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摘 要

《红字》中的女性主义研究是文学领域方面一个很重要的部分。然而，在分析海斯特女权意识的多重化身份以及论述女权意识的方法上面还有一些不足之处。以往的研究没有从海斯特的公民身份角度去分析她的女性主义意识，也没有逐步探索分析其女权意识的发展变化过程。

因此，本文从海斯特女权意识的萌芽、觉醒和成熟这三条主线出发逐步探索分析海斯特女权意识对当代中西方社会男女平等以及当代文学批评模式所产生的积极影响。在海斯特女权意识的萌芽这一阶段，通过其做针线活、参加社会活动以及对宗教的客观认知来表现其独立、坚忍的品质；在海斯特女权意识的觉醒这一阶段，透过其争夺珍珠的抚养权以及对珍珠的教育方式可以看出她敢于挑战男权社会的权威以及她骨子里散发出来的新女性气息；最后，她揭穿丈夫的身份、抚慰情人的心理创伤以及鼓励情人离开波士顿的行为标志着海斯特女权意识的成熟。海斯特的这些行为都是出于她的多重化身份（公民、母亲、爱人、妻子），也正是因为其身份的多样性才让我们看到她在男权社会中异于传统女性的独立、坚忍和勇敢的独特品质，以此发现女权意识不仅为20世纪中西方女性颠覆以男性为“主体”的观念产生了积极影响，更为当代文学批评提供了广阔的思考空间。在这种情况下，海斯特在对男权社会的挑战中所表现出来的女权意识在很大程度上帮助了中国女性发现并推动了女权精神的传播。

关键词：女权主义批评理论；海斯特；萌芽；觉醒；成熟

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is a renowned 19th-century American novelist and one of the founders of the American romantic novels, in whose lifetime an overwhelming masterpieces were created such as Fanshawe (1828), The Minister’s Black Veil (1837), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). Hawthorne is adept at applying symbolism and psychoanalysis to describe a character and The Scarlet letter is the most representative work of this kind of writing style.

The Scarlet letter, the magnum opus of Hawthorne, is the first symbolic novel in the history of American literature and a tragedy of love that happens in North American colonial period. The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin on people. As Frederic I Carpenter puts it, ‘Hester is the greatest part in The Scarlet Letter’(316). Therefore, what I want to study now is the feminist consciousness of Hester in the man-dominated society and its effect on the thought of both western and domestic people.

1.2 Research objectives

Since the beginning of the 21^st century, the phenomenon that a vast majority of scholars had a tendency to study some literary works about female subjects is of ubiquity. It is mainly the result of the development of feminist criticism theory in the 20^th century, which exerts some influence on the change of people’s thoughts about social status between men and women. Before that, almost everyone considered that breadwinning men and homemaking women is a fixed pattern, which is hard for women to escape from the responsibility of taking care of family and realize their value of life. Consequently, I hope that people can break the thought of fixed pattern and reconsider the relationship between males and females in contemporary society. I deeply believe that Hester’s feminist consciousness will give women the sight of

being independent, tenacious and brave.

1.3 Significance of the study

The analysis of Hester’s feminist consciousness can not only has some positive effects on both women in the 20^th century who subverted the notion of “men as the subjects”, but also provides huge space of thinking for contemporary literary criticism. In addition, Hester’s feminist consciousness can help Chinese women discover and promote the feminist spirit to a large extent.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition of feminist criticism

Feminist criticism refers to reassess literary works from a feminist interpretation, which is one of the contemporary western literary theories. It consists of various branches, including ecological feminist criticism theory, natural feminist criticism theory and so on. Generally speaking, gender and power are two central issues of feminist criticism. Its aim is to break the constraint of traditional gender discrimination, establish women’s authentic self-image and promote equality between males and females.

2.2 Theories of feminist criticism

Feminist criticism, formed with the development of feminism in western countries, can be divided into three stages: rejection of patriarchal gender (1900s-1920s), studying of the female literary history (1960s-1970s) and construction of the feminist critic theory (1980s-1990s).

