The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne can be called one of the first "feminists" to fully understand the meaning of feminist, it is important to define feminist and apply the definition to Hester's actions and the way Nathaniel Hawthorne depicted her; and how Hester's relationship with Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth reinforces or challenges the feminist definition. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published a novel called The Scarlet Letter. This controversial story chronicles the life of Hester Prynne, a seventeenth-century woman in a Puritan settlement in what would become Massachusetts. The novel begins with Hester being punished for adultery. As a result, his punishment was to stand on a gallows in front of the entire city and wear a scarlet letter "A" for the rest of his life and have to live with public shame. However, Hester refused to reveal her father's identity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as an early feminist through her actions and interpersonal relationships. To understand how Hester Prynne is an early feminist, we must first take a look at the definition of feminism. Feminism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities” and “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” While Hester has never openly stated that she believes This Way, her actions reveal more than words ever could. Hester Prynne reveals through her incredible strength that she is one of the first feminists. Hester is in love with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. But she is a married woman. She was married years ago to a doctor named Roger Chillingworth. Although she is married to him, she does not truly love him, has not seen him in years, and assumes he is dead. She becomes pregnant with Dimmesdale's child, but no one knows it is his. He sees Chillingworth while he is on the scaffold. He is dressed like an Indian and has a shoulder deformity. When standing on the scaffold before the city, Hester publicly refuses to name Dimmesdale as the father of the child. “'I won't talk!' replied Hester, turning pale as death, but reacting to that voice, which she too surely recognized. «And my son must seek a heavenly father; he will never know an earthly one!'” (66) Hester also displays extraordinary strength when she raises Pearl as a single mother in a seventeenth-century Puritan village. Back then, single mothers and bastard children were seen as the dregs of society and socially unacceptable. However, he still kept Pearl as his daughter and raised her well. When she is taken from prison to the gallows to be mocked and condemned by the entire community, she does not cry, she does not break down, and she does not respond. She is stoic, even if she feels attacked and weak inside. The scarlet letter she wore was meant to bring shame and ruin her and the opposite is true. The letter, which was once seen as an ignominious and humiliating sign, was seen as "clever" to the villagers. “The letter was the symbol of his vocation. Such willingness was found in her - so much power to do and power to sympathize - that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A with its original meaning. They said it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with the strength of a woman. (158) She was ostracized and seen as a symbol of sin, just like the scarlet letter. But just as she gave the scarlet letter a new meaning, she also gave herself a new meaning, not that of a weak, sinful woman,.