How Does Hester Prynne Change In The Scarlet Letter

Jane Austen, Harper Lee, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Eyre; all great writers, all known feminists, all of which are well-known women. Nathaniel Hawthorne is now developing as one of these writers of feminism in his novel, The Scarlet Letter, as a male feminist. The novel is about a Puritan woman named Hester Prynne living in the 17th century Boston. Hester commits adultery with the town minister and then bares his child, Pearl. Throughout the story,the characters face conflicts involving Hester’s husband and the townspeople. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne portrays Hester Prynne as a strong feminist through her determination as a single mother, her drastic change in physical appearance, and Hester overcoming many obstacles while having the stereotypical role of a Puritan woman. Hawthorne first shows Prynne’s

In the beginning of the novel, the town of Boston laughs, judges, and alienates Prynne for what she did and the scarlet letter on her bosom, until after seven years when the people began to see her differently. The narrator states that Hester was starting to be very helpful to the townspeople, almost as if she had changed. The scarlet letter was later seen as Hester being Able, and not a person of Adultery and sin. The letter had now shown her strength and accomplishments as a woman (Hawthorne 149). By telling of her strength and achievements in Boston, and as a woman in that time period, Hawthorne displays Prynne as a female who chooses to not be put down by others. Furthermore, in the “Hester Prynne and Feminist Literature,” Mary Ellen Snodgrass assists a point of Hester’s self-control and tells, “Her self control attests to Hawthorne’s character studies of women whom society boxes into inescapable corners.” Snodgrass adds on to her opinion on Hester’s feminism and explores more examples of Prynne’s