Feminism In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Feminism and The Scarlet Letter  Feminism has been taking the world by storm. From feminist critiques on video game characters to petitions for more female leads in film, this movement has come a long way. That is why it is so incredible that the character Hester Prynne from the novel The Scarlet Letter appears to be a strong female protagonist, a novel written long before the feminism movement began. Some critics lavish praise on Hawthorne’s depiction of a powerful female character, but others view Hester as simply a representation of what men want in a woman. Although some of Hester’s actions are questionable in terms of feminism, she makes up for it in her battle against the Puritan societal constraints she is bound by.  Throughout

the novel, Hester is seen as an independent woman. She raises Pearl on her own, with Pearl’s father, Dimmesdale, only claiming Pearl as his daughter moments before his death. She lives and works without help from others. She even helps those in need without asking for anything in return. Hester Prynne even makes her first appearance alone with her child on the scaffold in the midst of the angry townspeople, with an elaborate scarlet letter A on her chest that branded her as an adulteress. After she refuses to divulge the name of the father, she is essentially cast out of society and begins living in a house on the edge of the forest, where the wild meets civilization, and more importantly, where the oppression of the Puritan rules cannot reach her.

Despite being cast out, Hester quickly gets to work making garments for the townspeople, despite their unsympathetic treatment toward her. She does not depend on a man to be the breadwinner in the family, bringing in a “subsistence of the plainest and most ascetic description, for herself, and a simple abundance for her child,” Thus, the scarlet letter on her chest took on a whole new meaning, as “any 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” (213). Hester, aside from her child, is basically alone throughout her life, but still manages to draw strength from inside and treat others with kindness and passion, proving her a strong woman.  Hester’s acts of kindness are not the only thing that sets her apart from the rest of the Puritans. She represents going against the status quo as a whole, thinking independently from the church ideology the townspeople follow like

sheep. Living on the edge of the forest and being the mother of a precocious and almost magical Pearl, Hester is a very different follower of God from her fellow townspeople. Whereas Pearl is strange and wild, the townspeople are austere and dull, and Hester is caught in this conflict. The townspeople value holiness and purity, but Hester commits an act of passion and sin, which can alternatively be seen as simply an act of love. While most Puritan women would find the idea of divorce abhorrent, Hester dares to fall in love, rejecting the cold, passionless marriage she is in. And love can hardly be seen as a sin. Hester also fights against the church for another person she loves, her daughter Pearl. After townspeople complain about Hester’s parenting and Pearl’s wildness, the all-male church officials threaten to take Pearl away. Even though the odds are overwhelmingly against Hester, she still makes a passionate plea to the men for her to keep Pearl.  Indeed, some of Hester’s actions are questionable. Why she stays so vehemently loyal to Dimmesdale despite his treatment of her is never clarified, and as a beautiful, sensuous woman who stands out from the dull and masculine women of Boston, Hester can certainly be seen as a man’s dream woman. However, her fierce independence and desire to carve her own path in spite of living in a male dominated society makes her one of literature’s first feminists.