1. Introduction
Nathaniel
Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. He first put his hand at
writing and producing historical sketches after college. At Brook Farm, Two intellects, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret
Fuller, drove him to promote transcendentalism. Transcendentalism delivers two
principles. First, it is a religious, philosophical movement dedicated to the
belief that divinity manifests itself everywhere. Second, it also advocates a
personalized, direct relationship with the divine in place of formalized,
structured religion. The second principle is manifested in The Scarlet
Letter.
After his marriage in 1842,
Hawthorne moved into an Old Manse. In 1846, he published Mosses from an Old Manse,
a collection of American-related essays and stories. This collection made him
earn praises from the literary establishment of America that paid attention
to the attainments of cultural and political independence.
In 1850, after having lost his job,
he published The Scarlet Letter to enthusiastic acclaim. His other outstanding
novels include The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale
Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860). After being one of the United
States consuls in Europe for six years, Hawthorne died in 1864, a few years
after returning to America.
Of all Howthorne’s works that take
America’s Puritan as a subject, The Scarlet Letter is his masterpiece. Puritan
was known for its intolerance of secular ideas and lifestyles. Hawthorne uses
the repressive, authoritarian Puritan society as an analogue for humankind in
general. Hawthorne specifically focuses on American issues without overriding
aesthetic, thematic side of his works. His universality and his dramatic keenness
have honored him in the literary canon.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
slightly puts feminism issue as a matter of the Puritan’s society. According
Barbara Ellis, the female-dominated environment of Howthorne “gave him a
respect towards women” more than other writers do (1). This respect was
markedly manifested in the major character of The Scarlet Letter, Hester
Prynne. Hawthorne characterized Hester “as an internally complex and a source
of fear to men”(1).
From the starting point above, the
writer is interested in figuring out the attitudes toward women held by the
society as seen in The Scarlet Letter.
2. Discussion
Set in Boston,
Massachusetts in the 1600s, Howthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is colored by
a religious-oriented concept of living. The society, which was Puritan, put all
trust they had in religion's rules as the rules of God. The rules of the Church
were radically applied to every aspect of life as a way of purifying the
Church from secular ideas and lifestyle.
One of the aspects that were
obviously affected by Puritanism is familial life. The rules of Puritanism were
highly considered and strictly applied to a family even in the very beginning
of a marriage. Supposed to be a part of worship, marriage was viewed crucial to
be done in the fairly young phase of life. Based on the Bible, family is the
center of devotion to God in which it becomes the entrance where a male is
first given the responsibility for being a spiritual, financial head of the
household while a female is asked for her obedience under her husband’s
authority.
In The Scarlet Letter, the
superiority of male upon female in family was dispensed by the absence of Hester’s
husband, Roger Chillingworth, in their married life. Though, the obedience of
Hester upon Chillingworth was narrated in the exposition in which Hester followed
the order of her husband to sequentially move “to Europe, to Amsterdam” and to
“New England”(2).
Even though Hester was seemingly free
from the authority of her husband for some time, as a wife without a husband
living together, she was oppressed by the authority of others represented by males.
John Wilson, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth took part in Little
Pearl’s parenting, something that should be the right of a mother to manage. They planned
on separating Little Pearl from Hester for her scarlet letter and bad-considered
way of parenting. The males arrived to the conclusion after having unsatisfactory
answers from Little Pearl when asked “Pearl, Can you tell me the answer to this
question? Who made you?” to find out her knowledge of God (10).
In religious life, the superiority
of male was an inviolable rule. As a whole, the positions in the Church were
occupied by males. The religious life was centered in the oldest Church in Boston
named Congregationalist Church. In
here, meetings of Puritans were held, led by the board of ministers. During
every meeting they made, the ministers had the authority in the decision as
they were the representative of God in the world by saying such sentence as “You
have to tell us the name of the child’s father. It will help you in the eyes of
God. Tell us, please.” (2). After drawn, the decision was obeyed as if it was
the voice of God.
