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An Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter分析《红字》中的女权主义.docAn Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter分析《红字》中的女权主义.doc An Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter Abstract Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most influential writers in America in the 19th century. His novel The Scarlet Letter published in 1850 en...

An Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter分析《红字》中的女权主义.doc
An Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter分析《红字》中的女权主义.doc An Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter Abstract Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most influential writers in America in the 19th century. His novel The Scarlet Letter published in 1850 ensures his permanent thfame in literature. In this novel Hawthorne sets his story in the 17 century American Boston under the rule of Puritan magistrates. Taking Hester's adultery being found and punished as a clue, Hawthorne describes the characterization of Hester and explores women's inner world and their fate. This thesis is to explore his feminist consciousness embodied in The Scarlet Letter by applying feminist critical theories and methodology. Through the analysis of the thesis, especially the characterization of the protagonist Hester, we find that Hawthorne has feminist consciousness which is rare in other male writers. Hester, an adulteress, is cast off in the marginal place of the patriarchal society, but Hawthorne purposely put her in the center of his story, endowing her with a position of subjectivity. As to her disobedience and rebellion against the male-dominated society, he offers his great sympathy, and shows his appreciation for her. Hester is depicted as a feminist precursor whose rebellion and feminist thought bring about some social changes. It is Hawthorne's feminist consciousness that contributes to the successful creation of a rebellious woman Hester, which helps us understand the existing situation of women and causes people to attach great importance to women's experience and value. Key words: Hawthorne; feminism consciousness; Hester 摘要 纳桑尼尔〃霍桑是美国文学史上最具影响力的作家之一。他的小说《红字》使他永葆文坛盛誉。小说以十七世纪清教徒统治下的美国波士顿为背景~以海丝特因通奸被发现而受罚为线索刻画了海丝特这一人物形象并展开对以海丝特为代表的女性人物的内心世界及命运的探索。霍桑作为一个男性作家~由于其独特的家庭、政治、宗教等背景使其在作品中表现出男性作家少有的女性意识。本文将运用女权主义批评理论和方法来揭示霍桑在小说《红字》中所表现出来的女性意识。通过分析其作品文本尤其对主人公海丝特的刻画~我们发现霍桑在作品中表现出男性作家少有的女性意识。海丝特~作为一个通奸的罪者~被抛在社会的边缘~可是霍桑在其作品中把她放在中心位置~赋予她主体地位。对于海丝特对父权社会的不从和反叛~霍桑表现出极大的同情~同时对海丝特的独特品质表现出欣赏。海丝特被描写成一个具有反叛意识和女权思想的女性~她起到了社会变革的作用。正是由于霍桑的女性意识才使得对反叛女性海丝特的创作获得成功~从而帮助我们更好地了解妇女的生存状况并对妇女的自身价值给予肯定。 关键词:霍桑; 女权主义意识; 海丝特 Contents ? Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 A Hawthorne ………………………………………………………………….......2 B The Scarlet Letter.................................................................................................4 ? Feminist Theories ………………………………………………………………..6 A Feminist Critical Theory and Methodology…………………………………….6 B Hawthorne’s Feminism……………………………………………………........8 ? Hawthorne’s Feminism Embodied in The Scarlet Letter…..………………….9 A The Themes of The Scarlet Letter………………………………………………9 B Characterization of Hester……………………………………………………..10 ? Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………15 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...16 Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….17 An Analysis of Feminism in The Scarlet Letter ? Introduction Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) has been considered to be one of the greatest American writers in the 19th century and his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter has set an everlasting monument in his writing career as a major American writer. Since the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, the novel, with its perceptive portrayal of the protagonist, the psychological realism, the delicate representation, the mysterious imagination, the multiple themes, the ambiguous connotations and the evocative use of symbolism, has aroused the interests of one generation after another. The Scarlet Letter has been the center of critics for many years. Critics almost see every aspect of the novel and analyze it with many approaches. This thesis aims to use some feminist critical theories to examine Hawthorne's feminist consciousness reflected in the portrayal of the heroine Hester in The Scarlet Letter. Feminist literary criticism is a critical approach influenced by Women's Liberation Movement, which has gradually become one of the main streams in the critical world. Feminists point out that the whole western ideology sets up binary oppositions between male and female, subject and object. With the development of feminist movement, feminist critics formed their perspectives on the interpretation of novels by male writers so as to reveal misogyny assumptions which are widely pervasive in their works. Furthermore, feminists point out that the existence of binary oppositions in the society has resulted in the unfair hierarchy. In other words, as soon as one achieves superior status and the other is viewed as the inferior. Actually, man has dominated the superior status for centuries, and woman has suffered too much. As a result, feminists should deconstruct the binary oppositions to make women's identity restored. In this thesis, the writer is to adopt some feminist critical theories and some conclusions the critics have arrived at to explore Hawthorne's feminist consciousness embodied in