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The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is an American novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is generally considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores questions of grace, legalism, sin and guilt.

[edit] Plot summary

The Scarlet Letter. Painting by T. H. Matteson. This 1860 oil-on-canvas was made under Hawthorne's personal supervision.

The Scarlet Letter. Painting by T. H. Matteson. This 1860 oil-on-canvas was made under Hawthorne's personal supervision.[1]

The novel begins in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom. The scarlet letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin – a badge of shame – for all to see. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she is, sent her ahead to America while he settled some affairs in Europe. However, her husband never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her public shaming, is her punishment for her sin and her secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refus es to identify her child’s father.[1]

The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and Pearl (her daughter) grows into a willful, impish child, who is more of a symbol than an actual character, said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay

together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an "A" burned into Dimmesdale's chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.[1]

Dimmesdale’s psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning Adultery. Hester can see that the minister’s condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his identity to Dimmesdale.[1]

Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth knows that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale, and she wishes to protect him. While walking through the forest, the sun will not shine on Hester, though Pearl can bask in it. They then wait for Dimmesdale, and he arrives. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives

Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook, because he again refuses to make known publicly their relationship. However, he too clearly feels a release from the pretense of his former life, and the laws and sins he has lived with.

The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just after Pearl kisses him.[1]

Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married an European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both." The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", and it was used for Hester and Dimmesdale.

[edit] Major themes

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

[edit] Sin

Sin and knowledge are linked in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible begins with the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the Garden of Eden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of

their knowledge, Adam and Eve are made aware of their disobedience, that which separates them from the divine and from other creatures. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are forced to toil and to procreate –two “labors” that seem to define the human condition. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge – specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as “her passport into regions where other women dared not tread,” leading her to “speculate” about her society and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England.[2]

As for Dimmesdale, the “cheating minister” of his sin gives him

“sym pathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy.[2] The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity. He ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister is his own deceiver, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.[3]

The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it – as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be – is held out in part as an invitation to find “some sweet moral blossom” in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that “the deep heart of nature” (perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child (the roses among the weeds) than do her Puritan neighbors. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the star k darkness of the Puritans and their systems.[4]

Chillingworth’s misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the evil in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale's illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart.[4]

Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread, just like the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom. [2] Parallels can be drawn between Pearl and the character Beatrice in Rappaccini's Daughter.

Both are studies in the same direction, though from different standpoints. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she herself becomes poisonous. Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents' guilt.

[edit] Past and present

The clashing of past and present is explored in various ways. For example, the character of the old General, whose heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength, is said to be “the soul and spirit of New England hardihood.” Now put out to pasture, he sometimes presides over the Custom House run by corrupt public servants, who skip work to sleep, allow or overlook smuggling, and are supervised by an inspector with “no power of thought, nor depth of feeling, no troublesome sensibilities,” who is honest enough but without a spiritual compass.[4]

Hawthorne himself had ambivalent feelings about the role of his ancestors in his life. In his autobiographical sketch, Hawthorne described his ancestors as “dim and dusky,” “grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steel crowned,” “bitter persecutors” whose “better deeds” would be diminished by their bad ones. There can be little doubt of Hawthorne’s disdain for the stern morality and rigidity of the Puritans, and he imagined his predecessors’ disdainful view of him: unsuccessful in their eyes, worthless and di sgraceful. “A writer of story books!” But even as he disagrees with his ancestor’s viewpoint, he also feels an instinctual connection to them and, more importantly, a “sense of place” in Salem. Their blood remains in his veins, but their intolerance and lack of humanity becomes the subject of his novel.[4]

[edit] Public response

The Scarlet Letter was published in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period.[5] When he delivered the final pages to James Thomas Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular.[6] In fact, the book was an instant best-seller[7] though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500.[5] Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A 2,500-copy second edition of

The Scarlet Letter included a preface by Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that he had decided to reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine

good-humor... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".[8]

The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint. In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqué subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.[9]

The Scarlet Letter was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days,[5] and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $6,000 USD.

