Hawthorne’s Twist

Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, intentionally made this novel antifeminist when the roots of it point to a feminist idea. The idea of the novel is of how a woman, burdened by a scarlet letter A, gets through life with her daughter Pearl, Dimmesdale her “true love” and Chillingworth her previous husband. But despite the seemly feminist plot idea the novel degrades women and praises men’s role in society. Hester’s change seems to only stem from her motherhood, which ties to the stereotypes of a woman only being good at raising children. She is seen as only being good at typically feminine things that fall under typical gender roles. Finally, the ending demeans Hester’s presence in the novel and puts her character down below a powerful male one. The book is inherently antifeminist through the character of Hester.

Throughout the novel Hester is described as a strong woman: “They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 91). Hawthorne describes Hester as being an independent motherly figure looking after a child with no man to help her, learning how to get over her sin and the heartbreak of Dimmesdale. As a character, Hester does seem like the ultimate feminist and female role model, but the way Hawthorne describes it and integrates Hester’s character into the book is not like such.

Hawthorne does not use Hester’s strength as a feminist statement but as a way of playing into the gender roles already apparent in Puritan society. When Hester was standing on the scaffold Hawthorne described the Puritan women who were standing and looking up at her, “The older ones are sturdier, harsh, and crueler than those who are younger” (Hawthorne 34). He describes the women as big and intimidating looking. This strong judgment of their looks is surely the opposite of feminism. A feminist novel would look at a character’s actions and words rather than their appearance. Through the word choice, Hawthorne uses we are able to see how his meaning in writing this book was not of feminism but of anti-feminism and blatant judgment of a women’s appearance.

To relate to this is Hawthorne’s obvious anti-feminism reveals itself when he is describing Hester’s change throughout the novel. Hester spends most of the novel trying to become a better person and Hawthorne makes it very clear that she was successful through this. But what makes Hester’s change so immense is Pearl. Hester raised Pearl on her own without a husband to help her and we are meant to believe that this is what “saved” Hester. Through her motherly role, she was able to become a better person. In the novel Hester denies the offer to go “dance with the Black Man” she says that she “must-try home and keep watch over little Pearl” (Hawthorne 66). Without Pearl in her life, Hester would have agreed to go dance with the Devil, which would have been a great sin. Pearl is the only reason Hester did not go with Mistress Hemmings, which shows that she is the only thing keeping Hester away from a life of sin. Without Pearl, Hester would have surely fallen through a downward spiral of sin because there was simply no reason not to. But this motherly role that leads her to live a better life ties into the gender norms apparent in society. These norms dictate that a woman should stay home and look after the kids while a man is out working and earning money. Hawthorne just adds to this stereotype by saying that Hester was saved through motherhood. Instead of focusing on Pearl as the sole factor of her redemption, Hawthorne could have gone into the internal process Hester surely went through to become the person she ends the book as.
In conjunction with the motherly role Hester adopts, Hawthorne also plays into another female stereotype. In the novel, Hester is known for her beautiful embroidery, and even though this may seem like a harmless characteristic of Hester’s it aligns with the stereotype that women typically do tasks like sewing and weaving clothing. Sewing in early America was seen as “women’s work” and was typically a household task that was left for the women. It was seen as something that a good housewife would do for her husband. Hawthorne uses his stereotype in his novel, which shows that it cannot be a feminist novel. A true feminist novel would not tie back to the roots of gender roles.

“the moment when the novel is still about her before he hijacks it and tries to make it about him”

The ending of the novel is the most undeniably antifeminist section. Throughout the whole novel, we hear about Hester’s seemingly never-ending struggles. This being said the only fitting ending to the novel would be surrounding Hester and how she finds happiness. Hawthorne, however, does not end the novel in such a way. Instead, he ends the novel with a male character, Dimmesdale dying on the scaffolding after revealing his sin and guilt to the world. Dimmesdale steals the show and Hawthorne seems to give the readers some sort of resolved ending to him, for example, he even gets a kiss from Pearl and professes his undying love. If it were a novel about Dimmesdale this would seem appropriate but the problem is that the novel surrounds Hester. The ending of this novel is “the moment when the novel is still about her before he hijacks it and tries to make it about him” (O’Neill 35). Despite the whole book being about Hester and her journey to being a better person, the ending has to be about a man. Dimmesdale swoops in and steals the one happy ending that could come for Hester. This lack of a happy ending shows how Hawthorne’s writing is surrounded by male superiority rather than equality-the message of feminisms. Hawthorne is making the readers feel bad for Dimmesdale, ignoring the actual victim in the novel Hester. In order to be a feminist novel, Hester must get the ending, not Dimmesdale.

Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter as an obviously antifeminist novel. The grounds on the plot were solid but subtle details lead to the conclusion that Hawthorne’s work played into female stereotypes and gender norms. The idea that Hester must be a mother to change into a better person and that she is a master sewer are perfect examples of the antifeminist aspects that Hawthorne implants into the novel. But the real reason that Hawthorne’s first novel is anti-feminists is from the ending. Dimmesdale’s dramatic ending covers up Hester’s character change and main role. Hawthorne’s novel is a classic example of an anti-feminist book that seems to disguise as a feminist one.