The Scarlet Letter. Feminism thoughts have exerted great influence on the society in which Hawthorne lived. Influenced by his living background and the ideological revolution of his time, Hawthorne's feminist consciousness has come into existence. It is due to the feminist consciousness in the mind of Hawthorne that he creates Hester as a brave feminist defender. Hawthorne made Hester play the role of a criminal of adultery in the novel, with the development of the story, he demonstrates that Hester has been put in “marginal” position in Puritan society and also points out the influence of the patriarchal system on people. Furthermore, he shows his sympathy for the victims and expresses his hatred against the cruel patriarchal system through the rebellious behaviors of Hester. In order to reverse the traditional convention that women are secondary to men in patriarchal system, Hawthorne endows Hester with subjective status by portraying her as a protagonist in the novel. Besides, Hawthorne exhibits his appreciation for Hester by elaborately delineating her self-reliance, which constitutes an important part of Hester's femininity. All in all, Hawthorne is enabled to relieve his potential feminist consciousness through the feminist figure Hester of The Scarlet Letter. The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part, Hawthorne’s varied background and a brief introduction to the novel will be given. From his background, we can find that his creation of the novel has great relationship with his living experience. In the second part, feminist theories and methodology will be introduced. .Some of feminist theories and approaches will be adopted to help analyze Hawthorne feminist consciousness in the story. Part three is the most important part. In this part, through the analysis of the text the writer will explore Hawthorne’s feminist consciousness from different aspects. Through analyzing the characterization of the protagonist Hester, it can be seen that Hawthorne is aware of women’s subordinate position in the patriarchal society and holds a positive attitude towards women’s self consciousness and their value. A. Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in a declining aristocratic family in Salem, Massachusetts, which has been the dominant place for Puritan forces. When he was only 4 years old, his father died on a long voyage in Dutch Guiana. Among seven years of married life, Captain Hawthorne had spent little more than seven months in Salem, and had been absent from home at the births of all his children. Generally speaking, Hawthorne’s mother shouldered the responsibility of both father and mother for the growth of their children. A widow, with three children of under age, and with little property left by her husband, had to live on the support of her maternal brothers and sisters. Hawthorne shows great sympathies and gratitude for his mother, which illustrates the reason of his highly praising maternity in The Scarlet Letter. It is from his mother's living situation that leads him to begin to think about women's status in the patriarchal society. And he has found that they are excluded and marginalized by the society. Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody in 1842; his wife is an independent and talented woman. Without her support Hawthorne probably would not have become a successful writer. His harmonious marriage life promotes him to explore imagination, intuition, love and maternity. In short, Hawthorne's family life contributes greatly to his thinking about women's living condition and partly to his redefinition of women's femininity. In 1846, Hawthorne was to serve as a chief executive officer of the Custom-House in Salem. When the member of liberal party won the presidential election, Hawthorne himself even became the victim of the patrician games. He lost the position in the Customs when he was forty five in the prime of his life and lost a means to support his family. Therefore, Hawthorne’s political suffering in the Customs had changed the direction of his career to the writing of the novel. In other words, the Custom-House is the beginning for his creation of The Scarlet Letter. The Custom-House implied that Hawthorne projected his agony about the society on the protagonist of Hester. Gradually, Hawthorne totally feels a kind of disgust to the cruel American society which lacks security and safety; the eagle which symbolizes the America always misuses the sovereign power to get control over people, meanwhile bring a lot of mischief to her pious citizens; from that point of view, the conflict between the society and the individual is so obvious that Hawthorne devises the individual character such as the protagonist Hester in the novel to present himself to revolt to the unfair society. Another indispensable factor to Hawthorne’s formation of the feminist consciousness should be the religious background in the 19th century. At that time, Calvinism was the pervasive doctrine in Puritan society. These Puritans insisted that as God's elect they had the duty to direct national affairs according to God's will. In the town of Boston, the Church and puritan beliefs became encompassing on every aspect of the society and made people in a moral imprisonment. It is universally believed that people who disobeyed the doctrines were not only criminals but sinners as well; as a result, the sinners were condemned to be punished severely. Hawthorne is a man with a kind of paradoxes which