The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in Puritan Boston in the 1600s. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman suffering public ignominy, forced to wear a scarlet letter for her sin of adultery. The Scarlet Letter offers a glimpse into the strict laws and ideology of a highly patriarchal Puritan society. The Scarlet Letter has the connotation of being a proto-feminist novel, but, although it addresses the danger of a purely patriarchal society, it does not meet twenty-first century feminist standards due to Hawthorne's prejudice against intellectual women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In the novel Hawthorne suggests that the idea of ​​women as intellectual equals could not survive in practice by taking responsibilities away from men. In chapter thirteen Hester comes to “discern, it might be so hopeless a task before her” to secure equality for women in her society (114). Hester sees no practical way to change the ideology surrounding gender roles. She believes that men's entire belief system would have to be demolished before there could be equality, and even then women would have to change themselves in order to take a “right and proper position” in society (114). Later in the passage, Hawthorne takes responsibility away from men by citing their genetic inclination to dominate society. This suggests that it is not men's fault for repressing women because it is something natural and inherent in their genetics. By this logic it also appears that women have a similar “long inherited habit” of being meek and submissive (114). This passage raises the question of why the natural nature of human beings should be tampered with. Another point where Hawthorne discredits women as intellectuals occurs at the novel's conclusion when he observes that Hester is incapable of being the “prophetess” of a new era of women's equality because the weight of her sin was insurmountable (180). Hester believes that “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, yes, but noble, pure and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dark sorrow, but through the ether medium of joy” (180). The idea that Hester is not “pure” enough to be the apostle implies that her sin of adultery is as evil as she has been led to believe. which contradicts the idea that Hester is simply trapped in the ideological structure of Puritan Boston and not actually sinful outside of its rigid standards. This portrayal denies the radical ideas Hester has about gender equality and her doctrine of free love. Hawthorne sees intellect as a male attribute and believes that women must give up their femininity to have the intellect of a man. As the novel unfolds and Hester has more time to think about gender roles in society and contemplate her own philosophy of love, she begins to lose her feminine beauty. Hawthorne attributes this loss to the idea that "some attribute had departed from her, the permanence of which had been essential to keeping her a woman" (112). The author argues that women do not have an innate intellect and to obtain it they must lose something of themselves and become androgynous figures because their status as women is incompatible with intellect. Hester regains her beauty when she throws away her scarlet letter, suggesting that Hester's sin and the guilt she endures because of it, symbolized by the scarlet letter, and her newfound intellectualism are tied together. He can't hold one.