Similarities Between Scarlet Letter And Medea

In the 1850’s, America was undergoing a massive internal changes via the industrial revolution. With this new era, American culture was drastically changed as women started to take a more prominent role in American society. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to stimulate this change by illustrating the positive influence of a strong female character in a Puritanical society through his heroine, Hester Prynne, by putting her in a scandalous situation capable of drawing out the worst in people.

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.

     Hester with society also proves to be a strongly feministic aspect of The Scarlet Letter. Hester, as a female sinner, throughout the book, proves not to be a burden on society. Although she is an outcast, many find it hard to not admire the way she holds herself, especially due to the situation she is in. The admiration grows as the story continues. At first, the main admiration for Hester is her skill with the needle. Many of the townspeople regard Hester’s work as the latest trend. “Her

People have been stereotyping outcasts since the beginning of time. This behavior is a crucial component of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. The main character of the story, Hester Prynne, resides in a community of Puritans; who are notorious hypocrites. Their harsh rules are basically impossible to follow, therefore setting their citizens up for failure and punishment. Hawthorne tells the story of Hester Prynne with the elements of sin, judgement, and revenge.

Undoubtedly, religion causes tension between characters in The Scarlet Letter. Notably, tensions arise between Hester and the townspeople due to her infidelity to her husband. The novel takes place in the 17th century in a Puritan community in Boston. The Puritans left England in order to practice their faith but also despised The Church of England for including similar practices as those of Catholicism. During this time it was also commonly known that if one does not conform to the thoughts and beliefs of the Puritans then they are not welcomed in their community. This was most definitely the case for Hester Prynne. In fact, a few of the towns women believe that the magistrates "should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead"

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne develops the dynamic characterization of Hester Prynne from a beautiful, innocent girl into a somber, hardened women to showcase the evils and hypocrisy of Puritan New England’s culture of shaming. Hawthorne employs rhetorical devices such as metaphor and juxtaposition to further develop the characterization and his critique of Puritan society. When initially describing Hester, Hawthorne emphasizes her incredible beauty, and juxtaposes this with the other ugly, judging Puritan women, adding to the hypocrisy of her being shamed for sinning. Hawthorne emphasizes the verbal assault on Hester by employing metaphor and imagery in its description. After the community shuns and shames Hester for years, Hawthorne uses metaphor again to show how Hester’s body and character changes for the worst, emphasizes the malice and evil of public shame.

When they came over to America their wish was to have access to more freedom, especially freedom of religion. However, this was not the case, the end result wasn’t freedom for all Puritans, especially for women. Hawthorne characterizes Hester as someone who chooses to be silent and to effect change by her consistent goodness in the Puritan community instead of through her words. Originally, the scarlet letter was a badge of his dishonor for Hester, but, because she has the bravery to stay in Boston and live with that shame, the tables eventually turn. She breaks her isolation by campaigning with the love she has found in herself, giving back to the people even though they have hurt her. Today we are a country divided with many people using angry words that are supposed to result in peace, but it often ends up in violence; Hester chose silence and charity over argument and anger to persuade others to look at things differently. Currently, women are still victimized and are seen as weaker than men because of stereotypes that arose in these earlier times. However, women in the 21st century are building on the hard work of strong women throughout history and exercising their rights. Recently, there have been many accusations of sexual harassment by men against women in the media. It has taken many years for women to speak out, and still not all are able. We,

In the novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the character Hester Prynne, as a representation of feminist views and perspectives. The Puritan society views Hester as a sinner and unable to receive forgiveness or grace; however, she overcomes her adversities and finds joy within her being. In general, critics agree that The Scarlet Letter exemplifies the definition of female empowerment. For example, critic Wang writes: “Although shamed and alienated from the rest of the community, Hester does not fall but becomes a miniature of a resistant ‘Feminist Angel’, a strong woman looking forward to the equality between men and women” (Wang ). Wang demonstrates how Hester approaches unfair circumstances with maturity and diligence. Furthermore, critic John Updike states: “Hester Prynne can be seen as Hawthorne's literary contemplation of what happens when women break cultural bounds and gain personal power” (Updike ). The novel defines the position of a feminist

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays a Puritan society plagued with guilt and corruption. Throughout the novel, characters are punished for their hypocrisy and Hawthorne shows the flaws in Puritan societies. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Robert Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter become so consumed in their ambitions that they are unable to discern the hypocrisy of their beliefs, and as a result, Hawthorne critics and punishes these members of the Puritan society.

Hawthorne's Portrayal of Strength Against Gender Biases By writing The Scarlet Letter and having it set in the seventeenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne was able to provide insight as to how the Puritan society frowned upon sinning. Not only did he show how sinning was frowned upon, but how his protagonist, Hester Prynne, was able to overcome obstacles and make a living for herself and her daughter, Pearl, in a society where a branded, estranged wife acting as head of household was not common, nor readily accepted. Between living with the scarlet letter and providing for herself and Pearl, Hester Prynne symbolized a strong female role in the seventeenth century. Hawthorne hoped that the character of Hester would encourage the women of his time to become strong like her.

In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, readers are introduced to a Puritanical society that belittles the role of certain characters. Hester Prynne was oppressed due to her sinful actions that were frowned upon during those times. Within the town, female roles were labeled as unimportant. Labels placed upon women in the Scarlet Letter, lead to feelings of oppression, which highlighted the degradation of women.

The society described in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne seems brutal and severe when compared to the society of modern day. For the iniquitous action of bearing an illegitimate child, colonial law would have condemned Hester Prynne to death. The villagers, out of generosity and mercy, decided only to shun and banish Hester for her heinous crime. The society in The Scarlett Letter is largely influenced by the time period in which the story takes place and Puritan religious beliefs.

When it comes down to looking at a women, society sets certain gender roles for them. In literature years after years, different roles and codes of behaviors have been set for women. In history, from Greek Mythology to the Twenty Century literature, women’s roles in literature has evolved and have lead women to develop into to have strong independent roles. When looking at Medea by Euripides, women in Greek mythology were shown to be sexual objects rather than an individual.

Women in Puritan society, as in many other societies throughout time, were repressed. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter it is womanhood, not women themselves, that is being repressed within Puritan society. On the surface, this is because of its traditional religious association with sin. However, Hawthorne depicts femininity and womanhood as having divine power and influence, [as in, they] ? are a God-approved force leading people towards moral good. This is shown through his depiction of women deprived of womanhood as morally corrupt, the way in which Hester’s feminine qualities inspire forgiveness, and in Hester’s belief in the power of a woman to change Puritan society. Hawthorne does this in order to subvert those traditional religious ideas about femininity, instead suggesting that the reason womanhood is repressed lies in the fear the Puritans have of womanly power destroying their patriarchal society.

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