Hester's Transcendency Of Survival Predicament

As one of the greatest writers of American history, Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)is best-known for his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter which was created in 1850. The Scarlet Letter received responses immediately among the readers and the critics after its first publication. For the last hundreds of years, it has always been the focus of the research by the readers and the critics.With the application of the feminist literary theories, especially Kate Millett 's feminist theory of “sexual politics”, this thesis is intended to explore how the heroine of The Scarlet Letter —Hester Prynne realized her transcendency of the surviv al predicament after she was stuck into it through fighting against the patriarchal society. First of all, the author of this thesis points out that there are four main reasons which pushed Hester into the survival predicament. Firstly, Hester suffered from the spiritual oppression from Puritanism; secondly, she was oppressed by men directly; then, she was also oppressed by women; last but not the least, her own obedience was also accelerating the speed of falling into the misery. All the oppression and her own weakness intertwined and pushed her into the survival predicament thoroughly. Then this thesis mainly lay stress on analyzing how Hester realized her transcendency of the survival predicament. On the one hand, she fulfilled her spiritual transcendency of the survival predicament, her feminist consciousness sprouted gradually and finally she became a thoroughly emancipated woman; on the other hand, Hester fought against the patriarchal society with her own efforts. With painstaking efforts, Hester got rid of such kind of predicament and embraced a whole new life.All in all, this thesis aims to reveal how a woman gets rid of women's traditional survival predicament, and how she seeks for their feminist consciousness back and finally embrace a new life. It is still enlightening and meaningful for the modern society. Men and women must coexist harmoniously, both of men and women should spare no efforts to create a harmonious bisexual relationship. It is also very helpful to build a harmonious society.