results from his Puritan family background and his exigent desire to quench the flames of anger. Hawthorne is extensively influenced by Calvinism. The Calvin's major tenets have been completely ingrained in him through his inheritance, his obsession with history, his eager reading of the lives and sermons of Puritan divines. More often he is obsessed with the exploration of original sin. Sometimes he shows his suspicion of Puritanical doctrines in the portrayal of characters. His belief of original sin has been imbedded in his female character, Hester, can be interpreted as an important part of his feminist consciousness. B The Scarlet Letter thThe story has its setting in Puritan Boston during the mid-17 century. Young Hester Prynne is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms. She is sentenced to wear a scarlet A, signifying “adultery,” because she has apparently had an affair when her aged husband is not with her. On the scaffold she is urged to identify her child's father, but she will not. The elderly onlooker who turns out to be Hester's missing husband is watching in the crowd. Then he settles down in Boston, practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He plans on revenge and asks Hester not to reveal his true identity. After leaving prison, Hester takes up residence in a small cottage by the seashore in Boston. She makes her living by fine sewing and embroidering. Several years have passed, her child, Pearl grows into a willful, impish child. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, a young and eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Roger Chillingworth, suspicious of Arthur Dimmesdale, becomes his medical attendant and constant companion. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers a mark on the man's breast, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct. Dimmesdale's psychological anguish deepens, and he punishes himself by long night watches, whipping himself and fasting or praying for long hours. One night, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to a deathbed when they encounter Dimmmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands Surprised at the weak state of health she finds in Dimmesdale, Hester goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale's self-torment, but Chillingworth refuses. Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest and reveals Chillingworth's identity. They decided to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. The day before the ship is to sail, Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon to the townspeople. At the same time, Hester learned that Chillingworth has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses that he is Pearl's father, exposing a scarlet letter seared on his breast. He falls dead, as Pearl kisses him. Chillingworth loses his purpose of revenge in life and he dies within a year, leaving much property in England and America to Pearl. Soon, Hester and Pearl leave Boston and disappear. Many years later, Hester returns alone, again taking up her badge of shame the scarlet letter “A”. She lives in her old cottage and resumes her charitable work. It is thought that Pearl has married a European aristocrat and established a happy family of her own. After a long, full life of giving advice to women who are troubled by affairs of the heart, Hester dies and is buried next to Dimmesdale. They two share a single tombstone, which bears a scarlet “A”. ? Feminist Theories A. Feminist Critical Theory and Methodology By general definition, Feminism is the idea that women should have political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights equal to those of men. It involves various movements, theories and philosophies, all concerned with issues of gender difference; that advocate equality for women and that campaign for women's rights and interests. The first flourishing development of feminist movement took place in the late 19th century which has exerted a strong influence on the ideology, values and code of conduct of human society. The first feminist movement aimed to achieve three targets. First is to struggle for woman’s right to vote; the second target focuses on the question whether woman has the right to be educated. The third target is on woman’s employment. The emergence of the movement broadens people's perspectives to view about the world, and promotes them to rediscover many literary contents ignored in the past. Feminist literary criticism finds its impetus in the movement and has become an influential trend in the literary critical circle. In 1919, the British scholar, teacher and early feminist Virginia Woolf laid the foundation for feminist criticism in her work A Room of One's Own. The most profound insight of Virginia Woolf's feminist theory was that she took the oppression and depression of women as a mirror to look at the cruel and corrupted social system and turned her pen directly to the patriarchy. In the book, she declares that woman and man were born equal, they should be entitled with equal political, economic and legal rights. However, in the course of time, men once have treated women, and continue to treat them, as inferiors. Consequently, it is the primary need for women to be independent, only by the acquisition of that premise can women further pursue the liberation. What is more, she realized that it was far from enough to reform in terms of legislation, but a rather more profound ideological revolution