On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne, said he preferred the author's Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them".[10] 20th century writer D. H. Lawrence said that there could be no more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter.[11]

[edit] Allusions

* Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1, The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591-1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritans and exiled from Boston and moved to Rhode Island.[4] * Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation in

Germany.

* Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.

* John Winthrop (1588-1649), first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

* Richard Dawkins' Out Campaign is represented with the Scarlet Letter A emblem.

[edit] Film, TV and theatrical adaptations

Main article: Film Adaptations of the Scarlet Letter

1995 film poster

1995 film poster

* 1917: A black-and-white silent film directed by Carl Harbaugh with Mary G. Martin as Hester Prynne

* 1926: A silent movie directed by Victor Sjostrom and starring Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson.

* 1934: film directed by Robert G. Vignola and starring Colleen Moore

* 1973: Der Scharlachrote Buchstabe a film directed by Wim Wenders in German

* 1979: PBS version starring Meg Foster and John Heard

* 1994: A rock musical, "The Scarlet Letter" written by Mark Governor is produced in Los Angeles.

* 1995: The Scarlet Letter, a film directed by Roland Joffé and starring Demi Moore as Hester and Gary Oldman as Arthur Dimmesdale. This version is "freely adapted" from Hawthorne according to the opening credits and takes liberties with the original story.

* 1996: The film Primal Fear references The Scarlet Letter.

* 1996: The Marilyn Manson promotional video for the song 'Man That You Fear' obliquely references the novel.

* The Red Letter Plays (In The Blood produced in 1999, and F--ing A, produced in 2000) by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, rewrote the story placing it in contemporary New York and Houston.

* 2001: A musical stage adaptation which premiered at the Fringe Festival

in Edinburgh, Scotland, by Stacey Mancine, Daniel Koloski, and Simon Gray.

* 2004: The Scarlet Letter is a Korean noir-thriller featuring an adulteress' monologue, that mentions a plan to raise her unborn child as Pearl in America, in a desperate plea to exit her obsessive affair.

* 2008: "shAme"[1], a rock opera by Mark Governor based on "The Scarlet Letter" premieres in Los Angeles. It is a major reworking of his 1994

stage musical that was also produced in Boston in 2000 and as a radio production in Berlin in 2005. The 2000 version was endorsed and presented by the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society.

[edit] References to the novel

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2008)

[edit] Literature

* The 1993 novel The Holder of the World by Bharati Mukherjee re-wrote the story, placing it in present-day Boston, Colonial America, and

seven teenth-century India during the spread of the British East India Company.

* Deborah Noyes wrote a companion to this novel entitled Angel and Apostle with Pearl as the main character.

* Postmodern writer Kathy Acker borrows from The Scarlet Letter in her novel Blood and Guts in High School. Janie, the main character, identifies with Hester Prynne and intertwines their stories in a vulgar manner.

* In the novel Speak, Hairwoman, the English teacher, refers to The Scarlet Letter in her lesson. The novel's protagonist, Melinda Sordino, is a freshman in high school who is ostracized from her fellow schoolmates during the school year, much as Hester Prynne was ostracized by the Puritans in Boston.

* Maryse Condé's novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, although set at the time of the Salem witch trials, also features the character Hester Prynne.

* The title of Jhumpa Lahiri's 2008 novel Unaccustomed Earth comes from a passage from the introduction to The Scarlet Letter: "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth."

[edit] Culture

Richard Dawkins's Out Campaign for atheism uses a red scarlet "A" on webpages and clothing as an emblem of atheist identification. [12]

Tennessee has drivers convicted of DUI wear vests advertising this fact while on roadside litter pick-up duty. This is a badge of shame similar to the original scarlet letter.

