Feminist and Mainstream Comparative Analysis in The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that, although there have been major advances, women of European ancestry in the United States are still subjugated to the same patriarchal society of the 17th century. This parallelism will be made through a comparison between these two societies in regard to women, always within a feminist American-European context of middle-class women. Therefore, this paper is going to be approached both through a mainstream comparative research and a feminist research, being supported by a feminist analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and how this novel can be related to contemporary society. Hence, the analysis of this novel through a feminist perspective will elucidate the fact that, although four centuries have passed, gender inequality is still present nowadays.