Nathaniel Hawthorne's "the scarlet letter"?

Question

i need to find specific examples of women's role in puritan society.

Answer 1

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http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/........

http://www.studylit.com/

http://fajardo-acosta.com/worldlit/works...

http://www.antistudy.com/

http://www.freebooknotes.com/

http://www.free-booknotes.com/

http://sparknotes.com/

Answer 2

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Study Guides:

Features: Chapter-By-Chapter Summary and Commentary, Plot Summary, Character Descriptions, Study Quiz, Message Board

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/scarlet/

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-167.html

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/scarlet.asp

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/thescarletletter/

http://www.novelguide.com/thescarletletter/

http://summarycentral.tripod.com/thescarletletter.htm

http://www.awerty.com/scarlet2.html

http://www.bookwolf.com/Free_Booknotes/The_Scarlet_Letter/the_scarlet_letter.html

http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/sl.html

SYMBOLISM / MOTIFS / IMAGERY / SYMBOLS

The Scarlet Letter abounds with symbolism, which Hawthorne uses to unify the novel and add a deeper level of meaning to the story.

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmScarletLetter49.asp

How to get an "A"
on your Scarlet Letter assignment

http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/sl.html

Answer 3

Even American schoolchildren know about the Pilgrims and their first forays into America. Most settlers of the Colonial times arrived in groups bonded by common religious faith, much like the Pilgrims. Religious faith brought with it several religious prejudices which arose from gross misinterpretations of the scriptures. Religion was used to justify the secondary role assigned to women: "Women were completely repressed and disregarded for intellectual value by the Puritan church in Massachusetts. The accepted belief was that intelligence and understanding was given to men, not women, so her chief duty as a wife was to her husband and children. Women were considered morally weak because Eve was the first to sin in the Garden of Eden. According to the dicta of the day, a woman was supposed to derive her "ideas of God from the contemplation of her husband's excellencies." Women were not allowed to speak in church, judged openly as inferior creatures." (Buckingham) Like most other religious societies of the day, these colonialists too assigned to women the various domestic tasks that eventually ended up tying them down. As deeply religious people, it can be assumed that the early Americans of both sexes would have easily fallen in line with these supposed teachings of the church.

THE OPRESSION OF WOMEN
As time passed, and America gradually acquired an identity as a land and people different from Europe, and as it eventually became divorced from its Motherlands, women settled into a lower stratum of society. Their seemingly subservient role was thus firmly established. The further subjugation of women is now detailed here.

Economically, women weren't very well off. Since the beginning, women shared many responsibilities with men. Gradually, as American society began to settle, the lot of women began to worsen. Women were now relegated to menial and domestic work. In the beginning, there were no legislative guidelines to govern women's pay. Later, legislation was passed but only to set women's pay to a lower scale than men's. Main states, "Maximum weekly rates for `maid's work' equaled the maximum daily rate received by male laborers in the summer period." (Main 5) Indeed, this is a harsh injustice. This merely reflects the way women were exploited although their worth in labor and industry equaled that of men.

It is clearly seen that the laws of the times did not do the women any justice. Their rights were stifled, and they did not enjoy any civil or financial freedom even after marriage- "Marriage was termed as a "civil death" for women, because they had absolutely no rights in the relationship. They could own nothing, not even clothes, for they wore their husband's clothes." (Chawla) While it is true that not all men of the time were cruel and would have used these laws to inflict injustices upon their mates, these laws would always have served as a beacon of oppression and the supposed inferiority of women. Berkin describes the relationship of marriage as, "The ideal of a unity of person, of husband and wife as one in him" (Berkin, 14), that is the institution of marriage was totally focused around the husband.

Culturally, women faced an incredible challenge. Everywhere around them, every sign, every message, every subliminal understanding insinuated that there was something drastically imperfect about them. The writing of John Winthorp reflected the attitude of the Puritan church. Such was the case when he said about Ann Hutchingson that," the young woman had lost `her understanding and reason' because she had given `herself wholly to reading and writing, and written many books.'" (Buckingham) Clearly, the church and society as a whole did not intend for women to receive an education lest they realize their inherent virtues and ask for a better deal. The very notion of a woman immersing herself in intellectual pursuit is labeled as almost blasphemous here by Winthorp. In summation, women's freedoms were firmly crushed and the idea of their inferiority was clearly established in the minds of all colonialists, regardless of gender.

THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS AND WOMEN OF NOTE
For all the oppression meted out to them, however, it cannot be denied that colinial American women did enjoy a healthy domestic environment and many of them even accomplished so much as to rebuke the extreme stereotype that they were reeling under severe and total oppression. Several women, like Emma Willard, who set up the first all-girl's school, provide examples of the enormous contribution of women to Colonial society.

To substantiate the claim that many women played roles of importance in early America, we must look into some examples of women who burnished their name in glory in those days and are still known for their achievements. One example of such a woman is Anne Hutchingson. She is describes by Buckingham as a, "a female who was assertive in a time when women were considered mentally inferior to men." (Buckingham)

Hutchingson was born in England to a radical father who, too, dissented from the church. On her way to America, she discussed religion with other women and gradually acquired the view that faith was personal in nature and that salvation could be sought by virtue of one's faith, without the need of any church whatsoever. Soon, she began congregations of women and preached her beliefs among them. This raised the ire of the Puritan church and she was soon put on trial and banished from Boston. She was soon killed in an Indian massacre.