On the first stage, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) laid the foundation for the present-day feminist criticism in her seminal work A Room of One’s Own in 1919. Through the tragedy of Shakespeare’s sister, she deals with women authors’ cultural, economic and educational disabilities within what she calls a “patriarchal” society. The major aim of this period is that a woman must break the bonds of her patriarchal society, define herself if she wishes to become a significant human being in the society, and defy the male’s definition of her.

During the second stage, one of the first feminists to challenge the social ideological characteristics of both males and females was Kate Millett. With her publication of Sexual Politics in 1969, a new wave feminism begins. She argues that a female is born and a woman is created. The purpose of this period is that women must establish female social conventions for themselves by carrying out female discourse

and literary studies, and constructing feminist theory.

On the third stage, Elaine Showalter (1941-) is one of the founders of contemporary feminism. In A Literature of Their Own (1977), Showalter declares that there are three historical phrases of evolution in female writing: the “feminine” phrase (1840-1880), the “feminist” phrase (1880-1920) and the “female” phrase (1970-present). Also, she advocates that feminist criticism can be divided into feminist critique (women as reader) and gynocritique (women as writer). The goal is that feminists should establish women as both readers and writers by exposing inaccurate picture of women.

This study intends to analyze germination, awakening and maturity of Heroine Hester’s feminist consciousness under the framework of feminist criticism.

2.3 Review of previous studies

It is known to us that The Scarlet Letter is the magnum opus of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its aim is to advocate a moral code whose core is the view of humanity and morality. Through the ages, critics interpret The Scarlet Letter from various perspectives, such as its multiple themes(moral, marriage, maternal love, religion), writing techniques (symbolism, contrast, psychological description) and theories it refers to (feminist criticism, structuralism, psychoanalysis) and so on. All of them can show readers the contradictory mentality of Hawthorne.

In western countries, The Scarlet Letter has received attention of the literary circle for more than one hundred years due to its psychoanalysis, symbolism and profound conflict of the view of morality. Harold Bloom considers that The Scarlet Letter is an excellent masterpiece and it is the first local novel written by an American person. Western scholars usually apply a certain literary criticism to study The Scarlet Letter and then explore a character’s personality as well as the reason for his or her behaviors. However, domestic research on The Scarlet Letter usually presents in the way of theses and less in treatises. At present, only two treatises(Hawthorne and the

Romance and Nathaniel Hawthorne and his modernity:Humanity, nature, and home of the soul) systematically analyze The Scarlet letter and its underlying narrative structure and techniques of expression. Compared with western countries, domestic research is more complete and unique in the aspect of comparative study. In the early period, domestic research on The Scarlet Letter concentrates on interpreting diverse images to analyze the view of humanity and morality. As time goes on, research direction transfers from images to theories, stylistic features, narrative strategies, comparative study and so on.

2.3.1 Western studies of feminist interpretation of Hester

It is attested by the fact that foreign scholars study the feminist consciousness of Hester earlier than that in China. The reason is that in the twentieth century, women’s liberation movement in western countries was much more violent than any other revolutions in history, which had a great influence on the development of human society. In some sense, we can understand that the feminist consciousness of Hester and women’s liberation movement are inseparable. It is no doubt that the feminist consciousness of Hester is the foundation of the later women’s liberation movement. However, people’s views on Hester vary from person to person. The majority of scholars are for the feminist consciousness of Hester. Just as Nina (2000) describes, "In portraying the figure of Hester, Hawthorne creates the first real female protagonist as well as one of unforgettable heroines in American novel". The feminist consciousness of Hester greatly affects the thought of people and makes them think deeply of their own lives. Carpenter (1944) argues that Hester is the greatest part in The Scarlet Letter. The feminist consciousness is thoroughly reflected by Hester’s independence, tenacity and rebellion. However, some scholars take another attitude towards it. As Leslie A(1960) puts it, it is notorious that The Scarlet Letter is a seduction story without a seduction, a parable of the fall with the fall offstage and before the action proper begins. It is apparent that he opposes to Hester’s behavior because he argues that the so-called feminist consciousness of Hester is a

degenerate behavior.