was in demand. Finally, Virginia Woolf advocated the androgynous theory in the last chapter of A Room of One's Own: In each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man's brain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain the woman predominates over the man. The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating. If one is man, still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her. (Virginia Woolf, 1931:148) In spite of the far-reaching impact of gender role in the patriarchal system and the consequent existence of opposition between the sexes, Virginia Woolf advocated the androgynous theory which would help initiate the struggle to break the shackles of binary opposition. In her point of view, it was essential to get rid of both the overall ideology and the ethical values based on the binary opposition conventions; what is more, in the patriarchal society, women were deprived of basic rights and aggrieved by harsh oppression even men were burdened with a distinct lack of freedom. As a result, to some extent, the liberation for woman was basically the liberation for man. Apart from that, she has already paid special attention to the individual difference within women themselves. In particular, she mentions that on the one hand, women either the noble woman or the middle-class woman or the working woman were within a whole group opposite to men, who had under the common harsh oppression; on the other hand, there was diversity among three classes, first of all, the noble woman is prosperous and has more freedom. Secondly, middle-class woman dependent on her husband is in no want of bread or money. Thirdly, the working woman was hardly educated and often suffering from starvation. In consideration of those conditions, woman must unit together to get rid of the hedge of traditional conventions and fight against the patriarchal society. Feminist methodology refers to the application of feminist theory to methods and concepts of sociological investigation. Feminist research practice requires a critical stance towards existing methodology in the social society. While an attention to the responsibilities, rights and particular knowledge of those studied, and recognition of gendered power relationships in the conduct and process of research may not be unique to feminist methodology; they are an essential component of it. The use of feminist methodology implies a commitment to the empowerment of women. Feminist methodology challenges to the traditional social methodology in two aspects: first of all, feminist critics pay enough attention to feminist analysis of various traditional epistemologies; secondly, they focus on the equality between sexes. Generally speaking, feminist methodology and methods are still developing and appear to be multivariate. As a result, there are many detailed methods in feminist methodologies, such as the application of comparative method; content analysis; quantitative analysis and oral history method. Obviously, there is a variety of feminist methodology and methods and each of them has merit and demerit, consequently, feminist critics tend to combine some of the methods for the study. In fact, the feminist critics put more focus on the qualitative method. Feminist critics aim to change Western sanction of tradition that females are inferior to males, they begin to debunk male superiority by exposing stereotypes of women who are often demeaned, devalued and demoralized. This thesis will follow the feminist critical theories from Virginia Woolf, and adopt the qualitative analysis method combined with content analysis, that is to say, through the analysis of the text, a descriptive method will be used to illustrate and interpret the protagonist Hester in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Compared with most of feminist critics who used to reveal Hawthorne’s misogyny in the novel, this thesis explores Hawthorne's feminist consciousness in the portrayal of the protagonist Hester. B. Hawthorne’s Feminism The background for living in the political environment and with religious belief has offered Hawthorne with the soil for the growth of his feminist consciousness. In consideration of the process of the feminism movement, the period from the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century has just been the most formidable time for women, when they tolerated the exceptionally grave oppressions and devastation. However, it was exactly the time that women started to strive against the patriarchal sovereign, and the fresh era for the independence of woman was initiated at that time. Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in the period when the feminist movement flourished vigorously; he could not help being influenced by the feminist currents. Therefore, his novel embodied a kind of feminist consciousness and expressed his appraisal for the energetic new woman. Through the novel, Hawthorne paid most of his attentions to the portrayal of Hester, who committed adultery and was discarded out of the major society to be on the marginal position. However, in order to challenge the conception of men’s domination in a patriarchal system, he imbedded a kind of rebellious spirit in Hester and established her the subjective position in his ideal world, what is more, he subverted the assumption of patriarchal ideology of binary oppositions, at the same time, formed her to be a resistant against the Puritan society and a feminist precursor to struggle