Societal pressures and expectations affect the lives of individuals. Throughout history women, in particular, experience the oppression of societies which view them as inferior and born for primitive functions. In the Second World War, American women were not considered capable of fighting in the war, and had to stay home while men went overseas to fight. This inferior view of women has appeared for generations throughout history. Through constant exposure to discriminatory treatment, women eventually submit to societal oppression and this treatment negatively impacts their social and intellectual growth as individuals. In his nineteenth century novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows how the pressures of society create forceful …show more content…
Hawthorne aims to communicate to women the importance of dismissing societal pressure and mistreatment, and gaining independence from outer influences. To demonstrate his idea of women, Hawthorne uses the main character, Hester Prynne. Critic Gert Buelens of Ghent University discusses Hester’s role and depiction in the novel:
The strong-minded Hester we have encountered in the course of the story offers the reader at the same time an illustration of resistance to society’s expectations and demands, and a delightfully contrasting image to that of the annoying, spineless [Dimmesdale]. Thus, Hawthorne may have condemned Hester Prynne and her adultery and reduced her role in the end to a fairly conservative and “feminine” one, he did not destroy the reader’s capacity to admire the force she displayed during her trials (26).
Buelens recognizes that Hawthorne utilizes Hester as a symbol of independence from societal oppression and condemnation. Hawthorne also exhibits the strength a woman can possess, which can even surpass that of a male if necessary, as appears when contrasting Hester’s character with that of Arthur Dimmesdale. Through Hester, Buelens argues, Hawthorne attempts to communicate the importance of staying true to oneself and ignoring the mistreatment which can ultimately damage women’s
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In the novel Hawthorne highlights the treatment that Hester receives after her branding as an adulterer. Individuals of all ages in her town gathered to ridicule and shame Hester, not hesitating to turn their backs on her: “...Hester Prynne, standing up, a statue of ignominy, before the people”(53). Hester’s sin of adultery gains a great amount of attention, spreads throughout the town, and eventually ends up affecting the rest of her life. From that moment on, the townspeople hold Hester under major scrutiny, intruding on not only her life and the life of her daughter Pearl. Hawthorne shows how easily a society eager to place blame can target individuals, forgetting to utilize kindness and compassion and instead allowing prejudice and hate to drive its thoughts and actions. Michael Dunne, writer for the Scriptorium Press, talks about the community of Boston in a piece he wrote for the journal Interpretations, where he refers to the town’s members as “an extremely severe people, respecters of abstract form rather than human emotions” (Dunne 35). Dunne points out how Hawthorne depicts Hester’s community in an effort to show their almost inbred inclination to alienate and mistreat her simply because they allow her adulterous acts to determine her worthiness in their eyes. The townspeople almost forget her role and presence in their community and focus on her
Hester, however, was not some adulteress and sinner, in fact, she had more integrity than the self-proclaimed righteous townspeople. After her punishment in the book the townspeople end up saying, “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) and describe her as the loving angel of the town even though they still shame her for the crime she committed about a decade ago. Going hand and hand with Boo Radley, Hester was misunderstood by the people until they actually saw her for the kind woman she was and not for the letter upon her chest. Hawthorne, unlike Lee, wrote with a portrait lens, for he captured a picture of a detailed and realistic character with Hester, who was punished for the crime she committed. Hawthorne described the injustice in the same view as Lee as “the young woman - the mother of this child - stood fully revealed before the crowd” (Hawthorne 36) publicly shamed in a world that failed to witness the wrong that they have done. The two different lenses of the authors connect together as they create a bigger picture than themselves on the topic of punishment. Though the authors tell the same view on punishment they did it by coming at it at different
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne paints Hester Prynne as a person, a person that made mistakes, but who worked tirelessly to atone for them. Hawthorne’s use of of positive diction and profound imagery also set Hester’s tone as a woman scorned, but
The characters Hawthorne develops are deep, unique, and difficult to genuinely understand. Young, tall, and beautiful Hester Prynne is the central protagonist of this story. Shamefully, strong-willed and independent Hester is the bearer of the scarlet letter. Burning with emotion, she longs for an escape from her mark, yet simultaneously, she refuses to seem defeated by society’s punishment. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale claims the secondary role in The Scarlet Letter; he is secretly Hester’s partner in adultery. Conflicted and grieved over his undisclosed act, he drives himself to physical and mental sickness. He fervently desires Hester, but should he risk his godly reputation by revealing the truth? Dimmesdale burns like Hester. Pearl, the child produced in Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin, is the third main character. She is fiery, passionate, perceiving, and strikingly symbolic; at one point in the novel she is referred to as “the scarlet letter endowed with life!” Inevitably, Pearl is consumed with questions about herself, her mother, and Dimmesdale. The reader follows Pearl as she discovers the truth. Altogether, Hawthorne’s use of intricately complex, conflicted ch...
