Difficulty paper 2

I am trying to understand if Hawthorne is a feminist or not. Now I know that this a big topic that could be written in a research paper. And how Peal is looked at as a demonic imp. But it sorta irates me because he is speaking about how hester and pearl kind of do their own thing. They do not follow the same rules that the rest of the puritan society follows. I mean most of the town thinks that peral is almost demonic, but it seems like they kind of just flush it off their shoulders because hester is all ready being almost shamed to death and I bet that the town sees hester as a bad parent any ways so they dont take notice to it.

"Come away mother , Come away or yonder old black man will catch you! he hath got ahold of minster already."(90)
" She now skipped irreverently from one grave to another; until coming to the broad, flat, armorial tomb stone of  a departed worthy-perhaps of Issac  Johnson himself,- she began to dance upon it." (89).

Chillingworth and Dimmsdale then after talk about how they cannot belive that Pearl could act this way, as if she were a devil child or imp or some other force. Im in shock that no one sees this and start the Salem witch trials off this! I mean if the whole town is soo bent on becoming a good saint in the puritans eyes and to never do wrong and vanquish the devil from where it ever it comes from, why wouldn't Peal be prime suspect number one. Possibly its because she is a child or for some other reason. How ever she is having an effect on the town in a very quaint way but soon years centenary later. That was womans rights movement. This is evidence that not every one back then in this time were okay with the social rights given to every one. I mean Roger and Dimmsdale say in a scene right around where i quoted that Pearl was not like the other children as if she were made of different elements. I believe that he is referencing that she has a sort of free spirit and is not going to let the laws of social critisims and reputation break down her spirit of who she is because she has the ability to know what is right with out realizing it simply because she was born with human instincts just like ourselves.

So how is Hawthorne writing about all of this compelling out of bounds stuff if it hasent quite happed yet? Well sure there were always people fighting for womens rights. But it was rare to find a male doing it as well with out having his writings be completely overlooked because of it. So i wish i guess to know was he criticized back then for and because of it? Would be great to know! thanks!