论《红字》中海斯特的女性意识 毕业论文.doc

Introduction In more than one century The Scarlet Letter has been one of the most frequently analyzed works of American literature, which to great extent lies in that it depicts the society as it actually was at that time. And it has also been considered as a reflection of women’s problems at that time. As an honest and thoughtful writer, Hawthorne narrates the story of Hester’s miserable life, reveals us the women’s marginal position in a Puritan society, and meanwhile, exposes mercilessly the cruelty and the prejudice 5against women of Puritan society. Through his carefully observation on women’s life and artistic creation, he successfully creates a new image---Hester, a rebel against the social order of Puritan community. In order to reverse the traditional convention that women are secondary to men in patriarchal system, Hawthorne manages to endow Hester with subjective status by portraying her as the protagonist in the novel. This thesis puts emphasis on the interpretation of Hester’s feminist consciousness through the Hester’s behaviors in a feminist perspective. On the one hand, with the detailed analysis the main character Hester such as her brave rebel against the patriarchal society, Hester’s feminist consciousness in the novel is revealed. On the other hand, thesis highlights the significance of the positive side of Hester’s feminist consciousness. I. Feminist Marginal Status A. “Male Domination and Feminist Marginal Status” in Puritan Society Patriarchy is an important concept in feminism. Though the simplest definition of patriarchy is “Male domination”, this leaves out the far-reaching social consequences of the way of thinking that underlies this social practice. Patriarchy is most likely a reflection of deeper expectations of formal male dominance in a wide range of social relationships. In patriarchy, men were born to be the dominant of women who had always been treated as the inferior to men. As a male writer brought up in puritanical surroundin