“Subversion” and “Containment” refers to the famous American romantic writer Hawthorne’s contradictory thoughts out of his constructing the “rebellious” female discourse in The Scarlet Letter against the mainstream ideology of puritan patriarchy. On one hand, the heroine Hester mainly resort to three mediums, that is, gorgeous clothes, her daughter Pearl with the mysterious power, and her silent life postures, to reconstruct meanings of the scarlet letter “A” that originally symbolizes evil, subverting and deconstructing the mainstream power discourse. On the other hand, there is a “conspiracy” relationship between Hawthorne and the mainstream puritan patriarchal discourse. He outlines Hester such a rebellious new female image only to better illustrate the inner mechanism operating in puritan society: the mainstream puritan ideology stabilizes and consolidates the development of its own ideology through “incorporation” and “containment” of those radical forces emerging in society. By means of “subversion” and “containment” displayed through Hester’s dual image characteristics, Hawthorne actually reflects on the social operation mode existing in puritan New England period, and also brings profound enlightenments to later generations on the internal mechanism operation mode in the process of social development.