1、The Scarlet Letter: Self-redemptionAbstract: Hawthornes works, whether novels or short stories, Hawthorne can be seen often in a symbolic way, the community was ugly in a didactic way of ethics displayed in the readers eyes. So evil in his work has always dominated, and Hawthornes life is also explo
2、ring how to treat evil to the problem. The Scarlet Letter, Hawthornes masterpiece as a profound reflection of Hawthornes work reflects the core of Christian ethics: the common people sin and crime of this mercy and salvation. Based on the The Scarlet Letter, characters and content of the re-excavati
3、on works in the salvation of Hawthorne to interpret.Key Words: The Scarlet Letter; Hawthorne; salvation; ethics.红字:救赎摘要:霍桑的作品 ,不论是长篇小说 ,还是短篇小说 ,都可以看出霍桑常常用一种象征的手法 ,把当时社会的种种丑恶用一种伦理说教的方式展示在读者的眼前。因此“罪恶”在他的作品里始终占据着主导地位 ,而霍桑的一生也正是在探讨应该怎样对待“罪恶”这一问题。红字作为霍桑的代表作深刻地体现了霍桑作品中折射了基督教伦理的核心:人的普遍罪性,以及对这罪性的怜悯和救赎。本文通过对
4、红字人物形象及内涵的挖掘重新对霍桑作品中的救赎进行解读。关键词:红字 ;霍桑; 救赎; 伦理 Contents1. Introduction.12. Moral of “The Scarlet Letter”.23. The embodiment of self-salvation in the main characters of “The Scarlet Letter” .2 3.1. The self-salvation of Hester2 3.2. The self-salvation of Dimmesdale.3 3.3 The self-salvation of Chillin
5、gworth.34. Conclusion.4Bibliography.5The Scarlet Letter: Self-redemption1. Introduction: The story starts during the summer of 1642, near Boston, Massachusetts, in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms, and on th
6、e breast of her gown a rag of scarlet cloth that assumed the shape of a letter. It is the uppercase letter A. The Scarlet Letter A represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sina badge of shamefor all to see. Hesters husband, who is much older than she, and
7、 whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead to America whilst settling affairs in Europe. However, her husband does not arrive in Boston and the consensus is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her da
8、ughter. She will not reveal her lovers identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and secrecy. Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her childs father.Hesters mis
9、sing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He reveals his true identity to Hester and medicates her daughter. Hester refuses to divulge the name of her lover. Chillingworth settles in Boston to practice medicine there. Several years pass. Hester supports he
10、rself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter, Pearl, grows into a willful, impish child, and is said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hesters love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Dimmesdales psychological angui
11、sh deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdales self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious
12、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 finally discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an A burned
13、into Dimmesdales chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct. Dimmesdale 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. Frustrated in h
14、is revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworths money even though he knows she is not his daughter.With the publication of the scarlet letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne became famous a
15、s the greatest writer living then. The novel described the features of New England in the 17th century. It also exposed the dark world under the rule of the Puritanism at that time. It has been hailed both as the first symbolic novel and as the first psychological novel(even though it was written be
16、fore there was a science called psychology). But what really secures the place of the scarlet letter in the literary history is its treatment of human nature, sin, guilt, and pride-all timeless, universal themes-from a uniquely American point of view.In the decades that followed the American Revolut
17、ion, the United States struggled to distinguish itself culturally from Europe. There was a sense that if the United States were to become a great nation, it needed to have its own artistic traditions, not transplanted imitations of European models.Hawthorne rose to this challenge. The scarlet letter
18、 is set in the mid-seventeenth century in a puritan colony on the edge of an untamed forest still inhabited by Native Americans. The landscape is wholly American. In the book, Hawthorne manages to put his finger on several thematic elements that came to define the American national identity: the eff
19、ects of the strict religious morality, the long struggle against a vast frontier, the troubled relationship between white settlers and Native Americans. These issues were just as relevant in Hawthornes day as they were in puritan times, and the way Americans and the United States government addresse
20、d these issues shaped the development of the nation.2. Moral of “The Scarlet Letter”This is a book about the mind Confessions of evil, rather than simply forbear love history. Although Hawthorne was desperately wants to get rid of their parents left behind (in the 1692 drive out witch case) evil, bu
21、t in the Puritan sense of their world view still exists and therefore influence his writing, the book does not suffer from the hero struggling to show too much self-reflection beyond the historical consciousness, almost everyone fall in crime and redemption of evil fate of being unable to break the
22、shackles.3. The embodiment of self-salvation in the main characters of “The Scarlet Letter”3.1.The self-salvation of HesterIn the doctrine of Calvin, a sinner can not get redemption according to their wishes, to save his soul depends entirely on Gods choice.The so-called sin in the book is to be com
