THE SCARLET LETTER

CRITICAL ANALYSIS BY MCKENZIE FREY

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Family History:

William Hathorne & John Hathorne

Nathaniel Hathorne, Sr.

Early Feminine Influences:

Elizabeth (Betsey) Clarke Manning

Hathorne sisters & Manning relatives

Peabody sisters

PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY 1820-1875:

Separate gender spheres—public & private

Masculine vs. Feminine & “The Angel in the House”

Republican Motherhood—

Women raised leaders of American Nation

“Instruct by example”—Lydia Maria Child

“Women serve as stewards and prisoners”—Philip Gould

THE SENTIMENTAL NOVEL

Between 1800-1860:

Novels written by women for women

“Seduction plots”—heroines fall—often die

—Male characters: aggressive, sensual, Godless

“Repetition of plot and characters” –Leonard Tennenhouse

Hawthorne’s reaction

HAWTHORNE’S NOVELLA

Critiques: Gender roles & gender spheres

Deconstructs: Gender stereotypes

Praises: Feminine dominance in society

Advocates: Unity of gender spheres

MY CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Focuses on:

Reversals of gender roles

Revising the female prisoner

Emasculation

Foil characters of Hester and Pearl

Value of paternal acknowledgement

DECONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERES:

Emasculation of physical structures

Highlights masculine qualities juxtaposed with feminine

Prison & rose bush

Women beyond the private sphere

Breaking the sentimental stereotype

IMMORTAL FLOWER: PEARL

Does not wither in feminine qualities

Lois Cuddy quote

Pearl is Hester’s foil

Linking back to notions of Republican Motherhood

Karen Kilcup quote

Pearl questions Dimmesdale’s integrity

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Dimmesdale liberates Pearl:

Severs bond between mother and daughter

Pearl enacts the role of the sentimental heroine

Dimmesdale’s paternity prevails

CONCLUSION

WORKS CITEDBensick, Carol M. "Partly Sympathy and Partly Rebellion." Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition. Ed. John Jr. L. Idol and Melinda M. Ponder. Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press, 1999. 159-167. Print.

Colacurcio, Micheal. "'The Woman's Own Choice': Sex, Metaphor, and the Puritan 'Sources' of The Scarlet Letter." Colacurcio, Micheal. New Essays on The Scarlet Letter. New York: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1985. 101-129. Print.

Goodenough, Elizabeth N. "Demons of Wickedness, Angels of Delight." Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition. Ed. John Jr. L. Idol and Melinda M. Ponder. Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press, 1999. 226-236. Print.

Gould, Philip. "Revisiting the "Feminization" of American Culture." differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 11.3 (1999): i-xii. Web. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRG&userGroupName=loras&tabID=T001&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA69300>.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1963. Print.

Johnson, Claudia Durst. "Discord in Concord." Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition. Ed. John Jr. L. Idol and Melinda M. Ponder. Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press, 1999. 104-119. Print.

Kilcup, Karen. "Emily Dickinson's Pearls." Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition. Ed. John Jr. L. Idol and Melinda M. Ponder. Amherst: University of Massachussetts Press, 1999. 237-249. Print.

Romero, Lora. "A Society Controlled by Women: An Overview." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Detroit: Duke University Press, 1997. 11-34. Web. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRG&userGroupName=loras&tabID=T001&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=2&contentSet=GALE%7CH14201>.

Tennenhouse, Leonard. "Libertine America." differences: A Journal of Feminists Cultural Studies 11.3 (1999): 1-25. Web. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRG&userGroupName=loras&tabID=T001&searchId=R10&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=2&contentSet=GALE%7CA6930>.