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Women in American literature
Gender roles throughout literature
Women in American literature
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When Hester Prynne refuses to name the father of her child she sets herself apart from every other woman in puritan society. Nathaniel Hawthorne paints Hester Prynne as a feminist icon by making her a woman who makes a choice that goes against the moral code of her society. By using a female lead in his novel the scarlet letter Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates his understanding of the disadvantage women are given in a patriarchal society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is portrayed as a woman whose every move is met with mockery and adversity and is able to keep her head up regardless as she is used as a figurehead of the feminist movement of her time.
“Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they
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might vivify and embody their images of women’s frailty and sinful passion.”(Hawthorne p. 71). The moment Hester stands before the edifice on top of the pillory she will be used for the rest of her life as an example. Hester’s demeanor throughout the story is very standoffish, she tries throughout the story to interact as little as possible. To react as little as possible. Throughout the entire story Prynne tries to remain apathetic or at least seem that way. The moment she is convicted Hester loses all desire to be a functioning member of puritan society despite her desire to attend church. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne’s character to illustrate his understanding of the difference of expectations between men and women in a patriarchal society.
He even says as much in a letter to his mother a year or so before he enters college. “Oh how i wish i was again with you with nothing to do but go a gunning. but the happiest days of my life are gone . why was i not a girl that i might have been pinned all my life to my mother’s apron” (Hawthorne, N. letters, 1;117 ). Nina Baym says “Given the conspicuous gun image Hawthorne is not complaining about his gender but about the rules that force a boy.. into the cold patriarchal world.” (Baym, N., Feminism and American Literary History, 45). This is to say that Hawthorne recognized and understood that men and women were held at two different standards and expected to do two different things. Hawthorne portrays his character Prynne as woman who breaks against one of those standards by 0questioning the virginity equals worth theory which is disproven by the end of the story which shows that the town’s people accept Hester despite the lurid circumstances of her
deflowering. Dimmesdale’s deeds of hypocrisy further illustrate Hawthorne’s understanding of these roles. “The feminist concern comes to the fact that a society blames the woman for sexual intercourse whereas the male partner is equally punishable.” ( Azam,A., Language in India: The Woman is the Victim, 3/6) The fact that the town’s people were willing to shoulder all the blame on Hester once she refused to name the child’s father, brings the question, were the town people more upset with Hester’s strong demeanor or with the fact that she cheated on her presumably dead husband? Were the town’s people more willing to put the blame on Hester rather than her male counterpart? These questions posed to the audience hint even more so at Hawthorne’s understanding of societal gender roles. Throughout the entirety of Hawthorne’s novel though his nods at feminist ideals may not be outright they are there if the reader chooses to look for them. Hester is a character with a strong and prideful demeanor, brought down by the mocking and alienation she experiences everyday and yet she is only seen as faulty because she made a choice for herself. Hawthorne wrote a character who made a choice for themselves when that was not allowed. A character that made a choice when women were seen as the most foolish of all and he made her strong. A character who was given a mark of shame and used their skills to normalize it and bring it into their lives. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is portrayed as a woman whose every move is met with mockery and adversity and is able to keep her head up regardless as she is used as a figurehead of the feminist movement of her time.
Literature is very interesting when there is a change in the protagonist. They can start out bad but turn out good in the end. Being the protagonist of a novel and changing your ways can affect the story and give it a great plot twist. There is a story in literature that contains a person that made a bad decision. A victim of sin, Hester Prynne, emerges as a determined, loving, and strong heroine, living her own life in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hester Prynne is seen by many as worthy of respect and admiration throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. She is ultimately seen as a hero in many areas of the novel. Literary critic Mark Van Doren argues that Hester Prynne is a heroic citizen who rises above the consequences of her sin. Van Doren argues that Hester Prynne should be seen as a noble hero through his use of repetition, praiseworthy diction, and admirable tone.
Hester Prynne, “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexation, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes.” (11). In this quote Hawthorne depicts Hester as lady-like with great beauty, elegance, and intelligence; continually Hawthorne mentioned how Hester’s beauty stands out from the dark Puritan society. However,
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.