2.3.2 Domestic studies of feminist interpretation of Hester

A number of domestic scholars analyze The Scarlet Letter from the perspective of a feminist interpretation of Hester because of her rebellion, independence and tenacity. As Gilles Lipovetsky (2000) puts it, women are classified into three levels. The first type of women are those people that men discriminate against because those women are independent and don’t submit to the patriarchal society easily. The second type of women are usually praised by men because they are ideal images in men’s mind. Women who have their own thought and not limited by the society are the third people. Guan (2004) considers that Hester is the typical of the third women. Because the first two types of women are still constrained by the patriarchal society in some degree while the third type of women receive real freedom due to their feminist consciousness. Chen Rong (2007) argues that the image “needlework” better reflects the feminist consciousness of Hester though it was not given enough attention by other critics before. She emphasizes that needlework combines Hester’s gender with her class identification closely. What’s more, doing needlework makes Hester independent in economy and find her value of self-existence, which in some degree lets her free from the constraint of man-dominated society. Wang (2013) deems that Hester is an angel who loses wings. Though Hester protests against the patriarchal society firmly and flees away the place, she goes back there at last and wears the scarlet letter again. Therefore, the two assimilation processes suggest that Hester compromises to the patriarchal society.That is to say, her rebellion is not complete.

2.4 Unsettled issues in previous studies

Feminist studies in The Scarlet Letter is an important part of the field of literature. However, there are some limitations in the analysis of Hester’s various identities and the way of elaborating Hester’s feminist consciousness. For one thing, previous studies of feminist interpretation of Hester just pointed out that Hester had

feminist consciousness but they didn’t analyze the process how Hester developed her feminist consciousness accordingly. After all, feminist consciousness can not be taken shape in a day. For another, previous studies usually analyzed feminist interpretation of Hester from her three identities: Arthur’s lover, Pearl’s mother and Chillingworth’s wife. Nevertheless, what they ignored is that Hester was also a citizen. As a citizen, Hester still took part in social activities with the scarlet letter rather than be afraid of others’ rumor and stay at home all the time, which is also an indispensable part reflecting Hester’s feminist spirit. Last but not least, previous studies didn’t take notice of the way how Hester educated her daughter. Actually, the way that Hester educated her daughter is an important aspect demonstrating Hester’s awakening of feminist consciousness.

As far as I’m concerned, the feminist interpretation of Hester is the core of my study, which is similar to others. Nevertheless, compared with other people’s studies, the main difference of mine is that I will illustrate the feminist consciousness of Hester from three aspects: germination, awakening and maturity of Hester’s feminist consciousness, which better evinces the psychological process of Hester’s feminist consciousness. Secondly, the feminist interpretation of Hester will be analyzed from her various identities: wife, lover, mother and social citizen. In this way, Hester’s feminist spirit can be completely shown and we can better understand Hester’s behavior. Finally, I will add the way that Hester educated her daughter to the awakening of Hester’s feminist consciousness, which had a great influence on Pearl’s later life. On the basis of it, the germination, awakening and maturity of Hester’s feminist consciousness will be shown to readers accordingly. Therefore, my feminist interpretation of Hester is stratified instead of being general.

3. An Interpretation of Hester’s Feminist Consciousness

Under the framework of feminism, Hester’s feminist consciousness, germination, awakening and maturity, will be elaborated in detail.

3.1 Germination

Germination of Hester’s feminist consciousness is mainly shown in three aspects. Firstly, Hester’s feminist consciousness demonstrates itself in her independent sense of economy. As we know, a vast majority of people took for granted the idea that the female should be subordinate to the male in the patriarchal society. However, Hester, as a new female, had showed her own independence and self-ability to break the rule that women should stay at home and survive by relying on men. After being released from prison, Hester was never satisfied with just being a housewife, not independent in economy. On the contrary, she propped up all the expenses of the family and raised her little daughter with her ingenious hands by doing needlework. As Simone de Beauvoir, one of the most influential feminists in France, puts it, “Only when women have their own jobs in social life can they take control of their own destiny” (603). To our surprise, it was attested by the fact that Hester did make a living on her own in a man-dominated society, which indicates her sense of independence and that she wanted to hold the fate on her palms.

