Strength, Thy Name is Woman: Subversion of Gender Identities in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter depicts a strong woman; Hester Prynne, who challenges traditional concept of gender by showing those traits that are mostly associated with men. She is strong, brave and independent. On the other hand, men are weak, coward and dependent. This is symbolic from a Deconstructionist feminist point of view that gender is a social construct rather than natural. Society assigns roles to man and woman, however, these roles are not inherent in nature rather socially constructed and culturally practiced. Therefore, gender roles can be subverted. Hester Prynne is a woman of wondrous strength who challenges and subverts conventional view and Shakespearean idea of woman as frail and weak and shows herself a strong woman. In contrast, characters like Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are embodiment of frailty. This paper focuses on the subversion of gender identities and challenging Shakespearean idea of woman as frail and weak.