The Scarlet Letter

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Recommended: Character of Hester prynne

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlett Letter, has become one of the most discussed novels of all time. A great deal of` controversy streams from the obvious gender-related issues throughout the story. Considering the setting of seventeenth-century Boston, the plot takes place in a conservative Puritan society. Because of this, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, spends the seven years, over the course of which the book takes place, dealing with the repercussions of what is believed to be a “crime” against God and her community. The situation she is put in is one very few people could truly endure. Yet, she is able to beat all odds and surpass peoples’ expectations of an “ordinary Puritan women.” The complexity of the story goes into the depths of gender equality and the unconventional position this woman has in society. Hawthorne is able to depict conflicting gender roles in The Scarlett Letter by illustrating the expected persona of a Puritan woman and directly contrasting that norm with his very complicated and well-developed character, Hester Prynne.

It is evident to the reader that Hester Prynne is no ordinary women because of her clear defiance of what the Puritan society expects. “A community that embodies the qualities of aging public males must necessarily repress those of the young and female,” which has become an unspoken yet understood way of life in Salem, Massachusetts (Baym, “Defiance” 90). All women are required to be submissive and completely abiding of their husbands’ word. They are not to have any self-expression as it is thought to jeopardize the community as a whole. The manifestation of individuality and personal beliefs is seen as both a threat and a sign of insolence, which are responded to with very sev...

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...46. Print.

Doren, Mark Van. “Mark Van Doren on Hester Prynne In Conflict With Her Society.” Bloom’s Notes: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998. 33-35. Print.

Harris, Kenneth Marc. “Kenneth Marc Harris on Hester Prynne’s Sexuality.” Bloom’s Notes: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998. 61-64. Print.

Reynolds, David S. “David S. Reynolds on Hester Prynne as a ‘Fallen Women’.” Bloom’s Notes: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1998. 64-67. Print.

Reynolds, David S. “Hester and the Feminists of the 1840s.” Social Issues In Literature: Women’s Issues in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter. Ed. Elizabeth Des Chenes. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2009. 57-66. Print.

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