The authority of the males of God was
beyond the church. Orienting to the rules of God, the society placed
such great obedience to
the Church and the ministers. Arthur Dimmesdale was a major character
that flawlessly
represents the males in the Church. Hailed as “a great man of God”, the
young
minister was considered could do nothing wrong, though, he tried to
confess the
truth “I am the worst sinner in this town” to everybody (15). His sin
was not believed by the town’s people and the situation, for instance he
failed to confess the truth to the people even to John Wilson walking
past the
platform he stood on, ready to scream out this confession (17). Even,
most of
the town’s people only said nothing rather than being angry at
Dimmesdale’s
confession at the end of the story (35).
Females, however, did not have any
voice in decision taking on political or social issues in the society. They
only became passive participants in the meetings held in the town square or
meeting house. In the exposition, some additional female characters were given chances
to speak up their anger to Hester in “Hester is a child of the Devil” and “Look
at her! Those are not the clothes of an adulteress” (1). Nonetheless, what was
spoken by the females was just trivia and had no effect to the story.
The significance of female in the
society, as seen in The Scarlet Letter, was so minor. The major
characters are dominated by males, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth.
Even, the majority of the characters in the story are males namely the two
major characters with the addition of John Wilson, Governor Bellingham, the man
from the ship and some additional characters. The female characters that are
obviously seen are only Hester and Little Pearl.
The position of females in the
society was inferior, under the superiority of males. This inequality was
implicitly seen in the difference of the ways people named males and females.
Both in the narration of the story and in the utterances of the characters, female
characters especially Hester was always called by using the first name or “you”
as the naming of the second person or just “woman”, for instance: “Where did
you come from, Hester?” (Dimmesdale to Hester) or “Woman!” (John Wilson to
Hester in a sarcastic way). In
opposite, male characters were called by using the last name or their
occupation, for instance: “Mr. Wilson, what does the child know?” (Governor to John
Wilson) or “Minister?” (Little Pearl to Dimmesdale). In western society, the
use of last name is more informal and shows more respect than the use of first
name.
Back to the fundamental concept of
the society that was religion-based, females were always inferior and shown
as devil or other negatively connotated things. Wikipedia stated that according
to Puritans, “girls carried an additional number of Eve’s corruption and were
catechized separately from boys at adolescence” (1). Such a thought created
separation of education for girls and boys. Boys were prepared for vocations
and leadership roles while girls were prepared for domestic and religious purposes.
In fact, superiority of male was already characterized since the early phase of
life.
3. Conclusion
The setting of
the place and time of The Scarlet Letter made Puritanism look so
fundamental as a part of the society. The radical, strict implementation of the
rules of God had created some imbalance or inequality among genres, male and
female. In the religion-oriented society, the superiority of male upon female
was considered reasonable for the belief of Eve’s corruption. Eve’s corruption
left girls or women to carry innate sin and encounter with some bad
connotations such as devil.
The superiority of male upon female
was rooted in the midst of society since the early phase of one’s life through
the separation of education. Education became the basis of further superiority
of male that happened in all basic aspects of life including familial,
religious, political and social lives.
The authority of male was not only
seen in the major aspects of life but also in the daily life. The ways people called
a male or a female were different and showed different grades of respect.
People called a male in a more formal, respectful way, compared to a female.
4. Bibliography
"Literary
Criticisms". Oocities. 19 April 2013.
"Puritan"
Wikipedia. 19 April 2013.
"The
Scarlet Letter". Bartleby. 19 April 2013.
"The
Scarlet Letter" Sparknotes. 19 April 2013.
"The
Scarlet Letter". Wikipedia. 19 April 2013.
Bressler,
Charles E.. Literary Criticism: an Introduction to Theory and Practice.
2nd Ed. New Jersey: Practice Hall, 1998.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
The Scarlet Letter. New York: Dover Publications, 1994.
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