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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Read for AP English Language and Composition (English 11)
Rating: 3/5
Summary:
After Hester Prynne births a child out of wedlock, she is condemned to wear an embroidered Scarlet "A" on her chest, forever. The novel itself explores the aftermath of Hester's condemnation, for herself, her daughter, the man that she slept with, and her husband, who was presumed dead but wasn't actually. It involves themes of penance, sin, transcendentalism, and guilt through the suffering of Hester and those around her.
Thoughts:
I definitely had mixed experiences with this book. Maybe it had more to do with how tired I was at the time than anything else, but I definitely struggled more with some chapters than others. I found the beginning very wordy and bogged down with unnecessary symbolism and description, the chapters involving Hester and Pearl to be more interesting, and the chapters only about Dimmsdale and Chillingworth to be horribly boring, mostly because I didn't catch a lot of the needed information (for one, that Dimmsdale was Pearl's father) which was only insinuated and not said outright. All in all, I definitely needed to use Sparksnotes and the audiobook a fair amount to make it through the story, but I thought it was relatively interesting, and the discussions that we had in class were very interesting and fun. If I end up writing an essay about the book, I will add it to her later, but if not, here are some of my analyses:
- Pearl was practically Renesmee from Twilight: She was this semi-supernatural baby who was born into very weird circumstances that resulted in her being shunned.
- I liked Hester a fair amount. She was good and clever.
- The lack of control that Hester had and the shame that she felt was frustrating
- Hawthorne's writing was kind of annoying because just as I was about to annotate an idea about some symbolism that I read, Hawthorne wrote it on the next line; In terms of symbolism he left nothing unsaid. However, some of the important physical details (Dimmsdale being the father, what was on Dimmsdale's chest) were never explicitly said. Really freaking annoying
- Mistress Hibbins was hilarious. She was such a blatant witch, and everyone just kind of went along with it, which was cool. However, the fact that Hester's sin of adultery was treated so harshly whereas Hibbins's sin, satanism, was treated so lightly because her brother was a powerful and rich man, and Hester was a poor single woman. Yay sexism.
I'm sure I had more analysis, but I'll leave it at at this for now. I would recommend The Scarlet Letter to anyone looking for an interesting reading challenge, and maybe some day I'll flip back through my annotations, but I don't think that I'll ever read the book again.
Here's my essay:
Ella Kirshbaum
Ms. Reverman
AP Lang and Comp Block 2
4 February 2022
Feminism and the Color Red
The color red is a staple on covers of magazines like Vogue, which praise the long-lasting trend of a bright red lip as a signature, bold statement. But red adornments on women serve as an outward representation of boldness and sexuality far beyond their uses in fashion. Through political movements and everyday acts of confidence, red has worked as a tool for women to deliberately draw attention to themselves. Despite the ways in which the color has functioned as a historical tool of oppression, it has prevailed as a symbol of feminism and reclamation of power through sexuality and boldness in The Scarlet Letter and in subsequent emerging feminist endeavors in the early 1900s.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the red letter A that protagonist Hester Prynne wears as a punishment for adultery is a visual focal point of the story. Hester's unapologetic display of the adornment demonstrates how she accepts it as a visual extension of her sexuality. Hester has been convicted of committing the sin of adultery. The letter A that she is condemned to wear is a product of that sin, and therefore is a tangible symbol of it. In Hester's introduction in the second chapter, as she emerges from the jail wearing her A, Hawthorne writes: "With a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, [she] looked around" (Hawthorne 7). In this position of vulnerability, where her entire village is watching her, Hester's reaction of pride is telling: It implies that she refuses to feel shame regarding her act of adultery. Instead, she embraces the symbol of her sexuality with dignity. Not only does she bear it confidently, but the object itself is one lovingly and richly made. It is described as "surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastical flourishes of gold thread [...] with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy" (Hawthorne 7). Artists do not put work or love into pieces of art that they do not care about. Thus, the amount of care and beauty Hester puts into her A reveals her own stance as one accepting and even valuing the symbol, and the attention it draws from others.
