The Scarlet Letter

I've always loved this book so I didn't mind reading it again, but now I was able to keep the theories of the feminist we have studied in mind while I was reading. The text seems to be very misogynistic in the way that a woman has to wear a big red letter A because she committed adultery and the whole town scrutinizes her and her child. Reading it now I see that it is a feminist novel in the way it shows that men have strong emotions and shows Dimmesdale as a weak character and Hester as the one who remains strong. Usually the woman is portrayed as the weaker sex and the men must save them in some way. However in the novel Hester is the one who is basically saving her adulterous lover who is not man enough to confess his sin and share some of the consequence with Hester. Instead he tries to lean on her and winds up making himself sick with guilt. It was a nice change to see a strong female character who did wrong and lived with the reprecussions and cared for her daughter as a single mother.