Name: Goswami Gayatri M.M.A. Sem. 3Paper no.:10 The American Literature submitted to: Department Of English Bhavnagar University

Topic: Feminism in The Scarlet Letter

Feminism in Scarlet Letter

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Hester

pearl

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Feminism DefinitionFeminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending a state of equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women.

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• In Puritan age women were treated as inferior to the men

• In Puritan times, women were thought of as lesser than men. Women’s purposes were to raise children and give them good morals and values.

• Women did not have jobs; they wore the plainest clothes, and sat quietly by their husbands’ sides. Passion and happiness were considered to be a sin in the Puritan faith.

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• In Scarlet Letter Hester is the main character

• The character has been called “Among the first and most important female protagonist in American Literature

•In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Hester is the key example for feminism in the novel

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• Character of Hester shows the reality of the puritan society

• Hester stands alone against to the society for her child pearl

• Symbol of her sin scarlet ‘A’ it shows that the ‘A’ stands for “Able”

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Scaffold scene• Scaffold scenes are the structure of the novel• Hester and Pearl stand alone• She bravely bears her solitary• It shows the strength of her to stand alone in front of society

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• This novel can easily be considered a feminist novel because it stands for the main ideas that brought feminism

• Hawthorne paints Hester as a free woman

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• In an age when women were considered to be inferior to men in many societies, it is a remarkable

• Hawthorne ends his novel with cry for feminism “one day,” Hester says, “when God is ready, there will be a new world a better world for women we will be the same as men.”

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Thank you

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