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Nicole Bratu

Bowler

English 10 Honors

07 April 2019

Feminist Analysis
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work The Scarlet Letter takes place in colonial America. Hester

Prynne is a mother who committed adultery, so as her punishment she had to wear the scarlet

letter on her clothes for the rest of her life. The people of the town judge her and isolate her

because of it. She does not want to reveal who the father is, when in fact it is the father is the

most ironic person. The father is Reverend Dimmesdale, the highly thought of priest who

everyone looked up to as angelic and pure. Hawthorne portrays women in a negative light as

viewed through the feminist theory lense.

Hawthorne does not present a complete and well-rounded view of women. As Hester

comes out of the prison, there is a description about the women who are waiting to see her,

“...every successive mother has transmitted to her child a faiter bloom, a more delicate and

briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame…”(44). The women are supposed to be small and

delicate, their appearance more important than their personality and intelligence. There isn’t a

full description given of any of the women besides Hester. Hawthorne portrays women in this

book as objects of beauty, just important for looking feminine and taking care of children. Hester

thinks about how Pearl would be able to live in that town when she was older, “...the very nature

of the opposite sex….is to be essentially modified, before women can be allowed to assume what

seems a fair and suitable position”(129). This is explaining how women can never really step up

to the same level as a man because there are too many obstacles. When Hawthorne does describe
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women, he describes them as weak and submissive. The women as living in a patriarchal society,

not having say in any matters.

Hawthorne describes the women in ways that explains their strengths and describes their

weaknesses.When Hester was leaving the prison, “This women has brought shame upon all of us

and ought to die. Is there no law for it? Truely, there is , both in the scripture and the Stature

book”(45). One of the strengths Hawthorne gives to the women in this book is piety and good

standing with the church. In the society they live in, this may be considered a strength since the

lives of everyone revolved around the church. This might have been a strength but it still shows

how Hawthorne portrayed women in a negative light. Since they go to church they may think

that they have the right to judge Hester. Hester committed a sin so the people feel entitled to give

their opinion when they have all committed some kind of sin, maybe not as great as Hester’s but

still a sin. As the townspeople are waiting for Hester to leave the prison, they start giving their

opinions about what should happen to her, “...they should have branded of a hot iron on Hester

Prynne’s forehead”(44). A weakness that the women have are how judgemental they are. They

did not think of both sides of the situation before giving their opinion. The women judging

Hester aren’t thinking about what would happen to her baby. They are just thinking about her

own punishment.

Hawthorne describes a patriarchal society when it comes to political and social power.

When Hester stands on the scaffold, “here to witness the scene which we are describing sat

Governor Bellingham himself, with four sergeants about his chair…”(54). The political power in

this society is held only by men. This tends to imply how women are incapable of being in

government positions. The men are supposed to run everything and the women just have to stay

home and take care of the kids and cook and clean. As the townspeople wait for Hester to leave
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the prison, they talk about how hard Hester’s pastor took the news, “...the Reverend Master

Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have

come upon his congregation”(44). If the Reverend is very upset, it means that it is a big deal

since people put all of their trust in the church. The people very truly follow the power of the

church so the church is used in making decisions that the government should make. The society

that The Scarlet Letter takes place in is a theocratic society, so the same people who run the

government are also involved in the church. The laws they have are based on the morals of the

Church.

As viewed through the feminist theory lense, Hawthorne portrays women in a negative

light. To portray women more fairly, Hawthorne should give women more of a role in the story.

There would have to be more developed female characters that are incorporated. The women in

this story are portrayed as weak and submissive to the men. Hester is portrayed as somewhat

strong but not all the women are portrayed that way. The other women are portrayed as

submissive to the men and quiet, if there were to be a more balanced and fair representation of

them, they would have more if a stance in everyday life.