Gender Role Flexibility in the scarlet letter
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Gender Role Flexibility in The Scarlet Letter
The 19th century antebellum period during which Hawthorne was writing sought to establish distinctly the distinguishing roles and characteristics between the male and female genders. Society's perspective for men laid emphasis on physical health, brawn, and fortitude, while women were assumed to live by the ideals for Victorian womanhood, which included feminine poise, subtlety, and refinement. Abandoning these intended standards, Hawthorne creates a novel in which the occurrences of gender role flexibility are frequent, leaving the reader to question the ambiguity of the "male" and "female" characters. Furthermore, throughout the novel, Hester assumes a masculine role while Chillingworth and Dimmesdale personify femininity.
Hester's defeminization commences in the first scaffold scene where she is being publicly condemned as a lawbreaker. Her very act of disobedience immediately detracts from her ladylikeness, for it shows that she has willingly forsaken the serene disposition that is expected of a woman. "Hester's loss of "womanliness" is associated clearly with her freedom of thought, her embrace of moral autonomy, and her refusal to accede to man-made laws" (Weinauer 272). Aside from her insubordination, when Hester is disclosed to a denouncing public, she displays a certain audacity which emits the notion that she is not ashamed of what she has done.
Stretching forth the official staff in his left hand, he laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he thus drew forward; until, on the threshold of the prison door, she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free willand, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors (Hawthorne 50-51).
The boldness that Hester demonstrates when led from the prison proves that she has no intentions of succumbing to shame, but rather, that she will continue to hold her head up and to endure tenaciously the consequences of her actions, traits very untypical of a 17th century lady...