2.1 Family Factors 3

2.1.1 Influence from his family background 3

2.1.2 Influence from his mother 3

2.1.3 Influence from his wife 3

2.2 Social factors 4

3. Theoretical foundation 5

3.1 The definition of feminism 5

3.2 Feminist theories 5

3.2.1 Liberal feminism 5

3.2.2 Ecofeminism 5

4. Puritanism and Arthur Dimmesdale 6

4.1 Puritanism 6

4.2 Arthur Dimmesdale 6

5. Hester Prynne and feminism 9

5.1 Hester’s bravery and rebellion 9

5.2 Hester’s marginal status 10

5.3 Hester’s return to the Puritan society 10

6. The influence of Puritanism on Feminism 11

7. Conclusion 12

References 13

1. Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was one of the most significant and influential romantic novelists of the American Renaissance in the 19th century. His work has received the attention of the literary world since it was published. Its artistic achievement has been widely acknowledged by critics, and it also receives great appreciation from Chinese readers and professors. The Scarlet Letter, published in 1805, is one of his most famous masterpieces. Great literary works often have great purposes, and The Scarlet Letter is “a moral novel with a distinctive flag” (Yan Zhongxiu, 2009: 174). There are countless comments on The Scarlet Letter, whose number is one of the largest in American literary history. For a long time, people have interpreted The Scarlet Letter in terms of symbolism, psychological description, the change of the meaning of the word “A”, the meaning of characters' names, the persity of the theme, the analysis of the archetype(Yuan Wenliang, 2005: 12), as well as  feminism.

1.1 Researches both at Home and Abroad

On the whole, early research on The Scarlet Letter mainly focused on the interpretation of various images that appeared in the book. They discussed the view of human nature from the author's experience. From the fate of the main characters, they discussed the religious ethics of the works, the concept of morality, salvation, and feminist. With the change of times and the further study of the book, the research direction has been extended to stylistic features, narrative strategies, interpersonal view of modern literature and comparative literature.

From The Scarlet Letter itself, the book tells a story of tragic love. Love is an eternal topic. Many literary writers have created many popular works on the basis of love. One of the reason why The Scarlet Letter attracted so many critics is that female is no doubt the protagonist of the book. This change which is different from traditions has prompted people to try to analyze Hawthorne’s attitude towards women. 

The first kind of view is that The Scarlet Letter expresses Hawthorne's understanding of the status of women rather than simply moral condemnation.