Scarlett Letter
The Scarlet Letter is “accidentally” a feminist novel because of the way Hester stands up against the Puritans harsh criticism, and because of the fact that Hawthorne’s ideas of women empowerment ahead of his time. Feminism has been around since the beginning of time. It began to be talked about and put into action in the late 19th century. For example, women wanted more equal marriage, property, and suffrage rights. The first movement took place in the United States once women were allowed the right to vote.
Looking back into the history of feminism makes you wonder; if all these ideas were coming up around Hawthorne’s time, then how was he inspired to write Hester’s character? Is it possible that The Scarlet Letter may have been one of the first books to start this type of thinking? The truth is, we don’t really know.
Hester could be seen as a feminist because of the way she goes against the Puritan’s ideas of how a woman’s life should be lived. The “tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free.”(137) She no longer has to obey the same set of rules as the other Puritan women. Hester has obtained a free pass to be her own. She is able to pass through the forest, the town, or anywhere! She no longer has boundaries because she has nothing to lose. Because her whole life has been exposed for people to see, she has let everything go; all her reservations, and expectations.
When Hester finally accepts who she is in the forest and decides to remove her scarlet letter and let down her hair, she grows a “radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood.”(139) Is this not the very meaning of feminism? To finally and proudly be a woman? Even heaven recognizes this change and welcomes it with “a sudden smile of heaven” as so “forth burst the sunshine”. This shows how nature as well has heaven has accepted Hester because she is finally her. No scarlet letter, no hat; she is