The color red's ability to captivate is not a phenomenon originating in Puritan times. Red's startling brightness serves to capture attention. According to a study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, "the color red is known to influence psychological functioning, having both negative (e.g., blood, fire, danger) and positive (e.g., sex, food) connotations" (Kuniecki et al.) Regardless of whether the connotations are positive or negative, it is clear that red triggers a primal reaction. This implies that, even in a more cosmetic context, red acts as an immediate captivator of attention. In The Scarlet Letter, the embroidered letter on Hester's chest draws the focus of everyone she encounters, including her baby daughter: "But the first object of which Pearl seemed to be aware was—shall we say it?—the scarlet letter on Hester's bosom!" (Hawthorne 52). Babies are young enough that their innocence and interests have not yet been influenced by society. This suggests that Pearl is drawn to the scarlet letter not out of interest for its meaning, but simply because its bright color and prominent position catch her attention. Several years later, when Pearl and Hester are walking through the streets of their town, "the children of the Puritans [look] up from their play [...] and [speak] gravely one to another" (Hawthorne 58). Only something extremely conspicuous would have the power to draw the focus of playing children. Again, these children are purer forms of the human species due to their innocence, so their fundamental reactions are undiluted by more complex adult predispositions. The combination of the children's purity, along with their immediate attention and reaction to the scarlet letter, creates an effect of primal captivation by the letter. This same principle is relevant when looking at other red adornments worn by women, such as red lipstick.
Red lipstick served as an emblem of suffrage in America in the 1910s as the feminist and suffragist movements demanded political and social autonomy achieved through recognition. In the spring of 1912, women wore red lipstick to a New York Suffrage Rally (Afary and Friedland 7). Less than seven years later, women gained the right to vote (19th Amendment). While of course protests such as the New York rally were not the sole reason for suffrage's success, actions like protests that drew attention to the cause were vital. And nothing was more debated and striking than the lipstick that suffragists wore. Not only was the red color biologically captivating, but cosmetics in general at the time were considered taboo (Afary and Friedland 7). This elicited a response of controversy, thereby drawing even more attention to the suffrage cause, until men had no choice but to pay attention to the persistent and bold women. Similarly, in The Scarlet Letter, Hester used the visibility of her red A in order to manufacture a system of autonomy for herself, in her case away from the rest of society. She chose a house "on the outskirts of the town [where children] would creep nigh close enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage window [...] and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear" (Hawthorne 36). Living outside of town separates one from the society within it. However, because of the attention the scarlet letter has placed upon her, Hester is given an opportunity for freedom— she intentionally chooses to live outside of society, and that separation created allows her to live as she wishes, without being impacted by the judgements of others. In addition, the children's immediate fear upon seeing the A on her chest adds to the notion of it being noticeable and startling, and so requiring others to pay attention. That notice caused the children to leave Hester alone, again granting her freedom, and therefore autonomy.
In 1920s America, beauty considered to be scandalous emerged as a popular form of self-expression, and many women chose to wear clothes and makeup that previous generations found inappropriate or even immoral. Specifically, many women wore bold red lipstick in order to reclaim their sexuality. Antoinette Donnelly, a beauty columnist at the time, remarked that "much of [a women's] power and even more of her fascination lies in the free exercise of her individuality" (Harnett 81). No one embraced this philosophy more than flappers. An article from SOAR describes the flapper movement as a "rebellion against the traditional social norms that defined female as docile, pure, and innocent" (Brady 3). Acting against the standards or opinions of elders is generally considered to be the result of the newer generation chafing under the older one's expectations. The flappers' act of choice in deciding to dress more sexually allowed them to reject the standards of docility and purity, thereby forcefully and visibly taking back power over their own self expression and sexuality. After all, it is impossible to rebel surreptitiously with a color as noticeable as bright red. Women like Hester, though, were true pioneers in the movement of reclaiming sexuality. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, and was a popular novel read by many women. Hester's rebellion and reclamation of her sexuality provided modern women with a example of what rebellion could look like. Being the first to do anything is daunting, especially when it comes to defying the rules of society. Knowing someone else rebelled before can provide a person with the confidence they need to rise up in their own right. The themes of empowerment in Hester's view of her own scarlet A, combined with the novel's popularity in American society, suggests that many women had access to an model of a reclamation of sexuality, which may have supported them in their own more modern rebellions.
