Jeanette Martinez
Professor Stacey Knapp
English 1B
M/W 12:50-2:10
15 May 2011
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter, a well known novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne , is a novel that can be interpreted in many ways. The Scarlet Letter itself is ultimately a story about the consequences a woman has to face when she makes a mistake. Hester Prynne, the main character of the novel, endures the shame the Puritan society places upon her for committing adultery. The Puritan society she lived in greatly looked down upon Hester’s sin: an extra-marital affair that resulted in a pregnancy. Hester was imprisoned and came out of that imprisonment with courage. She walked out of prison looking beautiful, with her head held high, and her baby in her arms. Hester also stood her ground and protected her baby’s father; she would not reveal his identity, however, he ultimately confesses his sin. On the inside, Hester was also ashamed of herself, and felt that she was deserving of her punishment, which included wearing an embroidered letter “A” on her bosom. This embroidered scarlet letter “A” marked her as an adulterer, an emblem with a significance that all could see. Along with shame and punishment, love is also an important part of the novel. Hester loved Pearl, and also loved Pearl’s father, Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the Puritan ministers. This forbidden love, unknown to the rest of the society, played a huge part in The Scarlet Letter, which is why Hawthorne calls it a romance. The Scarlet Letter is about the strife women face in society, their strength, and also, the strength of love. The reception and criticism of The Scarlet Letter has led to much controversy between critics; some say that Nathaniel Hawthorne is a Patriarchal sexist, others say he’s a feminist, other’s say that feminism drives the story…Which is it? After reading The Scarlet Letter, I found that I agree with the argument that feminism drives the story; the main character is a feminist, as is the author himself.
One critic, Orestes Brownson, a 19th century critic, does not care to praise Hawthorne on his writing, instead he criticizes Hawthorne’s portrayal of morals in the story. Although it may not have been Brownson’s intention, his criticism of Hawthorne’s portrayal of morals led me to believe that Hawthorne is a feminist. Brownson says:
The adulteress suffers not from remorse, but from regret, and from the disgrace to which her crime has exposed her…The minister, her accomplice, suffers also, horribly…but not from the fact of the crime itself, but from the consciousness of not being what he seems to the world…Neither ever really repents of the criminal deed; nay, neither ever regards it as really criminal, and both seem to hold it to have been laudable, because they loved one another…Mr. Hawthorne in the present case seeks to excuse Hester Prynne, a married woman, for loving the Puritan minister, on the grounds that she had no love for her husband…sin is sin, and that it is pardonable only through the great mercy of God. (p.251)
It is evident that Hawthorne does indeed excuse Hester’s actions because of her situation. He does not see the world as black-and-white when it comes to morals and sins, a viewpoint that is not uncommon in society today…mostly in women. In society today, a woman that committed adultery would most certainly not be punished in the manner that Hester was, but men tend to be more old-fashioned when it comes to women’s behavior and not fall for the excuses a woman may have for sinning. Because it is common for men to feel that way, I feel that Hawthornes’s opposing viewpoints on morals is evidence that he is a feminist, and also that Hester herself is a feminist. Nina Baym from the New England Quarterly also feels that the manner in which Hawthorne portrays women indicates that he is a feminist. She too knows that people have called him a “patriarchal sexist”, but does not think that a patriarchal author could have created a character such as Hester. She insists that Hester’s character is made to “signify something entirely different – able, admirable”, which leads her to claim that the novel itself is characterized by feminism.
