In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a world that is a reflection of the Puritan values and ideals. In this world, we are introduced to characters that can be classified into two groups- male, and female. The reader follows a number of relationships, each a product of the other, coming together into what is The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, a puritan woman forced to wear the letter ‘A’ on her chest for an act frowned upon by all levels of society, adultery, sustains most of these relationships. Hawthorne touches upon her relationship with Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, young Pearl, and most importantly, society. The fact that Hester Prynne is a woman, plays out on how the Puritan society treats her throughout the novel due to her sustained relationship with Dimmesdale (who is kept anonymous as her lover); society also holds perceptions on Hester’s lack of ability to make a good Puritan out of little Pearl at one time in the novel. This can be linked back to the ideals of the bible, taking into consideration the fact that the Puritan society was built upon godly ideals, thus, evokes a godly society. These biblical principles are the direct roots of society’s attitudes and perceptions towards women. Hester Prynne is an example.
Hester Prynne is put to shame and scrutinized by malicious whispers and opinions on behalf of members of her society. Her crime of adultery is vivid through her conception of Pearl. Being the woman in the relationship, Hester is unable to hide her act of adultery unlike the male, who easily blends back into society as if nothing. Due to this, Nathaniel creates a Hester who is forced to pay for her crime on behalf of society. Hester is put to endure the penetrating and skin flinching glares as she stands on the town scaffold. Not only this, but society brands her as a “hussy” (pg 55, The Scarlet Letter), just like our modern day society brands underage pregnant teens as “sluts”. Skeptics may claim that there is a line between the society in the world of The Scarlet Letter and the reality that is our modern society. However, Hawthorne writes from what he knows, and he writes specifically about the reaction of a godly society (that is the Puritan’s) when challenged by what is believed to be sin (the fact that it originates from a female, makes it even worse). This can be related back to the concept of the role of women in original sin. Hence, one is able to state that there is reality in the ideals of Hester’s society. It is not a society that originates from the depths of Hawthorne’s mind. The fact that Hester, a woman is caught up in adultery worsens the shame and the degree of sin. Hester is ostracized and seen as an embodiment of all things sinful in a woman, much like the scarlet women of the Bible who represented dangerous qualities that caused the downfall of men (such as lust, seduction, deceit). One can see how the attitudes of puritan society on a woman such as Hester, is a reflection of the negative association of women in the Bible. Eve was easily deceived into taking a fruit from the tree of knowledge (the fact that she, a woman, was deceived, portrays women as the weaker sex); she influenced Adam to do so too, causing his downfall.
The fact that women are portrayed as the downfall of men makes it clear that the bible takes men’s side. And so, the woman, not the man, is punished for eating from the tree with childbearing as written in Genesis 3:16 of the Bible. Does this mean that Eve’s scarlet letter for original sin are the children she bears? Isn’t this the same with Hester and her scarlet letter? Hester is publicly shamed/punished for her crime at the beginning of the novel, but no man stands next to her, even though they both are equally guilty. Society demands to know who her lover was in order to ‘punish’ him, but after Hester’s silence, the lover is no longer mentioned by society. He is easily forgotten. If it weren’t for Dimmesdale’s guiltiness eating him up, Dimmesdale, the male, would have gotten away with it because society mainly focused on punishing Hester.
And while society ostracized Hester, Dimmesdale was admired and seen as a man sent from heaven. There was a time when Dimmesdale declared to the public that he was “altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners”, the public’s reaction did not condemn him for a sinner, but sanctified and grew with admiration.
In our modern day society, this behavior where society thinks less of woman in comparison to a man, is still alive today from time of The Scarlet Letter. If a man commits adultery, he is not frowned upon by society as much as a woman. A popular modern day example is Tiger Woods who had intimate relationships with women outside marriage. This did not ruin his career as a golf star and in a couple of months; his life was back to normality. Does this mean that society believes that fidelity tests for women only, and not men? This believe can be linked back to examples in the bible where heroic/saintly figures such as Lot had 700 wives, as mentioned in Numbers 5:11-31.
Nathaniel Hawthorne creates A Scarlet world based on the ideals of the puritans, where the sinning woman is ostracized and plagued with cruelty at first, but then aspires to ascend from the lowest level in society to something higher. The ideals of the puritans towards women were not accurate, but precise as can be. This says much about the role of women in our modern day society. However, the fact that Hester was able to live her life helping out others in society and thus gain some respect, changed the meaning of her scarlet letter. It stood for ‘able’. Thus, this book overall did not devaluate women. The negativity towards Hester came from the godly society itself. The same attitudes towards women goes on today in our society. And, if not is coincidence, society’s attitudes towards its women can be linked back to the Bible’s attitude towards women.
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