for woman’s equal right and independence. Hawthorne's feminist consciousness can be reflected by Hester's self-protection and self-reliance, which also constitute Hester’s femininity. ? Hawthorne’s Feminism Embodied in The Scarlet Letter A. The Themes of The Scarlet Letter When Hawthorne makes up the story, he should have something to say. However, as a writer with complicated thoughts even with some contradictory ideas toward the society, culture, human nature, etc, he tries to hide his true intentions with his artistry. From a feminist perspective, The Scarlet Letter is a story of a rebellious woman, Hester Prynne, who creatively interprets a sign of oppression enforced upon her by a patriarchal society. Hawthorne depicts Hester as a feminist precursor who represents some aspects of his definition of women. From the very beginning, Hawthorne seems to snatch readers' hearts by a series of questions that they are eager to find the answers as quickly as possible. For example, most readers will be attracted by the initial scene of Hester, with her baby in her arms, standing on the scaffold and waiting for trial of the Puritan magistrates. And there would be a question in their mind: what kind of fate would be waiting for the woman and the baby? Can Hester sustain such cruel punishment from the powerful Puritan society? From that moment, the reader's attention is seized by a deep sympathy with the mother and the baby who suffer their public punishment. At the same time, readers are obsessed with another question: Is it fair to treat the two victims this way? As the story moves on, readers' concern about Hester's ability to handle the intolerable agony is to be reduced to agreement with her interpretation of the letter “A” as a symbol of her living value instead of a sign of adultery. She accomplishes the transformation by her thought as well as her behaviors. Tracing Hawthorne's train of thought to enter the labyrinth of his story, we can examine his feminist consciousness implied in his deception of the heroine. When closing the book and stepping out of the imaginary world Hawthorne creates, readers may ask: what impression retains in their minds? In “The Custom-House”, Hawthorne claims that he creates a world that exists as “a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the actual and the imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other” (Hawthorne, 1997:32). In such a world, characters, who are only partly imitative of real life, behaving in ways somewhat removed from the ordinary, seem natural. Thus, Hawthorne, as an artist, speaks in allegory and lets the concrete always serve as a clue to the intangible yet more intense reality of what lay behind it when he creates such a world. To discover the core of the world, we must remove all the symbols and dross in order to reveal Hawthorne's real intentions in creating the world. In The Scarlet Letter, again and again Hawthorne deliberately declares that the actualities of his tale are or may be taken as signs and he uses repeatedly such words are “type” “emblem” “token” or “hieroglyph”. All these words seem to remind readers that the true meaning lies in the sign. Using the sign as a mirror, Hawthorne displays different aspects of human nature to readers, and lets them discern what he valorizes and what he condemns. Obviously, the theme of the novel is clear; not the study of sin; not the effect of sin; but the efficacy of the punishment of sin. The punishment has done its office in some characters but not all. In depicting the efficacy, Hawthorne tends to express his condemnation towards the patriarchal society. Paralleled with profound theme of exploring the complexity of human nature in The Scarlet Letter are Hawthorne's peculiar artistic techniques, the most impressive of which is his skillfully weaving his thoughts, especially his feminist consciousness, into the portrayal of his female character, Hester. B. Characterization of Hester In The Scarlet Letter, through the unveiling of Hester's marginalized position, Hawthorne demonstrates his views on women. Firstly he sets his story with a harsh patriarchal background and has his protagonist exposed to the cruel punishment. Then, Hawthorne injects his feminist ideas in Hester and endows her with the rebellious spirit to struggle against the oppression in such a position. Adultery is illicit sexual intercourse between married or unmarried persons. The seventh of the Ten Commandments mentions that you shall not commit adultery. Hester, who committed the sin of adultery, which went against the Puritan doctrines, had been discarded by the society. As a result, she was abandoned to be in the marginal position. Hester's marginal status results from her unreasonable marriage to Roger Chillingworth. From the very beginning of her marriage, it is doomed to be wrong. Roger Chillingworth, one of the high ranking representatives of patriarchal society, married to Hester before she was mature enough to know the real meaning of love and marriage. Hester's budding youth makes a sharp contrast with the ugly and deformed appearance of her husband Chillingworth, which is described as follows: “He was small in stature, with a furrowed visage, which, as yet, could hardly be termed aged”(Hawthorne, 1999:45). If the sharp contrast in appearance is secondary to the marriage, the real gap between them lies in a lack of pure love. After her misstep, Hester tells her husband, “Thou knowest I was frank with thee. I felt no