Hester could be considered a feminist because of how she dealt with her situation. Her forbidden and hidden affair with the minister led to a pregnancy that could not be hidden from anyone with eyes. Hester’s punishment was time in prison and the shame of having to wear a scarlet letter “A” that put her sin in the spotlight for everyone to see. Although she often dwelled on the actions that made her an outcast from society, she stood strong and kept her ground. When she was released from prison, she was described as:
…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 complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She was lady-like too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity…her attire…seemed to express the attitude of her spirit, the desperate recklessness of her mood…that SCARLET LETTER so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. (Hawthorne 40-41)
I’m sure feminists would find Hester’s release from jail impressive. Hester came out looking strong and beautiful; she left the on looking crowd speechless by her beauty and unabashed, haughty smile. This shows that even though they tried to put her down for her sins, she still found her way to shine, especially by making the shameful “A”, a beautiful “A”. A criticism of The Scarlet Letter by Robert S. Levine also notes that “Hester’s dissident side…associates her with antebellum feminism” (P 276).
However, Hester could also be seen as anti-feminist because she too looks down at her actions.
Here, she said to herself, 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 sould, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because of martyrdom. (Hawthorne 56)
On the contrary, it still takes a strong woman to stay in that community and bear the punishment instead of fleeing. Not only did she stay and endured her punishment, Hester also made herself useful to the community. She was handy with the needle and was frequently asked to make garments. She also always shared the little that she had to the poor. Eventually, Hester’s good deeds made her one bad deed fade away, yet she continued to wear the scarlet letter. Perhaps because the letter “A” not only represented adultery, but it stood for Arthur, which was Minister Dimmesdale’s first name, whom she loved enough to protect from shame and humiliation.
Love is also a major part of the novel. There is the maternal love between Hester and her daughter Pearl and there is also the romantic love between Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale, her partner in sin. There is nothing like a mother's love, a love that is strong, forgiving, and never ending. However, as we read, Hester often found herself asking herself if Pearl was a demon offspring. When she looked into Pearl’s eyes she saw “a face, fiend-like, full of smiling malice” in them, which would bring doubts into Hester’s mind (Hawthorne 66). Nevertheless, Hester kept Pearl. “I will not give her up!...What are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are, when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter” (Hawthorne 76). Pearl, being the creation of Hester and Arthur’s forbidden love, is what connects them all together, which makes it important that they all love each other. Hester truly loved Arthur, and he reciprocated the feelings. “He loves thee, my little Pearl, and loves thy mother too” (Hawthorne 135). Hester hated to see Arthur suffer. She proposed that they leave it all behind and start again. “Let us not look back, the past is gone!..I undo it all, and make it as it had never been!” (Hawthorne 130). Hester wanted them to be able to be a happy family together, in a place where they need not hide their prohibited relationship. Throughout all those years, Hester was a strong and independent single mother, despite the struggle of having to face a society that looked down on her, a society that did not see her fit to be a mother, a society that thought that little Pearl was a child of the devil. This leads to me repeat that it is quite evident that Hester embodied all the ideal attributes of a feminist. The reason that she then wanted to leave the society that had isolated her for so many years is not that she could no longer face the hardships, but because she knew that it was the only way Dimmesdale would be with them, she knew that the happiness and love of her family was more important than continuing to pay for a mistake they had made years prior.
Ultimately, The Scarlet Letter is ruled by feminism and love, and could not have been written from a patriarchal author. Critics may oppose that statement but I feel that any way you interpret The Scarlet Letter, it will lead you back to both feminism and love because they are intertwined in this novel. Hester’s feminist strength that helps her through her punishment is born from both the maternal love for Pearl, and the forbidden love she feels towards Arthur Dimmesdale…all of which are the creation of Hawthorne’s mind. Therefore, I make the concluding statement that feminism and love are the main components of The Scarlet Letter.
Works Cited
Bayme, Nina. "Revisiting Hawthorne's Feminism." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. A Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2005. 540-58. Print.
Brownson, Orestes. "From Brownson's Quarterly." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. A Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2005. 250-53. Print.
DeSalvo, Louise. "Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Feminists: The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. A Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2005. 500-12. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. A Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2005. Print.
Levine, Robert S. "Antebellum Feminists on Hawthorne: Reconsidering the Reception of The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings. A Norton Critical Edition ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2005. 270-90. Print.