23、pletely re-interpretation of the definition. For different people should be reflected in microcosm, just from a doctrinal point of view, Prynne and Dimmesdale is clearly improper romance will not be tolerated, even though they combine to make this short is the history of their view is wrong, and the
24、y face the evil attitude and approach is very different.Hester openly withstood the punishment caused by sin, and through almost ascetic life of their own salvation, and gradually in a long time in the wake of seven years, with the break out from the cage in the sense of a free and independent of co
25、nsciousness. And it is with this sense of calm after the death of the Dimmesdale Prynne able to live self-esteem, shame and a sign that A becomes a symbol of virtue. Hawthornes attitude of religious in the book is ambiguous, and with a complex of emotions, although in the latter half of the book wit
26、h a clear criticism of its color, but on the whole step works, for which God kind of belief in one hand, bundled shackles and imprisonment of human nature, on the other hand is a kind of purification. Hawthorne does not negate the role of religion, especially in the film has such subtle psychology o
27、f the characters portrayed in the novel.朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典Prynne was a reduction in the real character, she is not the movie The Scarlet Letter Moore played fearless image of women that should be said that these are two completely different roles. Her heart was always raging waves, being in a stoic fe
28、ar there will be no exception, shaken, disturbed. She repeatedly referred to God in spirit itself is not produced by the disposal of the man to save his own wishful thinking, beliefs, some sustenance into her soul, and make her some sort of wake-up call, this time to guide her wake-up call in realit
29、y, hard-working and good keeping quality. This became her salvation.3.2. The self-salvation of DimmesdaleDimmesdale is always in a fragile psychological state of helplessness, as a devout priest, the most close to God, even canonized, probation can not save his people slip of the soul, can not even
30、make up their own sins, enough to drown his praise and worship so that his conscience has been more profound condemnation. As a devout Puritan, he chose to flee to start again, but in essence is the belief of his own defect and negative, so when he was physically and mentally exhausted to death on t
31、he confession of Xingtai, when the outcome had long been doomed.He agreed with the view of this jungle Prynnes more like a supernatural power. Many people do not like the vulnerability of this role, he tried to use guilt to fill the gap of life and never grow to love enough to stay out of the space,
32、 he is difficult to arouse enthusiasm I had for him was the love of the imagination, love is occasionally, after he emptied his own consolation brought a kind of sustenance. He hides evil, tortured, when he bear the sins of the soul of the afterglow of the backlog in the life decision to completely
33、repent when he became a martyr. The translator had used the book hypocritical to calibrate the Dimmesdale, in fact it comes from the depths of human selfishness, fear and a loss of self-protection, and Dimmesdale, we should give it to the point of forgiveness, after all, difficult to adhere to the l
34、ove from the start represents a redemption of sin difficult, it is firmly embedded in the doctrine of Gods being.3.3 The self-salvation of ChillingworthChillingworth is the maker of The Scarlet Letter. His ugly appearance and deformity of the body, it is ugly and deformed his portrayal of the soul.
35、He chose to let Dimmesdale live a means of revenge by the suffering, in fact, became the devil to prevent him from selfe-salvation. Although the combination of his and Hesters family for his pursuit of a warm and personal happiness has been the private, but that is a love, the original is understand
36、able; but this love turns into hate, he make revenge as a life goal, at abandon the love in the spirit of Christ to others gnawing bite after the soul of music, and have actually fallen by the victim as the worst of sinners, not only in loss of life goals of revenge when the end of his life, and dea
37、th also will not get a new life. Chillingworths depressed and eventually died of inner torture is the seriously warning to people.when a persons soul was completely dominated by hatred and do anything even with the most insidious means of revenge, he can not be far away from Satan, and this is a sel
38、f-degradation and destruction process - pure evil. Chillingworth finally give Pearl the legacy, can be considered the last of his self-salvation.4. ConclusionThe book also has a natural role in the closest - Pearl, the inherited Prynne wild and fearless, the children safe from the outside in the aur
39、a of religion and thus keep to ones spirituality in the health club, even if she occasionally will be seen as the evil wizard. Because her body exudes the atmosphere of human freedom and wild, always maintained a cheerful state is vulnerable to our preference. Perhaps her performance in a way the hu
40、man ideal. The Scarlet Letter in 1994 was adapted for film, the film played by Demi Moore Prynne in fact look just like a Pearl. The difference is that with the original, the film is more focused on love, freedom and independence to guide the power, perhaps it is kind of redemption to the same thing with Hawthorne.朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典朗读显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音字典Bibliography1(美) Nathaniel Hawthorne著,红字;Oversea Publishing House出版社19942王力,李晓娟,霍桑笔下的红字,内蒙古科技大学外国语学院3ZhouJian,红字_罪与罚,咸宁师专学报22卷第五期4胡艳霞,解读人性的回归,吉林工商学院外语分院word文档 可自由复制编辑