love, not feigned any”(Hawthorne, 1999:56). As a matter of fact, Chillingworth's wish to marry to Hester is not from love but just from the satisfaction of his selfish desire and supplement to his spiritual barrenness. As Chillingworth says: “But, up to that epoch of my life, I had lived in vain. The world had been so cheerless! My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill, and without a household fire. I longed to kindle one” (Hawthorne, 1999:56). Chillingworth freely acknowledges that he has wronged her in the unsuccessful marriage and ruined her life. He confessed that “old as I was, and somber as I was, and misshapen as I was—that the simple bliss, which is scattered far and wide, for all mankind to gather up, might yet be mine. And so, Hester, I drew thee into my heart, into its innermost chamber, and sought to warm thee by the warmth which thy presence made there! We have wronged each other. Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay. Therefore, as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scale hangs fairly balanced. But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?” (Hawthorne, 1999:56) Those sentences appear to be an honest confess to his wronged wife. However, the truth is that Chillingworth is like a devil who strains every nerve to explore Hester's heart step by step. He first admitted his mistake in order to let down Hester's guard against him and at last managed to know who her accomplice who had added insults to him was. He has already expected the consequence of the wrong marriage, yet he chose to marry a beautiful woman to veil his own deformity regardless of the price of a young woman’s youth and happiness. From that point of view, Chillingworth is hypocritical and vain. In his eyes, a wife should regard the family as the center of whole life and his wife should be absolutely subordinated to him. When needed, he asked her to give him warmth; otherwise he left her alone without any considerations. The arrangement of Hester's marriage reflects a woman's secondary position in the seventeenth century; they are ignored and deprived of equal rights to marriage. By disclosing Hester's oppressed situation in the Patriarchal society, Hawthorne shows his sympathies to Hester's unfair treatment and his condemns to the laws of male-dominated society. In the story, scaffold scenes are mentioned repeatedly. The scaffold scenes serve as a stage for Hester and Dimmesdale to display their personalities. In the first scene, Hester was forced to stand on the scaffold to expose her disgrace to the public, but showed a lofty quality to undertake the sin all by herself. Under the great pressure of Puritan authorities, Dimmesdale appealed to Hester for the revelation of her sinful partner, at that time he fell into a dilemma. For one thing, he would rather let Hester speak out his name than hide as a sinful man to suffer the psychological torment. As he says, it would be better to “step down from a high place and stand on the pedestal of shame than to hide a guilty heart through life” (Hawthorne, 1999:89). For another, he tried to unveil the secret to the public many a time but failed each time in that he lacked courage and strength to face the public, and he was fearful to lose the reputation and the high status in the society. When he was sure that Hester would not speak out his name, he felt released with a long respiration. From that description, it is known that Dimmesdale has no courage to choose life for himself. What is more, Dimmesdale cries out at the next moment, “Think for me, Hester! Thou art strong, resolve for me” (Hawthorne, 1999:147). Compared with Dimmesdale's cowardice and weakness, Hester is brave and fearless to anything. She steps forward bravely to save Dimmesdale out of torment because she is aware of her responsibility to Dimmesdale. Hester saw herself as an indispensable relative or family member to Dimmesdale. Once he was in trouble, Hester would appear to help him out of trouble at the first time. With a clear understanding of Hester's potential power and ability, Dimmesdale considered Hester as the only person that can shuffle off this mortal coil for him. In a sense, his selfish and spineless behavior dragged down his male-dominated position. At the second scene, Dimmesdale stood on the scaffold to confess secretly. He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous gripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure. (Hawthorne, 1999:110) With the contradiction between the remorse and the hypocrisy, it was clear that Dimmesdale was afraid to confess the sin lest he should lose all the reputation and honor. By that, Dimmesdale hardly dared to make the secret disclosed, as a respectable minister of church; he was even not as brave as a woman. Hester endured the sin alone so as to protect Dimmesdale. By a comparative study of Dimmesdale’s cowardice, he was not as strong and vigorous as a man ought to be in the patriarchal society. The detailed description of his cowardice is offered by Hawthorne as the followings: Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their choice either to endure it, or, if it press too hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a good purpose, and fling it off at once! This feeble and most sensitive of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another, which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and vain repentance. Without any effort of his will, of