First published: October 24, 2022 |Area:American Literature|License:CC BY-NC 4.0

(This article is published underVolume 14, Number 3, 2022)
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Dual Identity and Self-assertion: A Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

The Scarlet Letter serves as both a critique of society and a window into Hawthorne’s thoughts. In opposition to a patriarchal depiction, he wants to allow women’s individuality some room. He does not advocate setting rules and imposing them on the individual to be governed by them. Thus, he created the character of Hester Prynne who appears as commenting upon the situation of women in the 19^thand century of New England society. She struggles to win a place in society and she succeeds in winning it in her revolt against the very order that at the first stage humiliates and condemns her, and accepts and honours her later on. The article traces Hester’s individual rebellion in an alien land against an artificially created corrupt religious and moral order which exploits her body and denies her humanity at first and ultimately bows down to her consistent individual morality and actions. In doing so, the article tries to show certain feminist approaches adopted by the author long before feminism would come to the mainstream of literary thoughts.

Keywords: 19^th-century New England society, Feminism, puritan, badge of shame.

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