What Is Hester Prynne's Role In The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne condemns the Puritan’s outdated stance on the female gender by contrasting their ideas of women with Hester Prynne’s desirable intrepidness and self-sufficiency. To begin, through highlighting Hester Prynne’s intrepid character, Hawthorne rebukes the Puritan’s inferior view of women. Reverend Wilson, a minister in Hester Prynne’s town, demands Hester to confess to the colony the father of her baby. Standing upon the town’s scaffold in ignominy in front of the entire colony, Hester boldly refuses to disclose the name her baby’s father (40). Her fearless refusal to Reverend Wilson’s appeal demonstrates a sought-after female defiance to male authority. Hawthorne designs Hester Prynne’s intrepidness and the defiance to Wilson to appeal with the modern readers of Hawthorne’s time causing the readers to denounce the

Puritan attitudes on women. Also, Hawthorne calls attention to Hester’s intrepidness when Hester challenges her husband, Roger Chillingworth, after he offers her suspicious medicine.

“‘I have thought of death,’ she said—‘have wished for it…yet, if death be in this cup, I bid thee think again, ere thou beholdest me quaff it. See! It is even now at my lips’”(42). The Puritans retained the thought of the ideal subservient and submissive wife. However, in this instance, Hester daringly disregards the notion of a subservient wife and challenges her husband by pronouncing her contentment for death. In turn, Hawthorne draws the reader into thinking negatively of the Puritan’s attitude toward women. Furthermore, Hester confronting Chillingworth demonstrates another occasion of Hester’s intrepidness. After years of keeping the secret that Chillingworth is her husband, Hester fearlessly speaks again with Chillingworth. “‘I must reveal the secret,’ answered Hester, firmly… ‘What may be the result, I know not’” (97). Hester confidently speaks with Chillingworth about breaking her promise to him, and she also expresses her fearless attitude about the

result. Hester not only defies the authority of a man, but also with certainty, which engages the modern reader and contradicts the Puritan old-fashioned view of the female gender.
In addition to Hester’s intrepid disposition, Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes her self-sufficiency to censure the Puritan’s outdated stance on the female gender. In particular, Hester exhibited her independent attitude when walking from the prison to the scaffold. The town beadle escorted Hester from the jail into the public: “He laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he thus drew forward, until, on the threshold of the prison-door, she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air as if by her own free will” (31). By repelling the man, Hester proudly revealed her self-sufficiency to the Puritans, unaccustomed to an independent, female character. Hawthorne reflects animosity for the Puritan’s lesser view of females by promoting Hester’s self-sufficiency at the prison door. Likewise, Hawthorne displays Hester’s self-sufficiency by affirming how she solely supports Pearl and herself. For example, Hester sells her needlework to colonists such as the governor, military officials, the minister, and others (47). Puritans expected that men provide for their family and think of women as incapable. However, Hester shows her capability to the Puritans with her needlework. Through Hester’s self-sufficiency, Hawthorne indicates his opposition for the Puritan’s assumption of the incompetent woman. Finally, Hester entering the governor’s house articulates her self-sufficiency. “‘Nevertheless, I will enter’” (59). Her composure and the dignified manner in which she enters Governor Bellingham’s house demonstrate her independence. Puritans typically recognized that men lead the women, but Hester, nonetheless, independently arrives unaccompanied by a man. Using Hester’s self-sufficiency, Hawthorne stresses the independent women and the obsolete Puritan idea about an accompanying male.