Hawthorne as Hester - Embracing a Feminist Nature: A Theory
Hester Prynne remains a living force of feminist strength as she stands between the literary arguments of Hawthorne’s possible intentions of portraying his protagonist as either a central figure of feminist empowerment for women, in retrospect to the interpretations of his views on feminism of the timeframe, or a woman oppressed by her sins under the tyranny of puritanical injustice. While some argue for Hester’s feminist virtues without closer introspection of her literary creator, much could be discerned regarding Hester’s feminine presence by speculating that Hawthorne wrote Hester as the feminine version of himself trapped within the injustices of a patriarchal world. There is no doubt, that by entertaining the possibility of Hawthorne as Hester, a compelling argument has already been made by the literary critics for the heroic feminism of Hester. Through a brief analysis of Hawthorne’s role as Hester within The Scarlet Letter, ambiguity transforms into a multidimensional representation of a strong intellectual woman struggling against opposing forces that are created by the injustices of a patriarchal society and that are resisted by the unique and powerfully effectual tactic of silence.
In order to erase any doubt regarding Hawthorne’s intentions in creating Hester as a strong feminist character – the feminized Hawthorne - it is crucial to pay close attention to the autobiographical nature of the Custom House and the symbolism of what Pearl represents to Hawthorne as Hester’s child. Hawthorne, nurtured by his mother, bereft of father, and endowed with the heart of a genuine writer, entered into a masculine world with opposing forces of gender rioting inside him....
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...erstanding in Hawthorne’s intentions. “Hawthorne may be aligning himself with the rebellious daughters – the “scribbling women” (he calls himself a ‘scribbler’ at the end of the Custom House sketch) – rather than with the male novelists of his time” (Last 353). Rather, his complaints may indeed have been frustration in trying to achieve success with his own writing as he himself identified as a ‘scribbler.’
Works Cited
Doubleday, Neal Frank. “Hawthorne’s Hester and Feminism.” PMLA 54.3 (1939): 825-28.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 2003.
Last, Suzan. “Hawthorne’s Feminine Voices: Reading “The Scarlet Letter” as a Woman.” The
Journal of Narrative Technique. 27.3 (1997): 349-76.
Jr, Leland S. Person. “Hester’s Revenge: The Power of Silence in the Scarlet Letter.”
Nineteenth-Century Literature. 43.4 (1989): 465-83.
Hester Prynne is a character who gave up everything, even love, for her child. Hester Prynne sacrificed her peace, her beauty, her entire being for her child and this shows her determination and profound understanding of the world. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s piece, “The Scarlet Letter” shows the other side of the sinner’s story and not as a villain, but a victim.
Hawthorne seems to take a stance removing himself as a narrator from religious or moral partiality. As Hawthorne pursues the idea of a morally oblivious phycology, he creates Pearl. Perhaps Pearl is symbolic of truly raw human nature. Pearl is an unaltered version of mankind; factors of emotional and mortal influence are lost on her. Pearl is like the “control group” in the experiment of the human condition. This is demonstrated when Hawthorne speaks through the guise of Governor Bellingham, “There is no law, nor reverence for authority, no regard for human ordinances or opinions, right or wrong, mixed up with that child’s composition.” (92) Pearl attempts to connect with Hester as she “sob[s] out her love for her mother in broken words, and seem[ed] intent on proving that she had a heart by breaking it,” but she could not imitate human compassion because she had been shown so little herself. Because of the lasting trauma of Hester’s ordeal and her inexperience as a mother, Hester is inattentive and emotionally unavailable during Pearl’s childhood. Primarily because of her mother’s negligence, Pearl is “like a thing incapable and unintelligent of human sorrow” (64) but can still sense how other’s perceive her as strange. Taking into account her lack of remorse and incapability to express genuine sympathy, one might contend
Pearl is a symbol of Hester’s transgressions and even has similar qualities as the sin which she represents. Pearl’s life and behavior directly reflects the unacceptable and abnormal nature of Hester’s adulterous sin. Hester is plagued with more than just a letter “A”; she is given a child from her affair who is just as much a reminder of her sin as the scarlet letter. Ultimately Hester overcomes the shame associated the scarlet letter and creates a sense of family for herself and Pearl. This relationship is integral to the theme of this novel and the development of its characters.
