The Role Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Superior Essays
In the twenty-first century, feminism is viewed as a very controversial subject, ranging from not knowing what feminism truly is, to thinking that men are truly superior. This miss-knowledge of the subject could be from many factors, such as societal misinterpretation, but is likely because many are not exposed to true feminist personalities found in classical writing. These personalities exist quite often, but very few as powerful as Hester Prynne, a character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hester was a young woman who moved to America in the seventeenth century to create a new life for herself. While waiting for her husband she committed the “great sin” of adultery. She was discovered of this great sin when she became pregnant …show more content…
Hester was found to be a very stubborn woman, as she refused to tell the men in charge the information they requested in order to punish the father of the child. While being questioned by Dimmesdale, Hester was asked who the father was, but she refused to give a name. She was even told that she would be able to remove the letter from her blouse but she still would not give a name for the father. While Hester was required to survive through the harsh punishment given to those who commit great sin Dimmesdale, the town minister, who was later revealed to be the father or their daughter Pearl, repented his sins and believed that he should be punished as much as, if not more than Hester. He spent his nights locked in his house angry at himself for not confessing his sins as well as wishing he had taken the equal punishment with Hester when her sin was revealed. Eventually he publicly reveals his sin himself saying “I stand upon the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood ” (Hawthorne 201). Dimmesdale knew his sin was a crime, and tortured himself for it. While confessing his sins to the public, he opened his shirt to reveal a scarlet A, which, though unseen, was as significant to him as Hester’s scarlet letter. This prominent character created another example of a true feminist, as he believed that the punishment between them should be equal as they both committed the same crime. Dimmesdale is considered a modern feminist because he wants equality between the punishments for both genders. This need for equality between the genders punishment was not often found in puritan society, and Hawthorne creating this character in his work shows how prominent his views of feminism were in his

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Dimmesdale 's job was to get Hester to confess the identity of the child" ' Good Master Dimmesdale 's said he 'the responsibility of this woman 's soul lies greatly with you. It behooves you...to exhort her.... to confession ' " little did they know that Dimmesdale was the actual father. Dimmesdale tells Hester to confess on who the father is but Hester does not confess leaving him to feel a sinner for 7 long years. As the story continues Dimmesdale health becomes very bad " he was often observed...to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush then a paleness indicative of pain."…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It was a cold, somber Tuesday in Puritanical Boston. The clock had just struck 5 a.m. when I was starteledly awaken by the sounds of the rooster’s crow as dawn rose. I had never quite gotten used to this town since the moment I arrived, about a year ago, from my dear England. Alas, I reluctantly got up and strolled to the kitchen when I glimpsed out the window to find an enormous crowd gathered around the loathed wooden scaffold. I wasn’t too surprised, after all the people in this town had the tendency to be inquisitive especially one was publicly displayed as an ignominy on the scaffold, for the breaking of a commandment.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nowadays, many in the United States would feel it was ridiculous for someone to be publicly tried and punished for committing adultery; that it is a personal matter which people should confront amongst themselves, not with a court. This has not always been the case, however, as shown through The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a story of sin and love in a small Puritan town in the 1600s. Hester Prynne is put to trial for committing adultery, having a child with another man whilst her husband was away for multiple years. As her punishment, she is instructed to wear a large letter ‘A’ upon her bosom until her last breath. In the Scarlet Letter, the letter A Hester bears upon her bosom begins as a representation of Hester’s shame, but ultimately…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Strong, Sinful Woman Hester Prynne was ostracized by the society around her for many years following the birth of her daughter Pearl. Since the day she walked out of the prison door people were calling her names and saying she should be put to death, but no matter how many hurtful names the townspeople came up with to throw at her, she always accepted them and said nothing in return. Hester’s crime of adultery went against the town’s religious morals because that strictly disobeyed one of God’s rules. The women of the town tyrannized Hester, but along with the pain and loneliness she experienced, she reacted with generous charity and tolerated isolation from the people around her. Hester Prynne was an immensely strong woman living in a repressed society because she accepted her punishment wholeheartedly, responded…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within the novel titled The Scarlet Letter written by Nathanial Hawthorne Reverend Dimmesdale drastically develops throughout the novel, from being a symbol of Puritan religion to displeasing the population of the Puritan expectations. His appearance as well as his privilege and prominence within the community alters radically. He began the novel as the town minister, and later, the shame of Hester accepting the entirety of the blame and the fact that he escaped with no punishment or shame from the town ultimately consumed him. Throughout the novel, it was revealed that he had a red mark on his chest in correlation to the “A” that was displayed on Hester’s chest. Dimmesdale also represented irony in the sense that he was meant to be a purified…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In a very similar manner, Mr. Dimmesdale of The Scarlet Letter struggles with the image he presents of himself to his town of Boston. Hester, the married woman with which he had an affair, has been restricted to a life of public humiliation and isolation, while Mr. Dimmesdale’s association with the sin has gone unnoticed. When he truly confronts his sin for the first time in the woods with Hester and Pearl, Me. Dimmesdale is filled with shame. He explains to Pearl, that he will reveal his sin on judgement day by stating, “Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester Prynne Role Model