It must be recognized adornments and cosmetics have historically been used to oppress women. At one point in time, lipstick was viewed as "sexually immoral and the incantation of satan" (Drenten and Gurrieri 11). This prohibition oppressed women by forbidding self-expression through that adornment. But as lipstick became more popular, it morphed into a requisite for feminine beauty, which took away the freedom of self-expression in a different way. In the early 1920s, beauty pageants became popular. They included publicly celebrated events where girls were shamelessly objectified and sexualized. The girls applied makeup and wore clothes that showed off their bodies in ways that were unattainable to most women, and then were "judged on their shapeliness and carriage, as well as beauty of face" (Harnett 11). These contests presented beauty, specifically beauty that adhered to impossible standards, as more valuable than personality or intelligence. Further, since the pageants were popular events, their influence spread to women not involved in them as well, sending the message that a women's beauty determines her self worth. From the ideals of beauty that emerged from these contests came the expectations on everyday women: Women began to feel that wearing lipstick was a requirement in maintaining "an attractive and respectable appearance" (Drenten and Gurrieri 4). This widespread need for cosmetics in order to be regarded as beautiful can be considered oppressive, since it deprives women of a choice by creating a standard. This same theme is visible in The Scarlet Letter, in the red symbol that Hester is condemned to wear. She is told that she is, "for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom" (Hawthorne 24). Considering the years of punishment that ensue after this sentence, the red adornment forced on Hester is one of oppression. She cannot take it off, and she cannot be free from the attention and scorn that it elicits. This creates a metaphorical cage in which she is trapped, just like 1920s women and the lipstick that they are pressured to wear. However, it is clear that such symbols are not forever relegated to represent cages.
Though there is a long-standing connotation of red adornments being tools of oppression, women throughout history have reclaimed the symbol in order to unapologetically further their own agendas. Even from the first chapters of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne refuses to remove the letter. When someone suggests that, with repentance, she might someday be able to take the scarlet letter off, Hester responds forcefully: "'Never! [...] It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off'" (Hawthorne 23). There is power in saying no, especially when doing one's best to react to a unfavorable situation. Hester's adamant refusal to remove the symbol takes authority away from those forcing her to wear it, and instead allows her to reclaim her autonomy. No longer is the scarlet letter a cage; it is now a symbol and a reminder, but not one that awards power to those who forced it upon her. Now, when people take notice of the symbol, they are looking because she chooses for them to do so. Her agency allows her to reclaim the power that the symbol has over her. Similarly, flappers used this same idea of taking back not only sexuality but also power, by refusing to let men dictate the ways in which they expressed their beauty. By the 1920s, women had been treated as sexual objects for men for ages (Brady 49). In the act of choosing to wear red lipstick as a symbol of rebellion, flappers took away men's control over their self-expression. One cannot regain control without power, so the flappers' proud display of their red lipstick also served as a reminder of the power they reclaimed.
Throughout history, the color red has served to captivate attention, and has acted as a symbol of feminism and reclaimed power. From Hester's reclamation of her sexuality through her unapologetic and inexorable wearing of the scarlet letter to women in the 20's bold and determined wearing of red lipstick, women have used red to achieve agency in their own right. Despite the way in which the color's significance has been twisted in order to take power away from women, red adornments have persevered as symbols of rebellion and boldness that have made an impact on many lives. The dauntless power of the color red is not one that should be relegated to history, though. The ability to bring about change by drawing attention is empowering. Regardless of the context, red can be a powerful tool for people today—its capacity to captivate attention and create change by emboldening its wearer is not one to be taken lightly.