power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud. (Hawthorne, 1999:111) “It is done!” muttered the minister, covering his face with his hands. “The whole town will awake and hurry forth, and find me here” (Hawthorne, 1999:111). When he spoke out the truth on his vigil, he quickly covered his face with the hands in fear that the whole world would feel ashamed of him. When he summoned Hester and Pearl to stand with him on the scaffold, he felt “a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own, pouring like a torrent into his heart, and hurrying through all his veins” (Hawthorne, 1999:165). Coming back from the scaffold, Hester felt sympathetic towards Dimmsdale who was entitled to get help from her. After her long seclusion from society, it was hard for her to become accustomed to external standard of right or wrong, but Hester was clearly aware of the responsibility upon her in reference to the clergyman. When Hester put forward the idea that they should flee to the remote Europe to put an end to the miserable life, Arthur Dimmsdale gazed into Hester’s face with fear, and a kind of horror at her boldness, who had spoken what he vaguely hinted at, but dared not speak. It has offered the evidence for the subversion of the male and female position. The man in the novel is not superior or powerful as the patriarchy defines man to be. Dimmsdale is rather cowardly and irresolute, even if the seeds for freedom and pursuit of happiness have already bred in his heart. Wrenched and sinful as I am, I have had no other thought than to drag on my earthly existence in the sphere where Providence hath placed me. Lost as my own soul is, I would still do what I may for other human souls, I dare not quit my post, though an unfaithful sentinel, whose sure reward is death and dishonor, when his dreary watch shall come to an end!(Hawthorne,1999:148) Through the comparison of personalities between female and male characters, Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne apparently subverts the symbolic order set by the patriarchy, showing his sharp feminist consciousness. When talking about the feminist consciousness of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is not right to ignore Hester’s femininity, because she is the miniature of Hawthorne in the real life. The analysis of Hester’s femininity can help us unveil the feminist consciousness of Hawthorne. Hester’s femininity mainly includes her self-protection and self-reliance. Under the patriarchal system, women are totally deprived of quality and even compliant with the unfair treatment. However, Hester is an awakening woman who sees through the harsh oppression exerted on women and shows sympathy to them. She is endowed with a new value of life and a nature different from others. Even the letter A has turned to be glorious under her hand. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A. It was so artificially done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuous regulations of the colony (Hawthorne, 1999:39-40). ? Conclusion With the feminist approach to The Scarlet Letter, it is approved that Hawthorne expressed his feminist thoughts by disclosing the severe and somber rules together with laws imposed upon women through Hester's courageous rebel against the patriarchal society. This thesis places emphasis on the revelation of Hawthorne's feminist consciousness imbedded in the text through the interpretation of the protagonist Hester. In the novel, Hawthorne designed Hester to be a criminal of adultery and then showed his sympathy for Hester's misfortunes and complimented Hester for her rebellious actions. With the analysis of Hester's rebel at a marginal position and the subversion of the traditional binary opposition, Hawthorne's feminist consciousness is conveyed from the deep structure of his writing. What is more, the character Hester is the best witness to typify Hawthorne's consciousness. As an outcast of the society and a victim of the severe Puritan doctrines, power instead, she faced straight to the humiliate punishment and the defiance of her country men. Meanwhile, the self-protection and self-reliance of Hester has highlighted an irresistible power for woman to gain equality. Furthermore, Hester's traits for her unusual beauty and her strong responsibility both for her lover Dimmesdale and for her little daughter Pearl constitute a component to her femininity and simultaneously committed to Hawthorne's consciousness. Apart from that, the thesis demonstrates Hawthorne's efforts to balance two kinds of his contradictory consciousness, for one thing, due to the influence of original sin and fatalism of human beings, Hawthorne is somewhat negative to the struggle of women; for another, Hawthorne is unsatisfied with the cruel doctrines of Puritanism and commiserates with women on their painful experience of oppression. As a result, Hester is an adultery criminal designed by Hawthorne and then waged a brave and firm battle against patriarchal system, finally, she returned to the place of her original sin to stay for the rest of her life. All the changes of Hester reflect the consciousness of Hawthorne from revolt to compromise, however, his positive consciousness such as the awareness of sex equality and the inalienable right really counts for the later writers concerned with feminism and his feminist consciousness indeed acts as a positive impulse to promote the development of later feminist movement. 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