The Sin and Atonement of Hester Prynne.doc

the sin and atonement of hester prynnein the scarlet letteri. introductionin one more century, the number of the commentary on the scarlet letter is innumerable. a lot of critics have analyzed the novel from different aspects. however, this work is seldom analyzed from the point of view of sin and atonement for sin.hawthorne is far familiar with the bible. he lives in an age when the literature is dominated by christianity. a lot of western authors take bible as one of the sources of their creations. as creating his work, hawthorne is chiefly influenced by the bible. in the scarlet letter he fully expresses his thoughts by concerning the topic of” sin and atonement for sin”.as is known to all, writers take literature as a way to express their conceptions and thoughts on the society in which he lives, on nature in which human constitute an element, and on his fellow beings. as an author, hawthorne is not an exception, so his thoughts will be reflected by his works, and thus the scarlet letter is analyzed from this point of view.a. introduction to hawthornes life nathaniel hawthorne（1804-1864）, is an american novelist and short story writer, a central figure in the american renaissance, whose works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement. his best-known works include the scarlet letter (1850) and the house of the seven gambles (1851). like edgar allan poe, nathaniel hawthorne took a dark view of human nature.he was born in salem, massachusetts, july 4, 1804. his ancestors were prominent in the affairs of the colony. john hawthorne was one of the judges who tried the witches in 1620, and john hawthorne was a member of the dignified school committee of salem in 1796. hawthornes father, a ship captain died in a foreign land when his son was only four years old; his mother lived for forty years after her husbands death. the people of salem looked on nathaniel as a lazy and very queer boy. he grew up in a unique solitude. during these years of seclusion, hawthorne acquired the habit of keeping silent on all occasions, and reading a few books frequently and thoroughly. the new gate calendar must have supplied him with many subtle suggestions for his later writings on sin and crime, for in almost all of his productions his imagination is tinged with this old puritanical philosophy and theology.he entered bowdoin college in 1821 and graduated from this institution in 1825. he had as classmates longfellow and franklin pierce who afterward became president of the united states. after his graduation, hawthorne returned to salem, where he lived with his mother and sisters in almost absolute seclusion for fourteen years. during this period he wrote daily and spent his nights in burning what he had written in the daytime.he was clerk of the boston custom house from 1839 to 1841, when the whig party removed him for being ultra-partisan on behalf of the democrats. he married sophia peabody, july 9, 1842. from 1842 until 1846, they lived in concord in the house formerly occupied by emerson. these were the happiest years of his life. in 1846 he returned to salem as surveyor in the salem custom house. he retired from this office in 1850 and lived in lenox massachusetts for two years. in 1852, he settled in concord. president pierce appointed him consul at liverpool in 1853, and he served in this position until 1857.after leaving liverpool, he traveled three years in england and on the continent. he returned to concord in 1860. he died in the white mountains, may 18, 1864. although he is a silent man and a seeker of solitude during his life, few writers have ever experienced such wide publicity of their inmost lives since his death. the publication of his notes has opened his life and workplace to every one, and has revealed to us a magnanimous, sympathetic, and pure man, who realized his responsibilities as a writer and improved all his literary opportunities.with modern psychological insight, hawthorne probed the secret motivations in human behavior. he explored the guilt and anxiety that grew out of sins against humanity and asserted that emotional and intellectual ambivalence was inseparable from the puritan heritage of america. hawthorne characterized most of his books as romances; this approach freed him to represent symbolically the passions, emotions and anxieties of his characters and to expose “the truth of the human heart” that he believed lies hidden beneath mundane daily life.b. the influence of bible on hawthornechristian cultures influences on literature synchronize with the birth of the christiananity. “atonement for sin” can be regarded as the first archetype in the biblechristianity comes into being in the first century. it has great influence on the western world. it was regarded as the state religion in rome in the 4th century; it develops into a necessary ingredient of western culture.as a kind of spiritual civilization and collective consciousness, christian culture plays an important role in influencing the formation of moral standards held by the whole society and thus the way of thinking. from then on, the literary school such as revival of learning in the modern times, reformation in the 16th century, romanism movement, realistic literature, even critic-realism in the 19th century, bears the marked brand of the christian culture.there are archetypes which take their root in the bible contributing a lot to christian culture. the “original sin and atonement for sin” is regarded as the most important archetype of the bible.hawthorne is a pious christian, and is deeply influenced by the theology from the bible. he is so much in doglegged in religious doctrine that people can find the reflection of the god almost everywhere in his works. in hawthornes age, christian religion is the dominating social culture and at that time he lives in almost every university taking bible as the main course, so everyone will be influenced by it from its very birth.according to the bible, everyone is sinful. that is the explanation of the original sin when god creates the world. when god creates the world, he first creates a man called adam and then a woman called eve, both of whom live happily in the garden of eden. god tells them that they can eat every kind of fruit in the garden except those on the tree of knowledge of good and evil. instigated by the serpent, the two cannot suppress their curiosity and violate gods order by eating the fruits from that forbidden tree. that enrages god. from that time on, they become sinful and are expelled from the garden of eden. thus as their descendents, human beings are born with sin. all