Her story is representative of the views of the church and the prevailing misogynist beliefs of the time. John Winthorp said, "...if she had attended to household affairs, and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are stronger, etc., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the place God had set her" (Buckingham) It is thus clear that the society of the time wished women to confine themselves to their narrow domestic roles in lieu of their supposed inferiority. It is also clear that Hutchingson was being punished for standing up to the church and even more drastically, being a woman at that. However, what is not obvious too is important.

Hutchingson undertook her affairs without much explicit opposition from the Church. Her weekly gatherings were freely attended by several women who were not inconveniences in any severe way for doing so. Some of her followers were even men, which means that they did not found it squeamish to be tutored by a woman in the ways of religion. Furthermore, that a woman could offer her own interpretation of the scriptures and be followed by such a large congregation proved that women's gender wasn't a major hindrance to her credibility among common folk. In fact, according to Buckingham, "She might have been let off with a reprimand except that she blurted out that God had said he would save her from them. Even if she hadn't been banished at that trial, it is most likely she would have continued in her teachings, unsilenced by Puritan threats..." (Buckingham) Here, an alternate conclusion can be drawn. It could be said that Hutchingson wasn't brought to trial because she was a woman claiming to be versed in the scriptures but because she was offering to the Puritan masses alternate religious beliefs that could threaten the established order and the authority of the Puritan elders.

THEIR ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS
There exists a very relevant question that may have occurred to the reader. Today, in this age of gender equality we generally assume that women belong on every sphere as the equals of men. In colonial times, in an age where life was harsher and gender duties were specialized, it may not have occurred to women that they were being oppressed in any way. The women might have felt that theirs was the natural state to be in. In fact, they might have considered home and hearth their dominion and obviously did enjoy unquestioned liberties there. Never before in history had women played a visibly pivotal role in society, so why should colonial women have thought of themselves as deserving of a more obvious and rewarding role in society?

Monita Chawla seems very certain that women were in general very dissatisfied with their role in society: "The colonial women within the family were quite aware of the disadvantages proposed to them based on gender. Religion, like law, endorsed female subjection. All religions barred women from the ministry, with the exception of the Quakers. Still, many women found religion to be a way out of their daily, routine life. The church provided an enticing lure of the thought of spiritual equality. In every realm of their lives their inequality to men surfaced, so they sought happiness elsewhere. They viewed their souls to be of equal importance to men. This gave them a sense of personal connection to God. "(Chawla) Chawla's portrait makes it clear that women, while oppressed in many ways, found recourse in religion and held their souls to be the equal of men, that is they were the spiritual equal of men. Obviously, here we see that women always regarded themselves as the equals of men. It must be pointed out that it is ironic that religion, the very tool used for the justification of the supposition that women were inferior, also played an active role in bolstering women's collective confidence.

Chawla's views also suggest that there was also an overwhelming factor of frustration involved in women's feelings. Told by everyone from the clergy to their own parents that they were inferior to men and that their duties lay in the house, these women had little choice but to accept their fate with resignation, all while in wait for a day when they could work on par with men and have a little more breathing space they did than then. But there is always a factor of ambivalence in such an area of discussion. We do not know for sure if the view that women were intellectually inferior translated into day to day life. They certainly enjoyed a very high level of security and were exposed to few of the sexual rigors that women are exposed to today. They also played a crucial role in the development of children, one that easily surpassed that of men and as such might have been well-respected as the pillars of domestic life. The best statement that can be made about this matter is that women were indeed stifled intellectually but they did enjoy several domestic powers that ensured that they played the role of the foundation of day-today life.

Mary Rowlandson is an example of a well-respected woman who personifies this. That the clergy allowed her to write a book with a religious theme and even sanctioned it negates the view that women were completely censored from religious life. She also went on to become an elder it Puritan society, which suggests that Puritan men of the times may not have been averse to a female religious leader. At the same time however, we must not forget that Rowlandson could have been used for purely propagandist use and that she an exception and that her story may not necessarily reflect those of the common woman.

CONCLUSION
In concluding this writeup, I hope I have conveyed to the reader how critically important the role the women was in early America. While it is true that they were under a state of utter and complete oppression, it can also be seen that they made tremendous contributions. Their many accomplishments seem doubly impressive when viewed in context of their oppressing circumstances. Indeed, it is clear that they far exceed the historical importance that has been so far attributed to them.

There can be no all-encompassing statement made about the status of women in American society. These women present to us an enduring enigma- were they were an oppressed, dissatisfied lot as is commonly inferred or were they content with their domestic security and some conviction about the satisfactions of a sheltered life that were lost somewhere in the recent past? Certainly, we can be sure that the paramount achievement of colonial women is that they carried out their tasks in colonial society uncomplainingly and in spite of the oppressive conditions meted out to them."

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