The Scarlet Letter Essay examples -- essays research papers

Hester Prynne The Ultimate Feminist HeroineIn Nathaniel Hawthornes American classic The Scarlet letter the main character Hester Prynne is portrayed as the preeminent feminist heroine through the portraiture of her crime and punishment. In this novel, a Puritanical society in reinvigorated England condemns Hester Prynne to wear a highly embossed depiction of the letter A on her breast as punishment for an act of adultery. How Hester handles the consequences of her castigation is what brings about the sublime feministic qualities of the main character. Three aspects that corroborate Hester Prynnes qualities are 1. Admitting her sin openly to fellow man and God, 2. Putting up with the taunting and social exile of her punishment, and 3. draw a bead on above her torment to give love to her lady friend Pearl and Pearls father, Reverend Dimmesdale.Hester Prynne openly admits her sin to fellow man and God. From the first few pages of the book, we are confronted with the fact that Hester has mothered a child without being legally betrothed in marriage. When the townspeople nonice that Hester has broken wholeness of Gods laws, she is coerce to stand in the middle of the town square upon a scaffold for a period of three hours, all for the purpose of public humiliation. Since adultery is one of the highest crimes that a mortal can commit in a Puritanical society, a tribunal quickly forms to decide that fate of the young malefactor. All the while, it could hold in been possible for Hester to abandon the baby to save herself from public torment and possibly the penalty of death. Nonetheless, Hester faces up to the reality of her acts and takes direct responsibility for them. To go even further, she does not even reveal the father of her illegitimate child for fear that he may suffer a fate worse than her own, which would most certainly be death. At the end of the period of time that she had to serve upon the scaffold, a crowd decides her punishment which was to wear the depiction of The Scarlet Letter on her breast.Hester Prynne must be sick up with the taunting and social exile of her punishment from the second after she was condemned. The townspeople would consider her as an untouchable heathen who only only air negative, evil energy. Children would be afraid of both Hester and Pearl as they c... ... At the beginning of the novel when Hester is standing on the scaffolding, she does not reveal the secret that Dimmesdale urgently wants her to keep the secret of his wrongful fathering of Pearl. Hester puts herself through much more stress than she needs to by not revealing this secret over a heptad long years, but her love for Dimmesdale is the only strong evidence that keeps her from revealing it.It has been thoroughly justified that in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is portrayed as the ultimate feminist heroine through the delineation of her crime and punishment. How Hester handles the consequences of her chastise ment is what brings about the heroic feministic qualities of Hester as the main character. The viewpoints that corroborate Hester Prynnes qualities are 1. Admitting her sin openly to fellow man and God, 2. Putting up with the taunting and extreme social exile of her punishment, and 3. Aspiring above her torment to give love, care and support to her daughter Pearl and Pearls illegitimate father, Reverend Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne is the absolute epitome of a feminist heroine in all of American literature.