The Othering of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter: An Existentialist Feminist Analysis

This research analyzes the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which uses qualitative method with close reading techniques and documents data in the form of quotes, dialogues, narratives, and related events. This research uses an Existentialist approach of Feminist from Simone de Beauvoir’s theory wich explains how the process of Othering by Hester Prynne produces a forms of gender injustice. The purpose of this study is to analyze how Hester Prynne was constructed as The Other in the novel The Scarlet Letter and explain how the construction shows gender injustice based on Beauvoir’s thoughts. Through this concept, this analysis shows that Hester Prynne is constructed as the other through a patriarchal social system that places men as subjects and women in lower position. This position then results in variouos forms of gender injustice, such a marginalization, subordination, stereotype, public humiliation, and double moral standards. This is in line with the Beauvoir concept which says that women do not become others naturally, but are constructed through a patriarchal social system. Therefore, this study sees that Hester Prynne’s position as the other is the result of social construction that produces various forms of gender injustice.