Taking part in social activities is the second sign of Hester’s germination of feminist consciousness. Though despised by children and taunted by ladies, Hester was still eager to devote part of her time to social charity work, caring for the poor and bringing them food and clothing even during her economic difficulties. In America of that time, it was the cultural stereotype that people still considered. i.e. that men play the subjective roles in social and domestic life while women act as the objective ones. Women were essentially treated as second-class citizens and they performed as the professional housewives who only dedicated themselves to taking care of her husband and children. Thus, women seldom showed their faces in the social activities. Nor did they have the liberation both physically and mentally. As the

great socialist Friedrich Engels believes that the prerequisite of women's liberation is their return to public social activities. Therefore, Hester got certain liberation from what she did.

Thirdly, the germination of Hester’s feminist consciousness is implied in her objective cognition of religion. In the Puritan society, people cautiously followed the rules of the Bible. Therefore, Hester’s crime—adultery, was totally against the Puritan doctrines, not accepted by the society. In fact, Hester knew very well what kind of penalty would be forced upon a sin of adultery because she was brought up in a Puritan community and instilled in the Puritanical code of law as well as Puritanical beliefs. However, in this case, she still chose to break the law. From this point, it can be induced that only a person with an extremely passionate nature will commit adultery. Confronted with public contempt, she argued that no one can explain clearly what the sin is in god’s eyes. It is appreciative that Hester ventures to express her authentic emotion instead of concealing her true feeling due to the limitation of the religion. In this sense, Hester has sober consciousness of religious belief and rebellious spirit.

3.2 Awakening

Awakening of Hester’s feminist consciousness embodies itself in two aspects. For one thing, Hester’s resistance to the puritan ruler who wanted to deprive her of Pearl’s custody reflects it. At that time, almost all the people considered Hester not eligible to bring up Pearl because of her adultery with the priest. However, what surprises us is that when Governor Benin attempted to take away Pearl’s custody, Hester exclaimed that "God gave me the child in order to compensate everything else that you deprived of me" (Hawthorne 1995). Hester bravely debated with him instead of giving up easily, which fully demonstrates her courage to challenge the authority and maternal love for Pearl. As Julia Kristeva (1992) puts it, maternity is regarded as a challenge to the man-dominated society. That’s because women can deeply understand the meaning of life during the process of gestation compared with men.

Consequently, the strength of maternity is firm, which can compete with authority. Moreover, Hester knew clearly that if Pearl was brought up by puritans, Pearl would fall definite victim to that man-centered society. Therefore, Hester resolved to revolt the Puritan ruler and went all out to get the custody of Pearl. Hester expected to obtain the right which should have belonged to her; she also wanted to resist the cruel social system in an uncommon way. Fortunately, Hester made it.

For another, the way how Hester educated her daughter demonstrates her awakening of feminist consciousness. It is known to us that in the patriarchal society, mother should instruct her daughter how to comply with the secular moral precepts. In other words, women should learn how to submit to men’s orders. Suppose that a woman doesn’t follow her husband’s advice in the man-dominated society, she will suffer from his reproach. However, Hester, as a new woman, did not impose those so-called moral standards and values on Pearl, which shows her difference from those traditional mothers as well as reflects her notions of enjoying equality as a female. As such, Pearl perceived her mother’s awakening of feminist consciousness and the sense of resistance. Just as Hester wishes, Pearl should never step on the same road like her. Finally, Pearl broke the puritan rule that only boys can possess the right of succession, and successfully obtained the inheritance from Roger. She visited Europe and found her lover, whose happiness shows both Hester’s and humanism’s victory of Puritanism. It is Hester’s awakening of feminist consciousness that saves Pearl from the cruel puritan society and helps her live a happy life.

However, if the same matter happened to a traditional woman, the result would be opposite. That’s because traditional women don't dare to challenge the power or put up tenacious fights against the unfair rules that determine their lower status in the society. Therefore, it is the awakening of feminist consciousness that enables women to do things that they have never done before. What's more, the feminist consciousness embodies the inherent dignity of femaleness and highlights the worth of women.

