Scarlet Letter Critical Analysis

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Everything begins in a seventeenth century settlement which back then was a puritan society. A young woman, whose name is Hester Prynne, is taken from the parish prison with her little baby, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” perfectly visible in her breast. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us immediately what is happening by exposing the people’s comments. A man explained to another that the woman had been punished for adultery. Hester’s arrived a long time ago there. She had been sent by her husband to America, the new land full of promises. But, her husband never arrived in Boston and the reason is because he got lost in the sea. Apparently, while waiting to her husband, Hester not only had an affair with a man from the town, but also…show more content…
At first, it seems that Hawthorne exposed a feminist idea in his book. He provided sympathy, understanding, passion, and strength to the heroine, which is Hester. Hester’s tribulations also lead her to be stoic and a freethinker. Although narrator’s tone indicates that he secretly admires her independence and her ideas, it pretends to disapprove of Hester’s independent philosophizing. Through a deconstructive analysis we can see it is no exactly what it seems. Hester was not socially inclusive to the community. She was treated like a marginal. She was the victim of a group’s consciousness relative alienation and there is lack of belonging and spiritual homeless suffering in a society where man were the principal head of it. Even the “post-inclusion” of Hester in the society was through the Puritan forces, helping with charity. He created a violation of women’s morality which at the same time was accepted by women. But, the real interesting point about this analysis is that through this demonstration of violation he also demonstrates how incoherent a puritan society was. A society that was full of abuses especially from the ones that had power. Follow ahead, the principal character that represents this male chauvinist and incoherent behavior is Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is true evil and it is showed clearly in the book because it seems that he naturally hates Hester’s independence and the love that Arthur and she have created together. As it could be seen, the love between Hester and Arthur is the primary object of scandal and gossiping. This romance also represents passion, free thinking, and rebellion towards that puritan and tame society as it was seen by the author who used these symbols and actions to ridicule their costumes, but Chillingworth’s actions are used to show male chauvinism and lack of respect as
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