The following research is on the subject of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel was published over 150 years ago in a very different age. Men and women both had different things expected of them then, and this was also true of the period covered by the novel, a period with even greater strictures on behavior and attitude. Still, there are certain aspects of the character of Hester Prynne that can be seen as presaging the concerns of the feminist in the 20th Century. Hester is not really a rebel in any direct sense, but she does challenge the beliefs and values of the community by her very presence in it and by her strength in the face of adversity. Her fight is the same one that was fought by so many others in the two centuries to come. She was in no way leading others to follow what she had done, nor was she battling for rights for women in general. Rather, she was surviving and fighting for her child.
Hester Prynne is the openly repentant sinner in the work, though Dimmesdale and Chillingworth share in the consequences of the sin (Male 91). From the standpoint of structure, the first third of the novel traces Hester's limited ascension. She ascends the platform and stands out in sharp contrast to the hard, manlike women who surround her and who disapprove of her. She is both a sinner and a saint and very feminine in both roles, and she reaches the peak of her moral development in this first part of the book. She openly recognizes her own guilt. The middle third of the book is concerned with the burden of guilt and where it should reside, and the final third deals with Dimmesdale's ascension (97-98).
The fact that Hester stands as the key figure in this book does not simply indicate that because of this she is being held forth as the ideal woman, and for that matter present-day considerations of Hester as a feminist should not take the analogy too far. For one thing, she is clearly set in the mol...