In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the storyline of Hester Prynne’s adultery as a means of criticizing the values of Puritan society. Hester and her daughter Pearl, whom she conceives out of wedlock, are ostracized from their community and forced to live in a house away from town. The reflections of Pearl in different mirrored surfaces represent the contrast between the way Puritans view her and who she actually is. In the fancy mirrored armor of the society’s elite class, Pearl is depicted harshly as a devilish and evil spawn, unable to live up to the expectations of such a pristine society. However, in the natural reflections of the earth’s surface, Pearl’s beauty and innocence is much more celebrated. The discrepancies between these positive depictions of Pearl as an angelic figure and the Puritans’ harsh judgment of her character suggest that Puritans inflated her oddities and strange habits in order to place her and Hester in a place of inferiority within the community. Hawthorne employs reflection and mirrors in his novel to convey the Puritans’ misconstrual of Pearl as an elfish, evil child and to critique the severity of early Puritan moral codes.
Hester is facing it all, from public scorn to loneliness. Hester becomes an outcast from everyone in a New England colony with her daughter, Pearl. Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes of the eventful life of an adulteress in an eighteenth century colony in this fictional classic. Hester Prynne is a young married woman who moved from England to a colony in Massachusetts. While waiting for her husband to arrive, Hester has an affair with a man named Dimmesdale and is put into prison. Hester, even though she is caught in her sin, shows great strength of character; Hester chooses to protect those that she cares about even though it causes her personal suffering. As a result of her strength, Hester causes great change in others around her.
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.
Pearl’s ever-changing moods and temperaments secure her as Hawthorne’s most prominent symbol in The Scarlet Letter. Pearl, the impish girlish creature, symbolizes many elements in Hawthorne’s book. Hester’s love for Pearl is never misplaced in the tale, but the reader gains a sense of contempt. Hester believes that without Pearl, she would not have survived the seven long years of exile from the Puritan society. Her daughter’s varying personality traits brings about a sense of joy and a change in her monotonous life.
This, as Arthur Dimmesdale almost prophetically expresses in the early scenes of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, was the role of Pearl, the elfish child borne of his and Hester Prynne's guilty passion. Like Paul's thorn in the flesh, Pearl would bring trouble, heartache, and frustration to Hester, but serve a constructive purpose lying far beyond the daily provocations of her childish impishness. While in many respects a tormentor to Hester, Pearl was also her savior, while a reminder of her guilt, a promoter of honesty and true Virtue; and while an embodiment of Hester's worst qualities, a vision of a better life for Hester and for herself.
The portrayal of Hester Prynne in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has led to many different opinionated views. Many debate whether or not Hester Prynne should be portrayed in an angelic or sinful light. The author and critic, D.H. Lawrence, focuses on Hester’s sin itself, and focuses on having the reader view an alternate perspective of Hester, seeing her not as the victim, but as the criminal, as she should be viewed based on traditional Puritan values. Lawrence achieves the perspective that Hester should be viewed in a sinful light through his rhythmic and fluid syntax, negative and hateful diction, as well as his sarcastic and critical tone.
The characterization of Hester Prynne demonstrates a contrast to pure society, as writer and critic D.H. Lawrence suggests in his article, “On the Scarlet Letter.” There is a genuine disparity in the methods Lawrence uses to portray Prynne, and the methods used by The Scarlet Letter’s author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Because of his utilization of impactful syntax, religious allusion, and critical tone, D.H. Lawrence’s claim that Hester Prynne is a contradictory character to pure society is effectively justified when compared to the misleading seductive elements of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing.
Throughout the course of history, the concept of women being subordinate to men has always existed. However, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a woman named Hester Prynne tries to break prejudicial notions against women in a patriarchal society. In the story, Hester commits the crime of adultery and is sentenced by the government to wear a scarlet letter as it symbolizes ignominy. Since she lives in Puritan New England, the people do not value women a lot, her actions becomes a sight of public scrutiny. Yet, with her strength as a woman, she is able to not only survive the situation, but also reverse as she later becomes an important member of their community. In a feminist perspective of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter,
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.
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the reader meets the character Hester Prynne who as the novel progresses, one notices the changes in her character are very dramatic. The changes are both physical and in her mannerism’s. There are many significant events which took place before the start of the novel and during the novel. Some of these events that lead to this dramatic change include the affect of wearing the scarlet letter, the secrets which she keeps, and her daughter Pearl’s evil characteristics. By these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the time of the story.
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 Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.