《红字》中文解读赏析

红字背后成长的野玫瑰 ————论海斯特的孤独、痛苦、罪《红字》是美国十九世纪最有影响力的浪漫主义小说家纳撒尼尔??霍桑第一部长篇小说,该小说情节简明,内容深刻,矛盾突出,构思新颖,手法独到,语言生动,心理描写细致入微,使它成为“心理罗曼史”,美国浪漫主义小说和心理分析小说及象征主义小说的开山之作。该小说讲述了17世纪的波士顿,一个犯了通奸罪的女人(海斯特?普林)和女儿(珍珠)与海斯特情夫(亚瑟?迪梅斯戴尔)、前夫(罗杰?奇林沃思)的爱恨情仇故事。深受清教思想影响的霍桑在《红字》中反复强调生活中悲观的一面,使读者在读完作品后心中留下三个关键词“孤独”、“痛苦”、“罪”。 女主人公海斯特?普林是一个善良、聪明,美丽的姑娘,因与年轻牧师亚瑟?迪梅斯戴尔先生相爱并产下一女而受到政教合一的当局的责罚,罚她胸前永远带着红A字(英文通奸Adultery的缩写)。第二章中,海斯特首次亮相便以其庄重的气质和亮丽的外表使众人无不感到惊讶和震撼,仿佛从牢中走出的海斯特是一位高贵淑女,而非一个罪妇。然而当人们的视线下移,看到她胸前佩戴的闪闪发光的红字时,这红字便即刻产生了一种魔力,使她脱离了一般的人际关系,并自我封闭起来。自此,孤独,痛苦,罪,便陪伴着海斯特走过了余下的生活。 海斯特是如此孤独,为了不使心爱之人遭受连累,她毅然独自担起了所有罪行的惩罚。受到众人的唾弃,海斯特便带着孩子住在远离其他居民区的一间小茅屋里,孤立无援,世上没有一个朋友敢亲近她。由于无法从外界得到解脱,海斯特不得不从内心世界寻求帮助-----她的记忆和想象中的世界。依靠着坚强,她忍受着众人对于她通奸罪的愤慨。整个故事中,海斯特一直都保持缄默,接受着清教徒上至大人下到孩子对她的欺凌,这种态度使海斯特散发出一股孤傲的气质,但显然,孤傲是无奈之举,如不孤傲,海斯特早就会被这种奇特而孤独的痛苦生活摧毁。海斯特是如此孤单,孤单到小珍珠就是她的全世界。当得知某些头面人物想剥夺她的孩子时,她失去了平日的缄默,失声尖叫,显出一副不怕一切的样子,甚至几近疯狂。她被弃于世,所以才会如此激动得决心不惜牺牲一切来保护她的“世界”。 伴随着孤独的是海斯特随处可见的痛苦。从少女时,与罗杰的婚姻就埋葬了海斯特的青春和欢笑。随后与亚瑟的爱情本该是一段才子佳人的美好爱情,但无奈清教教规森严,上帝给了海斯特短暂的快乐后就给了她更为致命的打击。在绞刑架上,她本可以说出亚瑟的名字,得到更大的宽恕,可是她没有这么做,她相信爱情,追求爱情,也勇敢得保护了自己的爱人,情愿用自己单薄的身体去承担双人份的痛苦,独自面对世人对她的咒骂,鄙夷和践踏。A字将海斯特打入了地狱,甚至阳光一旦遇到她和她的红字,就会消失得无影无踪。 罪是书中另一个关键词。是以海斯特的通奸罪为本质,以A字为表现形式,以小珍珠为载体,贯穿了整个小说。前两者较容易理解,小珍珠对于海斯特的意义却并非只有女儿那么简单,她是海斯特的罪恶之花。在第八章中,海斯特向总督陈情时说道,珍珠是她的幸福和希望,也是她的磨难,珍珠就是红字。可见,珍珠一面带给海斯特生的希望,一面又时时刻刻提醒着海斯特自己的罪过。她就像A字,无论海斯特出现在哪,她总在身旁。在第十九章中,当海斯特取下A字时,珍珠拒绝来到海斯特的身边,而当海斯特重新戴上A字时,珍珠才又回来,这是多么有意思的一幕,明显得暗示了珍珠与A字有着很大的共

the scarlet letter

Scarlet Letter Class Activity: Role on the Wall ?Chapter IX-XI, discusses the relationship of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. By this point in the story, both men have changed internally and externally. Create two large outlines of a body on poster paper to represent Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. ?Inside the outline, write factors that affect the character internally (guilt, jealousy, spirituality, knowledge, etc.) ?Around the outside of the outline, write factors that affect the character externally (role in the community, laws, duty, etc.) ?On the outline itself, identify the factors that have changed these characters over time. Write examples of how these factors are physically affecting the characters (pale face, holds hand on heart, “visage sooty with smoke,” etc.) Quote directly from the text, as well as summarize in your own words.

thescarletletter读后感英文

专业:姓名:学号: 成绩: Abstract: this paper is to talk the female character in the scarlet letter. It describes the whole story at the first section, then the character analysis. And it explains the symbol of the letter “A” which appears all the time. Well it finishes with the standpoint of its author, which refers to me. Wish you be delighted reading my essay. Thank you! In an eternal semester’s Anglo-American movie classes, I’ve appreciated many classical novels. What impressed me most is the first movie we watch called the scarlet letter. First, the story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, and that is in a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her breast. Hester’s husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She will not reveal her lover’s identity. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and Pearl grows into a willful, impish child. When Dimmesdale acknowledge Hester’s child publicly the other day, a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. Later Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. However, Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resume her charitable work. She receives

The-Scarlet-Letter-红字读后感讲课教案

T h e-S c a r l e t- L e t t e r-红字读后感

The Scarlet Letter is rich with symbols which can stand for an idea, belief, action, or material entity. It is a characteristic of Hawthorne. He used symbols to reveal the psychology of the characters. So in the essay, I will mainly talk about the symbols in this book. The most important symbol in the book is the “the scarlet letter A”. When I first saw the main character Hester Prynne at the beginning of the book, the image come to my mind was the woman appeared in the bible, the angle “took me away in the Spirit into a waste land: and I saw a woman seated on a bright red beast, full of evil names, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and bright red, with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels; and in her hand were a gold cup full of evil things and her unclean desires”(revelution 17:3, 17:4). Here the woman “full of evils” was dressed in red, and seated on red. Red, or scarlet color was a kind of symbol of sin. The “scarlet” in this novel, however, can reflect much, not only sin. The color “scarlet” is just like the love between Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale, pure, sincere and enthusiastic. This kind of love is the foundation of the family and the society. It should be cherished if the society is well established. But, the novel was written in the mid-nineteenth century and took the mid-seventeenth century for the events it

红字的象征意义The Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet Letter

The Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne always wears on her chest a scarlet letter “A”, which is the central symbol of the novel. It shows different identities of Hester. And the symbolic meaning changes from “Adultery” to “Angel”. I will analyze it from the following three aspects. 1. Adultery During that time, the strict Puritans rule Boston and they punish the people who break their rules. Hester really commits a crime of adultery. When she stands on the platform, the letter “A”is the sign of punishment of her adultery, and the color scarlet is a symbol of sin. The scarlet looks like blood and fire, which can be regarded as desire. There is passionate love between Hester and the priest, but it brings them misfortune. Hester has to wear the scarlet “A” as a punishment and she will never forget her crime. With the shame, she is regarded as a naughty woman. Red should be regarded as the symbol of love and life, but under the control of Puritan strictness, it’s a symbol of shame and punishment. When Hester first appears, she doesn’t look like a criminal but a loving mother. She is grace and elegant, holding her baby to the chest. She stands proudly to bear her punishment. That is impressive to me. Her spirit is full of disobedience and strength. In addition, from the words I can see the elegantly sewn letter “A” is an art. 2. Alone and Alienation Hester lives a lonely life without friend. Only her daughter Pearl accompanies her. What’s worse, because her crime is still within town, people insult her and treat her badly. Even children are afraid to get close to her. She suffers great from the mental torment. If I were she, I couldn’t stand such kind of pressure. I would leave for a new place where no one knows me and begin a new life. However, she chooses to face the reality rather than escape from it. She is patient to those insulting words and even tries to forgive those people. 3. Able, Admirable and Angle