    • 1705 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Rafia Siddiq Mrs. Amanda Webb Jouett English 1301 13 November 2017 Encompassing Feminism Throughout a community where patriarchies rule and Puritan laws are strictly abided by, a married woman living in a Puritan settlement, Hester Prynne, exemplifies what breaking laws and challenging authority looks like. To ensure her daughter Pearl’s safety, she stands up for her maternal rights, demonstrating feministic qualities throughout The Scarlet Letter. Despite Hester’s spirit, which constantly finds a way to get tested by the Puritan community, she prevails unfazed, taking in all the criticism, without letting it negatively affect her life. She portrays herself as a role model for women everywhere, proving that traditional roles remain overrated, and attesting that women can provide for themselves without a man to support them.…

    • 1705 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He is first guilty of committing adultery with Hester and his second act is his cowardly and hypocritical failure to confess. He is guilty of omission and commission (Pimple, 257). At the time the sin was committed Dimmesdale was allegedly a fully devouted minister, yet he allowed himself to participate in a sinful act with Hester, which resulted in the birth of Pearl. After the birth of Pearl, Dimmesdale allowed Hester to take the complete blame for the sin (Pimple, 257). It is during the first scene that the reader witnesses his lack of courage.…

    • 1873 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale will consistently clutch his hand over his heart, almost as if it pains him. Dimmesdale is evidently driven mad by this guilt. He starves himself and disallows himself sleep, however, nothing makes him feel improved because these punishments are done in the privacy of his home and not out in public with Hester Prynne and Pearl where they should be. Roger Chillingworth, a physician who is Hester's husband, begins to take care of Arthur Dimmesdale but in reality, Roger Chillingworth’s real motive is to spy on Dimmesdale, because he believes the minister to be Hester's lover. As Chillingworth examines Dimmesdale's deteriorating health, he grows more and more persuaded that the minister is secretly Hester's unknown lover.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dimmesdale has kept his guilt hidden for so long that his heath fell apart completely. After he finished his sermon and his confession he dies. If he had confessed with Hester, perhaps he would have been able to forgive himself and prevented his failing health. Hester on the other hand, moves away from Boston with Pearl. They seem to have a happy life however, Hester eventually moves back and continues to wear the scarlet letter.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, depicts women as the more dominant gender through the characters. Hester Prynne, the main character, is a young woman living in Puritan New England that committed adultery with the town’s own minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. When the town found out she was pregnant, she was publicly shamed on a scaffold for three hours and forced to wear a scarlet letter A for the rest of her life. As an outcast of society, Hester keeps the secret of her relationship with Dimmesdale and the identity of her husband while redeeming herself by becoming a positive member to society through her charity work. Through the use of character development and allusions, Hawthorne portrays the women of Puritan New England…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne follows the life of Hester Prynne, a woman living in Puritan America and forced to wear a scarlet letter that represents her sin of adultery. Although faced with hate, Hester manages to rise above it and help others. The novel classifies as a feminist novel because it shows a woman, alone in a world filled with discrimination, battle against society’s judgement and not giving into peer pressure. A feminist is someone who stands up for the equal treatment of men and women.…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Has the definition of feminism changed over the years, or has it become stagnant? Does the feminism people fight for today correlate with the feminism that Nathaniel Hawthorne witnessed? And finally, does his novel, The Scarlet Letter reflect feminist viewpoints in a positive manner, or masked misogyny? The general consensus is that The Scarlet Letter was written as a pro-feminist novel, seeing as Hester Prynne is considered one of the first feminist role models in American literature. Hester was outcasted in her Puritan community as an adulteress, tortured by her peers and adulterer, and seemingly confined by gender roles, but still prevailed in the end.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Both Hester and Dimmesdale are destroyed by their guilty consciences, but Hester can redeem herself in the town. Dimmesdale continues to be brought down by sin. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the theme of guilt to ultimately show that…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Feminism is the belief, attitude and action that work toward women’s rights and the equality between men and women” (Feminism and Other Issues”). Women were always thought to be inferior to men. Feminism has been a movement started by women searching for equal rights and opportunities as men. Although feminism can be found in almost any place in the world, feminism in the Puritan faith has absurd punishments. Feminism has been around since the late 1800s; women were tired of unequal rights and being thought of as less.…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays