Heroines of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Emerson and Thoreau, their idea can exist in reality emerge from its own perceptions. These American writers emphasizes the position to develop entire as individual persons, not just intellectually, but also spiritually, pupil have to perceive nature's discipline. He also applied this concept by having natural elements as flowers in The Scarlet Letter and poises in The House of the Seven Gables agree his characters insight into the expansion of an individual's artistic responsiveness is so decisive.

The women in Hawthorne's first two major novels did not search for change organization; they wanted to alter their own place within their communities.

In seventeenth century, women did not seize positions of power within their Puritan communities; they were neither juries, senates, nor, with some exceptions, ministers of the gospels. Hawthorne recreated a time and place in remarkable America where a woman was be subject to a man's control; in the case of Hester Prynne, Hawthorne created a character whose situation was frantic because even her very name was disgraced.

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In The Scarlet Letter, Hester became a symbol for how a "disreputable" individual in Puritan terms, with the least amount of hope for emancipation, could gain a sense of individuality and unrestraint for herselfEmerson and Thoreau, their idea can exist in reality emerge from its own perceptions. These American writers emphasizes the position to develop entire as individual persons, not just intellectually, but also spiritually, pupil have to perceive nature's discipline. He also applied this concept by having natural elements as flowers in The Scarlet Letter and poises in The House of the Seven Gables agree his characters insight into the expansion of an individual's artistic responsiveness is so decisive.

Hepzibah, in The House of the Seven Gables, similarly became a symbol for the transformation of a demoralized individual rising from poverty to the position of a strong feminine figure who is able to re-examine her identity. As a result, Hepzibah dispossess herself in a sense: though she had the status of a noblewoman through the Pynchon reign; she gained self-sufficiency as a common shopkeeper, thus overcoming centuries of domination by prominent male figures in the Pynchon family. Romantic writers such as Emerson and Thoreau presented the idea that the individual is capable of overcoming, or transcending, religious and political authorities and that the development of a national identity begins with the individual; yet it was Hawthorne who, in his fiction, first put these ideas into practice especially in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. He created female characters such as Hester and Pearl who defeat a powerful religious society. Moreover, Hawthorne demonstrated through Phoebe's elucidation of Alice's artistic sensibilities that Americans could create a national identity for themselves through a mingling of art and democracy.

Hawthorne's heroines are powerful female figures because they have become symbolic of the individual reaching his or her fullest prospective, which was a major element of nineteenth century ideology. Yet, Hawthorne's readers come to a more intimate understanding of the symbolic allusion of his heroines because he grasps the process of self-actualization for each one of his female characters in his few novels. Hester Prynne, for example, does not seek to belittle the entire Puritan faith when she chooses to live outside her community and begins to closure to make a living for her. She stitches because she needs to provide for her daughter, but also to give intention to her life. Her work infiltrates the Puritan community, and with it so does Hester's spirit. Hester does not seek to change a woman's lot radically in life during the seventeenth century; rather she merely wants to help fellow women in need. Hester's good works in her community make her seem saintly, a "sister of mercy," by the end of the novel. Neither does her daughter Pearl seek revenge on her father or those who banish her for her community. Puritan officials allow her to remain with her mother, accepting the fact that as an untamed, natural being, she need not stick to Puritan ideologies.

In The House of the Seven Gables, Hepzibah finds that her place as a noblewoman in her community's past does not transfer to a new democratic American society. When Hepzibah finds that she is trapped by her Pynchon name and is bound to remain a dependent of the male Pynchon dynasty, she seeks self - sufficiency by opening a cent-shop. In the case of Phoebe, she has little anticipation when she arrives at the house of the seven gables as she finds that she has no home of her own and lives only as a dependent of her wealthier Pynchon relatives. She does not search to help Hepzibah change hundreds of years of history; however, she does help Hepzibah with the housework, assists her in running a more efficient shop, and becomes a vital link between the Pynchon past and the family's place in a democratic America. Phoebe learns to understand the value of appreciating culture from Alice Pynchon and she knows how it is a part of a modern American democracy; artistic sensibility is appreciating beauty, such as Alice's posies and her organ music.