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,
Hawthorne shows what actually happens behind closed doors. To the people of the town Hester Prynne was just a harlot with a bastard child, but to the readers she was a strong woman who was going to be more than just a harlot. Hawthorne showed that Hester Prynne, and her were actual people with thoughts and feelings and not just a sinner and the product of the sin as the town saw them. The people of the town saw Hester as a disgrace, but with all the torture they gave her was she really the one who was in the
Hester is being considered as the devil (Bellis 1), which is a sign that the town’s people are slanderous and judgmental. Their judgment has caused her to be isolated. “… A woman who had once been innocent…” is now considered as “…the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 39). They look at her as a threat diminishing their community’s chance for purification because “there was the taint of deepest sin…” (Hawthorne 24). My apprehension of Pearl is that she is the fruit of evil, because she is seen as “immortal” (Hawthorne 11). Because, she has caused a ruckus, her immoral acts have disturbed the nature of their society. They think this is morally correct because, “Political and generational ambivalence has its psychological counterpart…” (Bellis 2), which give them the right to make her an evil outcast.
Through Hester and the symbol of the scarlet letter, Hawthorne reveals how sin can be utilized to change a person for the better, in allowing for responsibility, forgiveness, and a renewed sense of pride. In a Puritan society that strongly condemns adultery one would expect Hester to leave society and never to return again, but that does not happen. Instead, Hester says, “Here…had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.” Hes...
When one analyzes the punishment inflicted upon her, it may seem harsh and cruel, especially for a Puritan society. It seems that Hawthorne agrees with this as well. Throughout the novel, it seems apparent that Hawthorne feels that the punishment Hester received was harsh and self-degrading. When one commits a sin, they should understand their mistake, receive their blame, and receive a "slap on the wrist." However, the punishment Hester received was far worse emotionally. Wearing the letter made Hester the talk-about of the town. When she walked through the marketplace, she received scornful looks, as if society was rejecting her for her wrongdoing. Hester was now living on the outskirts of town, isolated from neighbors and trying to communicate with her daughter Pearl.
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...
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.
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
The main character of Hawthorne’s novel is Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman who committed adultery and was publically punished for it. At the time, she faced a great amount of humiliation and hatred from the Boston townspeople for what she had done. Her punishment was to wear a scarlet letter attached to her breast for the rest of her life so then people will know she committed adultery. Because of her scarlet letter, the townspeople thought she was a sinful person and that everything she did was almost a crime. Despite through all of these tough times, no one knew who committed adultery along with Hester.
Another time Hester’s inner strength is apparent is when it is stated, “Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind ” (58). This means that for several years, Hester has to endure public ridicule and social isolation. Overcoming this horrible treatment demonstrates Hester’s strength, which proves Hawthorne’s belief that women can be equally resilient to men when it comes to emotional strength. Finally, due to Hester’s endurance and helpfulness, her reputation
In On the Scarlet Letter, D.H. Lawrence examines one of the many different opinions on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character from The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne. Instead of evaluating the consequences of Hester’s sin, Lawrence focuses more on the sin itself. Mocking Hester, he clearly demonstrates that he does not agree with the amount of appraisal she receives and does not think that people should use her as a model to look up to. To express his opposition towards Hester Prynne, Lawrence includes narrative allusions, demeaning diction, and repetition throughout his criticism. By examining Hester Prynne’s character through narrative allusions, Lawrence demonstrates his cynical view of her.