霍桑红字的深层解读

《红字》的深层解读 摘要:《红字》是美国著名作家霍桑于1850年发表的长篇小说。这篇小说将19世纪美国复杂的社会问题揭露出来。在这部作品中,霍桑把自己对于爱情、宗教信仰、女性意识等问题的观点都蕴含在小说之中。《红字》成功塑造了海丝特这一女性形象。她以自己的方式捍卫自己作为女人应得的权利,她从一个被侮辱被损害的女性,逐渐发展成为一个永不放弃追求幸福的自由思想者,甚至妇女活动家。通过对海丝特这一女性人物的塑造,体现了霍桑的女性主义意识,本文从几下几个方面对《红字》进行解读。 关键词: 一、海丝特形象塑造方面《红字》这部作品共24章,其中有18章是用来描写海丝特这一女性形象的。这种布局安排无疑将海丝特置于文中的主体地位。而小说中的主要男性人物——齐灵渥斯和丁梅斯代尔则处于相对次要的地位。霍桑一改男权社会中应当把男性作为主要人物的传统观念,在作品里为海丝特赢得了一个前所未有的“主体”的位置,这一做法将作者潜在的女性主义意识表露出来。海丝特一出场,霍桑就对海丝特的形象作了正面、积极的刻画:“要是有一个罗马天主教徒,他准会从这美丽的妇人,从她那绚烂如画的服饰和仪态,从她怀中的婴儿,联想到被无数著名的画家竞相表现的圣母形象。”通过作者的描写,海丝特追求美的天性、自由奔放的气质,对清教教规的反抗,对社会习俗的轻视以及追求爱情的精神都得到了最好的阐释与肯定。二、海丝特对话语权的争取《红字》以十

七世纪的波士顿作为大背景,在当时,清教统治者为了统治、囚禁妇女设立了一系列严厉的法案法规。在当时的社会里男人是主导,是中心,而女性只能处于从属地位,受到压迫和排挤。在这样一个环境里,海丝特不仅不臣服于传统的男尊女卑观念,还通过对社会的拒绝表达了她与清教社会的针锋相对。海丝特由于犯了所谓的通奸罪,受到当权者逼迫,必须在胸前带有象征着耻辱的标记“A”。当她怀抱婴孩,站在邢台上接受权利机构对她的审判时;当他们以拯救海丝特灵魂为借口,想要用神圣、感化的语言诱导她说出同伙的名字时,海丝特坚决并大声地回答说“我不说!……这红字烙得太深了,你无法把它取下来。”在男权社会里,语言是男性的专利,在这样一种情况下,海丝特竟敢用语言驳回了权力机构对她的审问,表达出自己的思想,这一切都将她追求自由爱情的精神和勇于承担后果的勇气表露出来。 三、经济方面要求独立女人要想追求自由和解放,这主要根源于经济上的独立和人格上平等。独立的自我以及对生活炽烈的追求一直都是支撑海丝特走下去的力量所在。由于这种力量,“在过去的这些年里,她用这种疏远的目光来看人类社会的各种制度,以及牧师们和立法者们所建立起来的一切。她以印第安人看待牧师的宽领带,法官的长袍,颈手枷,家庭或宗教的那种老大不敬的态度批判一切。”在这种极为痛苦的生活中,海丝特勇敢地承受着人们的蔑视与冷淡。她以自己微薄的收入维持着母女俩简单的生活,并且以顽强的生活意志和善良的本性感动了周围人们,通过海斯特的坚持和努力许多人都不再以原有的意义去理解那刻在衣服上鲜红的 A 字了,在他们的眼