The strongest movement for change on the part of the women in Hawthorne's first two major novels, however, stems from the past, which Ann and Alice represent. These two characters may not be major characters in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, respectively, but they became powerful symbols for new generations of women. Without guidance from their feminine ancestors, future generations of women might have not been guided in the proper direction, and they might have missed how critical an understanding of aesthetics is within a culture. These two novels involve three generations of women because each generation represents the past, present, and future. Ann and Alice, as feminine figures of the past, do not ignite change during their lifetimes. Alice could perhaps have begun the progression of developing her family's artistic sensibilities, but instead her life ends early and with it hope for the change in American society that Hawthorne foresaw in The Scarlet Letter that is, development of America's potential to produce its own art.

Hester is contained by Puritan officials and Hepzibah's livelihood is subject to the conservative figure of Judge Pynchon. Nevertheless, the persuade women of previous generations hold on future generations is quite the opposite. They do not confine, but instead free the heroines in Hawthorne's novels. The influence of the past on the present, when women are concerned, is what leads to progress in the future.

A woman's past may be riddled with shame or guilt, even so, they do not pass their infamy to future generations of women; their offspring, in fact, seem to live significantly different lives than their feminine ancestors. Hester finds she is shunning from her community just as her feminine ancestor, Ann Hutchinson, had been banned from her town. Rather than accept her ancestor's fate and, defeated as a fallen woman, leave her community behind, Hester makes a place outside of Boston for herself and influences her community through her artwork her needlework and her good deeds as she becomes a caretaker for downtrodden women in her community. Neither does Hepzibah inherit her feminine ancestor Alice's fate. Though Hepzibah and Alice first appear as proud noblewomen in the novel, Hepzibah changes before it is too late for her and rises above centuries of male domination while Alice holds to her family pride until her death. Hepzibah, then, influences the social structure of her town by becoming a merchant in an increasingly consumer-driven American society.

The most significant measure of female progress through the generations that Hawthorne depicts, however, comes from the youngest female characters in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables: Pearl in the former and Phoebe in the latter. Pearl disinherits herself from Puritan traditions and becomes a natural woman who eventually liberates herself from her community when she leaves Boston. Phoebe is straightforward about her rejection of Pynchon male domination when she refuses the Judge's kiss and leaves the structure that had kept all of her family prisoner for centuries, the house of the seven gables. She has discovered that the Pynchon name was not prestigious in a democratic society, but what was significant was herm understanding of the value of art in nineteenth - century America.

In The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables for two reasons; how Hawthorne created a vision of a more liberal American society by giving women power over men and what the author felt was the right direction for American culture the development of his country's art, in particular, the art of fiction. These two novels show the progression of feminine figures over the span of several generations. It is this familial bond that unites the women in the novels to gain one common goal: a full development of their individuality.

Hawthorne also illustrates how it is possible for an individual to come into their full potential whether spiritually, intellectually, or artistically, through the women in his fiction. Where the men do not change have to change to gain power in a society where they are helpless. What makes the women in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables most dynamic is the revolution of each woman from the beginning of the novel until the end. Hester, for example, early in the novel may be categorized as a dark female figure that is morally corrupt according to the mores of her society; but by the end she becomes an angelic figure: the townspeople even believe the "A" stands for Angel.

Of course, this categorization of a dark female figure does not appear to be a fitting category for Pearl: she is neither light nor dark; she is just a natural child whom the narrator describes as a "bird," a creature of the natural world. Hepzibah is not one of Hawthorne's dark heroines since she is not sexually appealing or morally corrupt, but she still proves a threat to the patriarchy. The reader is first introduced to Hepzibah as she hesitates to open her shop out of shame; she is a noblewoman who thus, according to mores of the time, should not involve herself in commercial ventures. By the end of the novel, however, she opens her shop and overcomes centuries of male domination. Phoebe also changes significantly; she begins her personal expedition as an optimistic, yet na?ve girl and can be best categorized as one of Hawthorne's light heroines. When she involves herself with the dark past of the house of the seven gables and its occupants, however, she develops darker characteristics herself that make her a stronger, more compelling character.

It is curious why, after the composition of these two novels, Hawthorne in his last two novels, The Blithedale Romance and The Marble Faun, failed to create such dynamic female characters. Rather, in these last works, Hawthorne seems to delineate narrow pathways for his heroines: his women appear to be stereotypically light and pure or dark and corrupt!.