Women In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Women

“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength” - G.D. Anderson

Today, some branches of feminism have developed beyond their roots into what some people consider a type of female supremacy. They did not always act in this way. Feminism is truly centered around the idea of total equality between both women and men. Nathaniel Hawthorne can be considered a first-wave feminist, or a someone who believes in the true philosophy of feminism. His critical view of the puritan’s treatment of women and his creation of strong female characters revealed that Hawthorne did include feminist values in his writing. The Scarlet Letter acted as a prelude
to feminism because it reveals society’s deplorable treatment of women in the Puritan culture and shows the reader the strength of women’s minds and emotions.

The Puritan’s awful treatment of women not only restricted their individuality but also `stifled their creativity.
Nathaniel Hawthorne created a highly negative view towards Puritanism throughout the progression of The Scarlet Letter. As Schwartz put it “Hawthorne always felt that the religious system of Puritanism was cold, hard, and confined.” In the first page, he told the reader that the center of the Puritan way of life is the prison “the black flower of civilized society” which is covered in plethora of nasty and invasive weeds such as “burdock, pig-weed, apple-pern, and such unsightly vegetation”(Hawthorne 29). Hawthorne described the Puritan women as lame, dull, and characterless, covered in “a coarser fibre” and like “the man-like Elizabeth” (Hawthorne 30). Puritan society believed that this is the ideal image of a woman. Women in the society are stripped of what makes people unique and replaced that uniqueness with a harsh, orthodox version of a woman. In contrast to the negative theme, the red rose-bush represented a whole new side of the society that is focused on freedom. As John Stubbs detailed it, “The image of the rosebush is associated with nature as opposed to civilized society, feelings of the heart as opposed to reasoned laws of the intellect, and freedom and joy as opposed to the punishment and severity” (Stubbs 1446). This concept of dark versus light can be associated with several other parallels, such as Chillingworth and Hester, or even man and
woman.

Hester Prynne’s individuality, creativity, and beauty are all taken from her by the Puritans and their Scarlet Letter, “Hester's complex humanity--her beauty, her imagination, her sexuality, her intelligence--is reduced to a ‘badge of shame,’ a label whose message is easy for readers to seize” (Hodges). She began the novel as “tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale”(Hawthorne 31) like the previously described rosebush. Even the townspeople were awed by Hester’s impressive attire and beauty “...both men and women who had been fairly acquainted with Hester Prynne were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time” (Hawthorne 32). As the story progressed, the reader saw Hester transform into the ideal Puritan women. The Scarlet Letter effectively acted as the Puritan’s way to transform those who have a unique sense of individuality to someone who lacks any at all. In order to achieve this, they either physically or mentally imprison women who showed signs of straying from the orthodox such as Hester Prynne.

The meaning behind the Puritan prison has several layers, including being a symbol of the oppression of women. The reader witnessed Hester’s slow decline into the Puritan orthodox as soon as she left their prison. Her “luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was completely hidden by a cap” and presented a “lack of demonstration in manners” (Hawthorne 92). Yet through all of her struggles against the Puritan ‘prison’, Hester remained strong and affectionate underneath. As Eeckman described her, “she refuses to accommodate to the image of the frail, fainting lady.” Tragically, even though she is able to resist the physical and mental pains, Hester succumbed to her strong sense of passion and affection.

Due to her inability to leave Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester is practically imprisoned by her love. Dimmesdale’s selfish attempt to hide his sin from the word in order to save his reputation put a great deal of strain on Hester. When she found Dimmesdale weak and worn sat upon the scaffold, Hester felt responsible for his well-being and depleting health. As George B. Loring said “ He lurks and skulks behind the protection of his profession and his social position, neither growing wiser nor stronger, but, day after day, paler and paler, more and more abject.” Ultimately leading to his own death, Dimmesdale’s selfish protection of his prominence led to Hester Prynne’s own unhappiness. This unhappiness is what prevented Hester from going “down to us in history, hand in hand with Ann Hutchinson” (Hawthorne 92). Her sentence, which had been given to her by Dimmesdale, remained with her until her latter years, when she left Pearl and her new life to return to Salem and to return to her former identity. Hester’s emotions ended up bringing her immense pain and prevented her from pursuing a truly influential life.

While Hester’s strong emotions are ultimately a weakness, Hawthorne argued that these emotions can be a strength for women. Hawthorne displayed his own ideas about how women should be treated and how society can change to do so:

As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down, and built up anew. Then, the nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditary habit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified, before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position. Finally, all other difficulties being obviated, woman cannot take advantage of these preliminary reforms, until she herself shall have undergone a still mightier change; in which, perhaps, the ethereal essence, wherein she has her truest life, will be found to have evaporated. A woman never overcomes these problems by exercise of thought. They are not to be solved, or only in one way. If her heart chance to come uppermost they vanish(Hawthorne 144).

The excerpt not only revealed to the reader Hawthorne’s own thoughts about how the issue of women’s rights should be addressed, but also why Hester has been weakened instead of strengthened by her emotions.
Hawthorne dictated that if a woman let her heart overcome her mind, then the necessary change can not occur. Thus Hester’s emotions become a weakness for her, but there are other women who show signs of change for the better. In the beginning of the novel, Hawthorne depicts the Puritan women as rough and characterless. The reader also views a new generation of women of “a more delicate and briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame” (Hawthorne 30). The tone of the younger maiden is more gentle and soft than that of the older women, and the maiden shows a unique sympathy for Hester that the other women fail to display. The character descriptions Hawthorne wrote for these opposing Puritan women revealed that the new generation of women were not only being changed themselves, but also trying to change the society around
them.

The Scarlet Letter is a symbol of both the oppression of women in Puritan New England and the unseen strengths of women in all time periods. Hawthorne’s novel marks an early piece of the feminist movement which would kick into full gear later in the century. This movement would eventually achieve many freedoms for women, even though it still struggles for equality today.