3.3 Maturity

Maturity of Hester’s feminist consciousness is mainly reflected at least in three respects. For one thing, Hester bravely disclosed her husband’s true identity. During that period, the relationship between Hester and Arthur was considered disgraceful. In order to protect the life and good fame of Arthur, Hester promised to conceal her husband Chillingworth’s true identity. However, when she witnessed the intense psychological torture which the minister Arthur struggled against, and saw that he stood on the verge of lunacy, Hester realized that she couldn’t be threatened by Chillingworth any more. Therefore, she reasonably redeemed her error and determined to prevent Chilling Worth from hurting Arthur further. As Johnson puts it, a woman who admits the existence of patriarchal system and pays close attention to the problems it has caused is a new female (Johnson 251). That is to say, a woman's maturity of feminist consciousness has been inspired. From this point, we can perceive that Hester is reluctant to be controlled by that patriarchal society and she wants to live a life that she likes.

For another, Hester would like to help Arthur free from psychological torture that the patriarchal society brought him. Therefore, Hester bravely met her husband and disclosed his true identity as well as his conspiracy, which might be in her power to rescue Arthur. To our surprise, she made it. Her behavior made the public realize what they have thought was not entirely correct and successfully changed their opinions of the meaning of the scarlet letter. As we can see, this is an extreme important step for Hester to fight against the man-dominated society and step into a new life, which fully demonstrates her maturity of feminist consciousness.

Last but not least, Hester encouraged Arthur to flee away from Boston. After disclosing Chillingworth’s sin, Hester reunited with the priest. However, she never expected that her ex-husband’s persecution of Arthur was so tragic, which was beyond her imagination. After deep consideration, Hester left with Arthur and her little daughter. It is clear to Hester that only in this way will they not suffer cynicism any

more. Most importantly, they can get the real freedom both physically and psychologically. In the film, we can directly feel Hester's joy when she happily said that she wanted to let it go and all start again.

As we know, during the dark Puritan society, women’s just waiting for happiness can end in vain. Only when they stand up bravely and pursue what they want can they enjoy freedom and equality. It is no doubt that this dauntless movement takes women’s contention to their rights and their pursuit of happiness to an extreme. At the same time, it is a symbol of Hester's female consciousness’s qualitative leap from germination to maturity.

4. Conclusion

Through the feminist interpretation of Hester in The Scarlet Letter, it can be known that Hester is an extremely distinctive woman compared with traditional ones. Although suffering enormously from the shame of her public disgrace and from the isolation of her punishment, she is still of dignity and grace instead of being affected by the public’s opinion. Hester, a woman with feminist consciousness, never falls but continually struggles against the evil forces, i.e., making a living by her needlework, getting Pearl’s custody, disclosing ex-husband’s conspiracy, encouraging Arthur to flee away from Boston and so on. All of these demonstrate Hester's female consciousness’s transformation from germination to maturity.

In addition, what she did has a great effect on Chinese women. Women whose thoughts were affected by female consciousness reckoned that the custom of foot-binding was unfair which led to the backward of Chinese society. Accordingly, they firmly refused this kind of unfair custom to protect themselves. At last, China abolished the cruel institution-- foot-binding since the end of the Qing Dynasty. Hester dares to face her existence as a human being, especially as a woman. All of her actions analyzed in this study undoubtedly embody Hester’s noble character of rebellious spirit, self-reliance and strong mind, which is exactly what feminism advocates. It can be concluded that Hester, with the feminist consciousness, has become the representative of a new female image.

What's more, Hester's feminist consciousness has a great influence on women who were obedient to the patriarchal society in western countries. Though these traditional women suffered from the persecution of the cruel society, they still chose to put up with the inequality rather than fight against the evil forces. This is the fundamental difference between Hester and them because these traditional women's thoughts were confined to religion and they didn't dare to violate God's intention, so they were accustomed to the unfairness of society. However, Hester's behavior brought the hope for their life. Then these women gradually knew that just waiting for happiness was in vain. On the contrary, going all out to actively pursue their legal

rights is the best way. Finally, they learned from Hester's rebellious spirit and didn't submit to the patriarchal society any more, which made their life colorful in some degree. Just as Nina (2000) describes, "In portraying the figure of Hester, Hawthorne creates the first real female protagonist as well as one of unforgettable heroines in American novel".

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