...and was outside of the country, everybody hated her. Even though she knows that everybody hates her, Hester never gives up to be forgiven by people. Hester Prynne did many great things for people. She decorated people’s clothes and donated her clothes to the poor. She made money and supported her daughter, Pearl. Hester Prynne could have financial difficulties, but she did everything by herself. Hester Prynne is a very courageous brave woman unlike other women in 1850’s. Because of Hester Prynne’s characteristic, the book became a great feminist novel. Not only Nathaniel Hawthrone did not just make up the story throughout the fiction, but he reflected the real society during his time to a novel which is The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne’s role, a strong brave feminist, in the story is one of the best elements that brought The Scarlet Letter to a great novel.
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.
In the novel the Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Hester Prynne sinned by committing adultery which changes her identity while she wears the Scarlet Letter. “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity” (Erik Erikson). The way the scarlet letter defines Hester as someone who sinned in her society. The way that her society reacted to her with the scarlet letter, made her question her identity of who she is with the scarlet letter. Hester is forced to change her identity and the society around her looks at her in a different eye than what she was before she received the scarlet letter.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester is the main character. Hester is referred to as “Mistress Prynne” (Hawthorne 70). The Scarlet Letter also mentions she is holding her three month old baby, Pearl, in her arms who winked and turned her head by the sun’s rays (Hawthorne 71). She is described as having an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread “letter A” on the breast of her gown (Hawthorne 71). Hester was also a tall woman (Hawthorne 72). Her hair was dark and abundant her hair shined while the sunshine gleamed off her hair (Hawthorne 72). Hester had a marked brow and dark black eyes (Hawthorne 72). Hester Prynne is often described as a lady-like person (Hawthorne 72).
At the beginning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is labeled as the “bad guy”. The townspeople demand the other adulterer’s name, but Hester denies this revelation. She does not reveal it because she knows that the information will crumble the foundation of the Puritan religion and the town itself. “‘But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?’ ‘Ask me not!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. ‘That thou shalt never know!’(Hawthorne 52). Hester knows that finding out that the father of the child, the Minister that is leading the town, will diminish credibility for the church and for Dimmesdale, the Minister. During her punishment, Hester decides to move out near the woods and make a living as a seamstress. Hester is regarded as an outcast from Boston, but she still gives back to the society that shuns her. ‘“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?’ they would say to strangers. ‘It is our Hester, —the town's own Hester, —who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!’”(Hawthorne 111). Her acts of kindness, helping the sick and comforting the afflicted, toward the society that makes her an outcast shows the inner goodness of a person. Throu...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is virtually banished from the Puritan society because of her crime. She was guilty for adultery with the town’s minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. However, the reader is kept in the dark that Dimmesdale is the child’s father until latter part of the novel. Although Hawthorne’s novel accurately depicts the consequences that Hester and Dimmesdale suffer from their sin, the novel does not accomplish the task of reflecting upon the 17th century Puritan gender roles in Hester and Dimmesdale. For one, the mental and physical states of Hester and Dimmesdale are switched. Hester takes on the more courageous role throughout the novel whereas Dimmesdale takes on the more sensitive role. In addition, Hester is examined in accordance to the gender roles set for today’s American women. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is written in a manner that accurately depicts 17th century Puritan society, but does not accurately show gender roles.
In a normal Puritan society, a woman’s most important role was that of being a mother and housewife, and women were always seen as being less than a man. The rights of women during Puritan times were very limited and they had many restrictions on what they could and could not do. For example, they could not vote in the town council, own or buy land, or command any servants that their husband or father owned (study.com). Hawthorne represented this through the societies thoughts about Hester, and through how most other women in the society act. The societies thoughts about Hester show that any women who does not follow the normal way of doing things is to be punished and looked down on, even if their actions are completely relevant and harmless. It also represents how harshly women were judged for simply just being a
Throughout all the sinful things Hester Prynne has done, she still managed to obtain good qualities. Hester was an adulterer from the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester was looked down upon by the citizens of Boston because of the sin she and another person committed, but no one knew who her partner in crime was because she refused to release his name. Towards the very end of the story Hester’s accomplice confessed and left Hester and Pearl feeling joyous, because now they didn’t have to keep in a secret. Hester is a trustworthy, helpful, and brave woman throughout The Scarlet Letter.
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.
Character Analysis The innocent daughter of Hester Prynne, Pearl, overcomes the merciless monster of her society in order to prosper in life later down the road. This abomination was filled to the brim with criticism, hate and cruelty unnecessary for a mere toddler. However, regardless of the insuperable circumstances, Pearl eventually trekked over the critical mountain of her society. That is to say, she warded off the wolves of malice and weathered the blistering winds of bitterness.