thescarletletter人物分析

R e v i e w o f t h e S c a r l e t L e t t e r The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American writer.This novel is his masterpiece. It is set in 17th-century New England under the colonial rule in North America. The book is based on a Boston love tragedy during the years 1642 to 1649. In this novel, it mainly tells us the different fate of three main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester was forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on the breast of her gown because of adultery. However, she refused to reveal her lover’s identity. It made her husband, Chillingworth, fly into a rage. He swear to revenge. Then he found that his wife’s lover is the respectable young priest, Dimmesdale. He got close to the young priest and torture him psychologically. Finally the priest could not stand the inner torment. He confessed publicly a fact that he was Hester’s lover. Then he died in Hester’s arms. Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth got sick. After one year, he died. This novel is an 1850 romantic work of fiction. However, in my eyes, it not only is a story of love, but also is a story of soul. What impress me deeply is the human nature, the characterization, and the psychological description. The images of the three main characters are vivid and lively. Hester Prynne, a beautiful woman who born in a British crumbling aristocratic family, was married to a monstrous old scholar. When her husband could be dead or alive, she was fallen in love with a priest and gave birth a daughter. It breached the Puritan doctrine. So she was found guilty. She must to wear a scarlet letter “A” in her lifetime for her sin. But she would not reveal her lover, and raised the child by herself. Here we will praise her for the resistance of the unreasonable marriage system, and impress by her great love. Perhaps when a woman deeply love a man, she will sacrifice all of hers for her love. She can use her fragile body to protect her love one. She not only can sacrifice everything but also can endure everything for love, and enjoy it. In this sacrifice, she does not care about the secular and the personal interest. It reflects the real greatness and nobility. She was so amazing that I could not find a suitable word to praise her. But actually she impressed me than anyone else ever done. When facing the disastrous punishment, she just bear it by herself. Although the punishment is cruel for a woman, she did not escape from it. Besides, she did not show her weakness to gain people’s sympathy. She also did not committed suicide as I imagine. Because as for a traditional Chinese woman, she probably tend to this extreme way. She would give up her life because of shame, and want to use her death to end this scandal stain life. However, Hester just accepted the punishment calmly and continue the pursuit of freedom and happiness. She was so inviolability that to look down upon the so-called Puritans. As a woman, a mother, she was great. After sacrifice her everything, the only fortune Hester got was her daughter, Pearl. She love Pearl. Pearl was her pursuit of beauty. However she worried about the groundless sin would come upon her daughter. So she atoned for love. She devoted her life to serve society, though those who accepted her help are ungrateful to her. Arthur Dimmesdale, a real martyr, was a coward who dare to love but afraid to admit his love. Although he was wretched, he overall was a good man. He struggled in pain, wasted his life, played a dual role, saint and sinner. When he could not tell who was good or bad, he stick to his inner secret. He dare not to disclose his sin. So he suffered from his inner guilty.

