Scarlet Letter Relationship Between Men And Women

Superior Essays
There has been a dynamic relationship between men and women throughout history. In the traditional patriarchal societies, women have been disproportionately prejudiced and discriminated against more than men. Albeit with some similarities, men-women relationships have been depicted differently in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. The different portrayals of such relationships in the two texts reflect the different settings and time periods in which the texts represent. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a narrative regarding an adulterous woman, Hester Prynne who is obliged to put on a scarlet cloth shaped like letter “A” while her husband, Roger Chillingworth is seeking vengeance against the Prynne’s lover. However, Prynne’s adulterous lover, Arthur Dimmesdale remains largely anonymous although tormented by guilt. The letter “A” symbolizes adultery as …show more content…
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne underscores the Puritan’s strengths and weaknesses regarding the way they treated women. The troubling relationship between the males and females is underscored by Hester’s argument that: “In Heaven’s own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground on surer ground of mutual happiness” (Hawthorne, 188). One can construe this statement as implying two important things. On the surface, the statement reflects Hester’s consolation to women who have been prejudiced and wronged by the oppressive Puritan rule. It is noteworthy that women of the time were oppressed on grounds that they have committed sins including adultery. The other implication of the argument is that the relationship between men and women is not based on mutual happiness. In other words, the Puritan oppressive rule oppresses women disproportionately more than

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    LETTER Y Scarlet Letter Essay The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a text, that makes a profound comment on many aspects of the human condition. While there are many important topics that are broached within the novel, the character of Hester Prynne is shown by Hawthorne in a unique way that is very applicable in modern society. Within the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne establishes the character of Hester Prynne through a multitude of rhetorical devices. The juxtaposition between Hawthorn’s characterization of Hester as a willful young woman and her humble repentance for her crime allow Hester to better herself in society and establish her as a role model for modern women and allow her character to be understood in the…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For example, Hawthorne reveals that Hester’s fellow Puritans left her “alone in the world” when they sent her away with the scarlet letter as a “sole treasure” to “keep her heart alive” by constantly reminding her of her adultery. Hester counters, however, that despite the Puritan’s intent to punish her with the scarlet reminder of her sin, Pearl prevailed as her true “sole treasure” who “keep[s] her heart alive” by bringing her “happiness” (104). The author next details that Hester challenges the “God” of the Puritan religion when she “confront[s]” the “influence[d]” “old Puritan magistrate” with a “fierce expression”, her immense aggression in turn implying that her rage must also stem from suppressed resentment for their religion (104). Lastly, the author mentions that Hester argues that instead of God damning her with Pearl as a form of “retribution” like the Puritans believe, “God gave [her] the child in requital of [everything] [that the Puritans]… [took] from [her]” (104). By recounting this, Hawthorne provides another instance of Hester contradicting the religion when she suggests that God gave her Pearl, the very person that drives the Puritans penalize the young woman, to “keep her in life” in order to compensate for the Puritan religion stripping Hester of her individuality (104).…

    • 913 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Puritan colonies in America were characterized by rigid standards in both the church and state. They had to be harsh and possess perseverance in order to survive in the New World. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter has preserved in literature a certain perspective as to the harsh Puritan justice and lives we believed them to have lived out. While Hawthorne includes historical details and settings in his book, he does take liberties in his fictional story of the justice system and punishments used by the Puritans.…

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, focuses its attention around many predominant themes, which generate innumerable interpretations. Motifs such as adultery, revenge, and forgiveness are prevalent within the novel based on Puritan locale. The characters of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, each exhibit behaviors, which have been placed upon them by the burdens in their everyday lives. The Scarlett Letter focuses on the puritanical judgment of what is deemed a sinful act and how this same act affects the three aforementioned characters who share this secret in an entirely different way. Hester Prynne impresses the reader by proving that she is unmoved by the public’s judgment, and this ability…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Diction In Scarlet Letter

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the past, women everywhere had the stereotypical image of being inferior to men. The dominant gender always, without question, being male. Hawthorne offers his opinion on the inequality between genders at the time throughout the passage. After reading chapter XII, “Another View of Hester,” from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “The Scarlet Letter,” it is evident that Hawthorne’s use of tone and diction represent the outlook of Hester Prynne on her existence, and that of women in general. To begin, tone, without a doubt is utilized majorly to project Hester Prynne’s opinion on her existence and women overall.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2 In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is introduced to the reader as a woman who has committed adultery, a very serious sin in the eyes of her Puritan community. In order to punish her, the town makes her stand upon a “scaffolding on the pillory, an infant on her arm” as they stare with judgement(41). Hester must also wear a scarlet “A”, representing her sin. It lies on her chest “fantastically embroidered with gold thread” showcasing her sins (41). The over zealous townsfolk see her as a sacrilegious woman.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s scarlet “A” originally revealed the absolute power of the Boston dignitaries. They were the moral and legal authority of the Puritans, and their decree was the irrefutable law of the community. With this total control, the magistrates defined the scarlet “A” to represent adultery, publicly labeling Hester as an adulteress.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Richard Chase’s “The Ambiguity of The Scarlet Letter,” he suggests that The Scarlet Letter is ambiguous and unclear, drawing upon the duality of Hawthorne's life and writing to defend this. He also argues that the novel bears both a feministic theme and an anti-feministic Puritan theme. Lastly, he states that the novel serves as an allegory to Puritan society and to the Mechanistic struggle, which is the fight for dominance between Absolute Good and Absolute Evil. Chase argues that The Scarlet Letter is like a picture, consisting of dramatic and unconnected scenes, which “seem frozen, muted, and remote” (Chase 146).…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Scarlet Letter Dichotomy

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1850s, takes place in the Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. During this time, the land is dominated by a Puritan society and ruled by their strict beliefs. Hester Prynne, a woman originally from England, travels to Boston alone. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, is expected to follow, but manages to be captured on the sea by Indians. He comes back after two years to find his wife on display before the town.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scarlet Letter was one of the first American novels to have a central female character and showed the power of women, which was published millennia before the modern feminist movement. The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The concepts of love, devotion, sin, regret, patriarchy, and punishment are woven throughout his classic novel. Marilyn Mueller Wilton’s article, written in 1992, contends that Hester is, in fact, a rebellious hero, and subjugates Dimmesdale to the role of meek “heroine” of the story, thus defining a role reversal as one of the novel’s central themes. Hester is the hero in The Scarlet Letter and assumes the role of the typical male.…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 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

    Instead of responding with naivety, hoping she could be the “destined prophetess” to fix Puritan society, she acknowledges that this mission couldn’t be “confided to a woman stained with sin” (220). Overall, this reflects how this identity allowed her to “be true.” In his analysis, Hart asserts that the Scarlet Letter—the sign Hester accepts—symbolizes “artistry” and “fertility”—the ideas Hawthorne comes to accept (390). At the same time, Hart explains that…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The puritan worldview is taken up sternly by Hawthorne in the scarlet letter because he emphasized on the gender inequality through society’s reaction to the sin that Hester and Dimmesdale committed. Hester committed an adulterous act with…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the modern interconnected world of the twentieth and twenty first century, there has consistently been a clash of ideas and a struggle for women’s’ rights and place in society. Society is still lacking progress in this area and advancements are needed. Acts such as the 19th amendment and Title IX are critical to the equalization of the women’s role in society. During the time period of the novel, a women’s role in the community was diminished to domestic, and only domestic tasks. This view of the superiority of males to females was a normality, and caused many women, including Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter, to question their roles and value to the family and world.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 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