Prompt one, Do you consider Hester to be a strong female character? Is the Scarlet Letter a feminist novel?
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is a classic novel set in seventeenth- century Boston, in a Puritan settlement. The story is full of love, crime, deceit, and revenge. All is centered around a single act of forbidden passion that alters the lives of three characters, Hester Prynne, Reverend Walter Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester Prynne is a strong female character in this novel, which is not feminist.
The story begins with a young woman, named Hester Prynne. She is led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms and a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her breast, meaning adultery, “The point which drew all eyes, …show more content…
Her inner strength, confidence, and compassion have been brought more to attention while she is going through the trials from the adultery that she committed. When we first discover her strength, she is being punished upon the scaffold with Pearl, her child in her arms, as people mock and degrade her, showing a sense of irony which is present in the scarlet letter. “She had schooled herself long and well; she never responded to these attacks, (Clergymen paused in the streets to add words of exhortation around the sinful woman), save by a flush of crimson that rose irrepressibly over her pale cheek”. Instead of being withdrawn both emotionally and physically Hester sets about to help the poor and needy in her community. She feeds them and sews clothes for them, while taking care of her child, Pearl. She has nothing but her spirit and true strength to substain her, “so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”. However, Hester also keeps her lover’s name a secret, which portrays true strength to be able to keep such a secret through all the shame of the …show more content…
Prynne never stops wearing the scarlet letter, A, throughout the entire ordeal of living in the Boston settlement and instead of ripping it off her chest she makes it her own symbol, a symbol of A for ability. She is a sought after seamstress and designer of fashionable clothing. Another example of Hester’s strength is the fact that she never gave up her lover’s name but her lover, Rev. Dimmesdale demonstrated weakness, cowardice, and ambivalence. Later he too demonstrates his spiritual strength assissted by Hester and Pearl in making a public profession of his
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is a classic novel set in seventeenth- century Boston, in a Puritan settlement. The story is full of love, crime, deceit, and revenge. All is centered around a single act of forbidden passion that alters the lives of three characters, Hester Prynne, Reverend Walter Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester Prynne is a strong female character in this novel, which is not feminist.
The story begins with a young woman, named Hester Prynne. She is led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms and a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her breast, meaning adultery, “The point which drew all eyes, …show more content…
Her inner strength, confidence, and compassion have been brought more to attention while she is going through the trials from the adultery that she committed. When we first discover her strength, she is being punished upon the scaffold with Pearl, her child in her arms, as people mock and degrade her, showing a sense of irony which is present in the scarlet letter. “She had schooled herself long and well; she never responded to these attacks, (Clergymen paused in the streets to add words of exhortation around the sinful woman), save by a flush of crimson that rose irrepressibly over her pale cheek”. Instead of being withdrawn both emotionally and physically Hester sets about to help the poor and needy in her community. She feeds them and sews clothes for them, while taking care of her child, Pearl. She has nothing but her spirit and true strength to substain her, “so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength”. However, Hester also keeps her lover’s name a secret, which portrays true strength to be able to keep such a secret through all the shame of the …show more content…
Prynne never stops wearing the scarlet letter, A, throughout the entire ordeal of living in the Boston settlement and instead of ripping it off her chest she makes it her own symbol, a symbol of A for ability. She is a sought after seamstress and designer of fashionable clothing. Another example of Hester’s strength is the fact that she never gave up her lover’s name but her lover, Rev. Dimmesdale demonstrated weakness, cowardice, and ambivalence. Later he too demonstrates his spiritual strength assissted by Hester and Pearl in making a public profession of his