it may sound, women had to fight for rights for equality in things such as politics, economics, and their personal affairs. If the revolutionary feminist concepts were surfacing in the time of Nathaniel Hawthorne, circa 1850, then how was it that he was inspired to write Hester’s character? However,one consideration may be that it was written unintentionally with a feministic tone. This novel stands for the main ideas that gave feminism its momentum: gender equality and love for oneself as a woman. Hawthorne displays Hester as a free woman in the ending of the book, and also deems her and Dimmesdale as equals by having them receive identical markers on their tombstones. The Scarlet Letter epitomizes the strength of women while also providing as an indicator for early feminism, as it’s profound perceptions were not something yet established in this earlier time period. The Scarlet Letter is indubitably a feminist piece of literature.The three main characters work off of one another; Hester is strong while Dimmesdale is feeble and Chillingworth is corrupt; She effortlessly conquers her sin and continues with her new life, while Dimmesdale cannot admit his sins, and Chillingworth seeks revenge on Dimmesdale.

While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of

Hester Prynne, on the other hand, contradicts with this statement, as she proves time and time again that she is a strong, female character. The novel would undeniably be viewed as a feminist novel as it makes a strong statement on women and their impact and role in society. Nathaniel Hawthorne showed a sense of feminism with the character of Hester to show readers that women are not always secondary and are capable of doing anything. Hester is certainly a feminist through her respectable actions and beliefs throughout The Scarlet Letter. She shows personal strength in herself as she demonstrates how, throughout all of her humiliation and punishment, she still believed in her own humanity. Hester has shown to be a strong character as she overcame the mortification of the scarlet letter, took care of her daughter Pearl on her own, and protecting her partner, Arthur Dimmesdale, even through the long years of shame and humiliation. Knowing the Puritan crimes, Hester faced the years of embarassment while still holding onto her ideals and beliefs, which allowed her to grow stronger and stronger with each experience. It is, without doubt, that Hester’s “sin” definitely changed her into the strong character she is. Overall, Hester became a symbol of a strong minded individual to the

Most people identify Feminism as an anti-male movement hell-bent on making women the dominant gender, but this is not the case. In this novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne executes these ideas by overcoming her public humiliation and rising up against the predetermined ideas that her Puritan town holds for her. She is a perfect example of what a feminist should be, which is a real treat considering the time period and the fact that Nathaniel Hawthorne really had no inspiration for his radical ideas. The Scarlet Letter is “accidentally” a feminist novel because of the way Hester stands up against the Puritans’ harsh criticism, and because of the

It is a few times were a greatly honored work of literature demonstrates and promotes feminism. It is even greater when two different sides of the spectrum of feminism is highlighted. The novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is one of the first works to present Hester Prynne, a woman capable of raising a child alone, and influences altering discriminatory views against women. One the other side of the spectrum, Nurse Ratched, from One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, shows feminism but to an extreme level, so much so that she emasculates men whom already feel lessened by the societal norms from its time period. Both, Hawthorne and Kesey, use independent female characters to embody feminist ideals, through characterization

The Scarlet Letter is a novel that took place in the 17th century, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The heartbreaking story of the main character, Hester Prynne dispersed the reader's’ thoughts. Hester Prynne suffered from adultery, where she had a child without father’s presence and support. Hester also suffered from bullying, where she was conjectured by superior people in the Puritan Legacy. The Scarlet Letter illustrated many bullying examples throughout certain chapters of the book.

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

Written in 1850, The Scarlet Letter stood as a very progressive book. With new ideas about women, main characters’ stories intertwined, and many different themes, The Scarlet Letter remains today as a extremely popular novel about 17th century Boston, Massachusetts. Not only was the 19th century a time for the abolition of slavery movement but it was also the beginning of the first wave of feminism. Women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott catalyzed the women’s rights movement. These prominent women believed that a woman’s role was no longer in the house and that women should be afforded the same opportunity as men. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s sympathy for women is evident in a feminist reading of his novel

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Nathaniel Hawthorne highlights the habitual societal conflict of surfacing gender equality ideology throughout The Scarlet Letter. The typical female role in society during the mid-seventeenth century was to be a caretaker. Hester Prynne’s sentence for breaking this stereotype through adultery is to wear a large, red letter A on her chest. Hawthorne uses Hester’s character to add characteristics of early feminism. For example, Hester not only takes on the so called male and female role put in place by society at some point throughout the story, but she also challenges societal views of women. To fully understand the situation women were going through, you must be familiar with the historical context. The story takes place in a Puritan

A trend was started by the novel, The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne took a path with the character Hester Prynne that took many by surprise. Hester Prynne from the acclaimed novel, The Scarlet Letter, is one of American Literature’s first and influential feminist characters that shows superiority while being fearless and having an influence on modern literature and culture.

“Women belong in the kitchen.” “All women should be barefoot and pregnant.” “Women are strictly homemakers.” These are a few of the commonly used phrases regarding the female role in society that date back to the mid-seventeenth century. However, ardent supporters of gender equality have surfaced in almost every culture where this ideology is practiced. Nathaniel Hawthorne explores this inveterate societal conflict through his story The Scarlet Letter. The main character, Hester Prynne, is punished for committing adultery by being forced to wear a scarlet letter upon her bosom; Hawthorne created a story sympathetic to the female cause and demonstrated, through Hester, qualities of early feminism that later establish themselves during his

After the motor car was invented the world thought they could do just about anything. Men had always dreamed of taking to the sky and soaring like birds, now they could. On December171903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina this dream became a reality when the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, discovered a way to fly, making the world a little bigger. With the invention of the first flying machine and their investigation into aeronautics, the Wright Brothers, paved the way for the future of flight. During their investigation the Wright Brothers faced many problems, but they plowed through and achieved their goal within four years. The airplane opened up many possibilities and exploration was happening like never before! Goods could be exchanged

Critics generally agree Hawthorne uses the effects of the scarlet letter to reveal the atrocities of the patriarchy and masculine hegemony. The patriarchal forces women to carry the burden of an action despite the entity of the original sinners. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne takes the responsibilities and consequences of adultery, even though Dimmesdale should have equal, if not more, punishment. When Hester stands in front of a jury and endures the tremendous hatred from the individuals within the audience who believe Hester “has brought shame” to society, she declares,“Ye cannot take it off, and would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (Hawthorne 39, 49). Hawthorne reveals how society isolates and condemns women for the actions and results of men. If the women do not hold the accountability of all sin, they experience ignominy from society; if they do hold accountability of all sin, they still experience ignominy. The patriarchy enforces the idea that women should hold all responsibilities for all of men’s actions. Advancing Hawthorne's argument, critic Jane Swisshelm reveals the treatment of women as they endure ignominy: “[Hester] was the moral leper whom none might dare to touch - the blazing emblem of the virtuous indignation of an entire community” (Swisshelm 273). So long women exist, the consequences of the world’s