The universal role of man and woman usually remains constant; however, as time progressed and changed, so did gender ideology among genres of literature. Specifically in American Lite

rature, gender ideology slowly evolved. Beginning in the Colonial Period, the facets of the Puritan religion permeated gender ideology heavily; men played the role of the provider, while women stayed in their place - at home. Slowly, as the Colonial Period diminished, women began to have a voice as characters and as authors. Though not very popular in American Literature, the struggles, hardships, and concerns of women began to show up. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a renowned Romantic author, generally used male characters to execute his ideas about "human nature, about sin and guilt, and about the perils of the intellect and the pleasures of the heart" (Hawthorne 682). However, unlike many authors, Hawthorne shows the man in a negative light. In Hawthorne's Roger Malvin's Burial, like most of his works (i.e., The Scarlet Letter, Young Goodman Brown, and The Birth Mark), the secret sins of man are brought out by the use of a female character, who in contrast, is an innocent factor.

In large, Hawthorne's works appealed to women "partly because he knew about and respected the complexity of women's lives" (Ponder & Idol 4). The female characters of his work represented the women in his life. According to Ponder and Idol, Hawthorne "knew firsthand about the cruel impoverishment of single women like his widowed mother and unmarried aunts and, later, his own sisters" (Ponder & Idol 4). Citing the s

Some topics in this essay:
Ideology Gender, Mark Hawthorne, Roger Malvin, Ponder Idol, Dorcas Malvin's, Goodman Brown, Hester Prynne, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Colonial Period, Malvin's Burial, gender ideology, goodman brown, male characters, ponder idol, scarlet letter, female character, birth mark, ponder idol 4, unlike authors, roger malvin's, tale reuben, birth mark hawthorne, scarlet letter goodman, letter goodman brown, goodman brown birth,