美国文学 霍桑《红字》赏析

The Scarlet Letter Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne Symbolism: The Scarlet Letter, A symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. The letter’s meaning shifts as time passes. Originally intended to mark Hester as an adulteress, the “A” eventually comes to stand for “Able.” The Meteor , to Dimmesdale, the meteor implies that he should wear a mark of shame just as Hester does. The meteor is interpreted differently by the rest of the community, which thinks that it stands for “Angel” and marks Governor Winthrop’s entry into heaven The Rosebush,Next to the Prison Door .The narrator chooses to begin his story with the image of the rosebush beside the prison door. The rosebush symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man’s activities. Pearl is a sort of living version of her m other’s scarlet letter. She is the physical consequence of sexual sin and the indicator of a transgression (evildoing). Upward American spirit Character analysis: Hester: disloyalty, betrayal, deception, sexual desire, adultery. Face, correct, redeem, purify. Praise, content, conformability. Dimmesdale: adultery, cowardice, hypocrisy, dishonesty, selfishness, too coward to confess, tortured by his conscience. Sympathetic, disfavor his hesitation, indecisiveness and cowardice. Chillingworth: revenge. Tortured by the desire of revenge, twisted and reduced to nothing. disgusted, think he committed greater crime. Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter Puritan background: setting, events, characters, thoughts, behaviors. Puritan doctrines: original sin, total depravity, predestination, limited atonement. Ralph Waldo Emerson 1.Nature The declaration of Transcendentalism Analysis of “Nature” A long essay which has eight parts: the opening, commodity, beauty, language, discipline, Idealism, spirit and prospects. Our selectio n is taken from the opening. Taken as a whole, “Nature” expresses Emerson’s philosophy in a more systematic fashion than any other work of his. Meanings of nature I Beauty Nature is beautiful. : the complete, mysterious, useful and moral beauty of nature. First, nature’s beauty lies in its completeness. Second, nature’s beauty lies in its mystery. cannot be manipulated. Only when he holds a sincere respect for nature, can man feel the mysterious beauty of nature. Third, nature’s beauty lies in its usefulnes s. Nature provides man without any benefit II Nature Is Divine ●Nature is divine and has the eternal order which should not be violated. Influenced in a way by Chinese ancient philosophy, Emerson believes that all the things in the world come from the same root---the Oversoul. ●Emerson believes that man can find God in his own heart by direct contact with nature ●Nature has permeated (penetrate) all aspects of human life. Spirit embodied in nature has influence upon us. Nature inspires man and gives him\her power. Man should find the truth,

The Scarlet letter红字

具体分析作品的语言风格、主题展现、所属文学流派、作者的创造风格等;(35%) Scarlet letter Nathaniel Hawthorne Literary Genre: 19th C American Romanticism –Dark Romanticism style –typical romantic writer a man of literary craftsmanship,extraordinary in 1 the use of symbol: The symbol serves as a weapon to attack reality. It can be found everywhere in his writing 2 the use of ambiguity: to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of view 3revelation of characters’ psychology4 the use of supernatural Writing Skills Allegory Ambiguity supernaturalism symbolism Symbolism:Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions. Hawthorne’s Style ?an anatomist of the heart ?using symbols and setting to reveal the psychology of the characters ?soft and flowing style ?ambiguity Major Themes ?Public Guilt vs. Private Guilt ?Punishment vs. Forgiveness ?Sin and Judgment ?Civilization vs. Wilderness ?The Town vs. the Woods Sin &knowledge The story of Hester and Dimmesdale is similar to that of Adam and Eve. In both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as ―her passport into regions where other women dared not trea d,‖ leading her to ―speculate‖ about her society and herself more ―boldly‖ than anyone else in New England. As for Dimmesdale, the ―burden‖ of his sin gives him ―sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrate[s] in unison with theirs.‖ His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. The Nature of Evil The characters in the novel frequently debate the identity of the ―Black Man,‖ the embodiment of evil. Over the course of the novel, the ―Black Man‖ is associated with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Mistress Hibbins, and little Pearl is thought by some to be the Devil’s child. It may implies that evil is an inseparable part of human being. The characters also try to root out the causes of evil. First, it is the true love between Hester and Dimmesdale that seduces them into evil. Second, the adultery between Hester and the minister arouses Chillingworth’s hate which accounts for his carefully plotted and precisely aimed revenge on Dimmesdale. Thus, the book argues that true evil arises from the close relationship between hate and love. ?Identity and Society Though Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people of Boston to wear a badge of humiliation, she is reluctant to leave the town. Not being physically imprisoned, she can go somewhere else to resume a normal life. Surprisingly, Hester reacts with dismay when Chillingworth tells her that the town fathers are considering letting her remove the letter. To Hester, running away or removing the letter would be an acknowledgment of society’s power over her: she would be admitting that the letter is a mark of shame and something from which she desires to escape. Instead, Hester stays, refiguring the scarlet letter as a symbol of her own experiences and character. Her past sin is a part of who she is; to pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of

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