Comparing The Price Of Freedom In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

The Price of Freedom in The Scarlet Letter

A time where both men and women share equal status and equal treatment, has never existed. Although societal standards evolve with the times, gender-specific roles exist in society, and continue to separate the genders from facing societal judgement on uneven ground. In his nineteenth century novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes the effects of societal pressure on an individual, and compares the freedom of personal empowerment and the chains of guilt through a feminist lens.

Analysis of Literature

Critics of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work agree his writing intends to expose the unfair treatment of people and the rulings made by the church of the Puritan society. Critic Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Critic Robert Martin states that it's up to the individual “to say where his masculinity and femininity are at" (513). Puritanical society considered women as the fairer gender that should not hold power or stand as equals with their husbands. While meekness and obedience make up an ideal Puritan women, men must prove themselves as strong, powerful, and righteous. This creates a constant need for individuals to prove themselves. Puritanical women approach their insecurities of their femininity by appearing subservient to their husbands in public and never questioning their role in society. Hawthorne describes the men revered by the community as “men of the sword” who overthrow “nobles and kings” and devote their lives to their religious beliefs (Hawthorne 107). Men respond with actions of empowerment which results in corruption, or guilt of the means required to achieve their goals of status in society, which hide their insecurities of not feeling as though they fit the standards of the pinacol of masculinity. Both actions of changing oneself and choosing not to care about others in one’s journey to greatness lead to sin, which creates a corrupt