| Born on the fourth of July in1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne ranks with Herman Melville, Henry James, and Mark Twain among the best19th century American male novelists. His masterpiece The Scarlet Letter ensures his perceptual fame in the history of American literature. The novel is set in the17th century New England region under the rules of Puritan magistrate. It tells the ups and downs of Hester Prynne, an adulteress. Through the description of the fate of Hester Prynne, Hawthorne explores the lives and fates of the women at that time.Through the analysis of Hester’s behaviors and inner world, we can find that under Hawthorne’s depicts, Hester becomes a woman who has strong feminist consciousness, which makes her a new woman beyond her own age. As an inelegant adulteress, Hester never yields or gives up. She pursues her true love, her independence and her equality. It makes her completely different from her contemporaries. She is a new woman who possesses feminist spirits. It is Hester’s difference from her contemporaries that makes The Scarlet Letter enduring in literary history. Through the study of Hester Prynne, we can have a better understanding about women’s living condition and cause more people to attach importance to women’s experience and values.This essay is to use feminist literary criticism theories and methodologies to analyze the protagonist Hester’s external behaviors and inner world. Feminist literary criticism origins from Europe feminist movement. It mainly studies literary works of women, women writing, women reading and so on. By re-reading literary works, feminist literary criticism is trying to research the feminist consciousness in works and explore the distorted female images in male-authored works. And it encourages women themselves to create their own culture as well as to subvert male-centered culture. Recently, feminist criticism turns to discussing and confirming women’s value based on women’s experience and their feelings about life. |
