The Scarlet Letter

Thinking for a moment about a piece of literature that might be fitting to apply feministic anyalysis to, I have the notion that The Scarlet Letter would be very appropriate. Just from our discussion in class, and understanding that literature is produced in a patriarchal society, one can see how this wonderful classic would be allowed to enter the mainstream and would be given rights to be read. Any man, would read this novel, and probably think to himself, maybe secretly, maybe not, "She got what she dserved." Not that men want woman to be persecuted and treated degradingly, especially in this day and age, but every man, even in this day and age
has some level of innate pride. No man (or woman) wants to be cheated on and humiliated in their community, especially when Hawthorne writes this novel that takes place, in a time when people still held their moral values above all else, being God fearing people, and women most certainly even waited until their wedding night before knowing the sins of the flesh. So, being from a patriarchal society this story can be perceived as a husband scorned for his wifes' adulterous traitory and the astonishment of a fellow man and minister for that fact who betrayed his fellow man in taking his wife for himself. How dare he? How dare she? Isn't marriage or anything sacred anymore? She should wear a big bright A for the whole town to see and avoid her because she is a misfit and should be treated as such.



The subversive would be that a feminist could analyze the fact that women are treated so unbelieably unfair. We know, based on multitudes of literature as historical documentation, that men have been adulterous practically since the dawning of time. Why is it socially more acceptable for a man to commit adultery and yet if a woman commits the crime, she is chastised and punished to the fullest extent possible. We see this example in The Scarlet Letter and even in Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Yes, having an affair is morally wrong in every sense because when a couple takes an oathe and vow that they will stay true to each other, it is scandulous that one of them could hurt the other by cheating, but for Hester to go through the horrible treatment she endures is unbearable and completely wrong. Yes, in the time that the story takes place, it is a much different time then we live in now, but if her husband had been caught cheating, what would have happened to him? Probably nothing. But because she cheated on him she was thrown in jail to suffer. She forever had to wear a scarlet A on the front of all her clothes to signify the crime she had commited. How horrible!! To be permanantly mortified and scorned and thus, her illegitimate daughter also being raised by a mother who is a "bad woman" can not break that cycle nd is also deemed a bad woman for she is her seed. What hope does that child have in this world? I believe a feminist would really empathize would that fact because not only is one life marked, but now just because of blool relation, another life is also permanantly soiled. The poor child might as well wear the letter A too.