successive generations are their descendants and therefore inherit their sin. at the time one is born, he/she bears sin and has the root of committing crime.this is the original sin and also the source for hawthornes creating of his works. hawthorne believes that evil is at the core of human life and most of his works reveal the black vision of the bible. evil exists in human hearts all the time. hawthorne is ruled by three doctrines in his life: bible is the supreme law of god, original sin and the inherent evil of all human beings and the belief in predestination. according to these doctrines, sin will surely be punished one way or another and if committing a sin, one should face it bravely and try to atone for it; only in this way can the one be forgiven and accepted by the society! the above is the influences of the bible on hawthorne. and this will be reflected in his works, writing hesters life is a good ground to prove this.cintroduction to the scarlet letterthe scarlet letter, nathaniel hawthornes representative work, is a classical novel in american literature in the 19th century. the novel is about the struggle three people face while trying to live their lives and find happiness in a puritan society.the story is like this. in the early 1640s, hester has come to the small town of boston, massachusetts, from great britain, while her husband, chillingworth has left to deal with something. but after then, there is no news about him and nobody know whether he is alive or not for two years. then hester and reverend arthur dimmesdale, the towns priest, engages in the act of adultery and produce a baby girl named pearl. although only she knows that dimmesdale is the father, hester has promised dimmesdale not to reveal his identity. hester is put on display in front of the entire town to accept the punishment, serving as an illustration to the towns people from sinning. she is then put in jail with the baby for a few months and forced to wear a scarlet letter a which stands for adultery forever. hesters husband, roger chillingworth, who had been captured by native american indians on his way to new england and held in captivity for two years, escapes and enters the town of boston. after learning of what hester had done, chillingworth poses as a doctor and vows to discover the identity of hesters partner in sin. hester agrees to keep his true identity a secret too. from main idea of this story, its easy for us to see the fact that it exposed gloomy and despicable repulsion of human nature and at the same time extolled glorious soul by portraying the dark reality under puritanism in the 17th century.3 (p92) through this novel, the characters and situations have helped us to understand the sin and atonement.ii. the suffering and atonement of hester prynnea. the suffering of hester prynnehester has married. her husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead of him to boston, but he has not arrived for a long time. as is most likely, her husband may be at the bottom of the sea. she is youthful and fair, and doubtless was strongly tempted to her fall. while waiting for her husband, hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. she disobeys god by committing adultery which is an extremely sinful act according to god and is unforgivable. in such a situation, hester forgets gods instruction and is completely degenerated. according to tom waltson, the nature of sin is evil: firstly, sin fouls people; sin is not only a flaw, but also a contamination. sin to soul is the same as rust to gold. it is just like a blemish on a beautiful thing. the bible compares sin with “plague” (1king 8, 38). sin fouls gods image and stain the pure of soul. secondly, sin makes god worry. “do not grieve the holy spirit of god” (ephesians 4, 30). sin is deliberately an affliction to god. god doesnt like sin because sin makes god be insulted. thirdly, sin is contrary to god. a sinner trends on gods principle and violates gods decree.fourthly, sin brings evil. sin is like the trojan horse which has a common outlook and terrible things inside.lastly, sinners who dont repent will die out. unrepentant sin brings about “the second death” (revelation 20, 14) (xi tong shen xue)sin is evil and a sinner who must be punished. she must atone for it to get the forgiveness from god.suffering is a kind of way to atone for sin. suffering is gods mercy to his children because he gives them a way to clean their sin from their body and mind. thus his children will live more happily ultimately.suffering should be regarded as a necessity in ones private life, family life, and social life and so on. one enjoys love, friendship, money, health, marriage, sex, job, etc and when any of these things is lost suffering comes.suffering includes the following:suffering of loss of health-physical pain, fever, paralysis, deaf, blindness, mute, etc. suffering of the lack of daily necessities - food, clothing, shelter, etc.suffering from the nature - floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, storms, as well as freezing or hot weather, volcanoes and blizzards.suffering from mental agony - worry, sorrow, fear, anguish, jealousy, etc.suffering of being treated unfairly by law, regulation and standard or by other people. everyone in this world must suffer. you can find this opinion in the imitation of christ:“wherever you are, wherever you go, you are miserable unless you turn to god. so why be dismayed when things do not happen as you wish and desire? is there anyone who has anything as he wishes? there is no one in the world, be he pope or king, who doesnt suffer trial or anguish.”(chapter 22: thoughts on the misery of man). the reason for suffering is the original sin and crimes that people commit. and only through suffering can one get merit and learn experience. after death, they will go to the heaven and see god. so suffering in ones life is not gods way to show cruelty to man. on the contrary, it is gods kindness. he is good, his love endures forever. suffering is controlled by sin not god, it is to prove sins nature and makes one realize his sinful acts to avoid committing sins. in this way, god let people know that he doesnt give up anybody. he just wants to educate his people and his final purpose is to save his people.so hester must suffer. only through suffering could she be forgiven and saved by god. each suffers are in her benefits.as the crowds watch, hester holding an infant emerges from the prison door and makes her way to a scaffold (a raised platform), where she is to be publicly condemned. the women in the crowd make disparaging comments on hester; they particularly criticize her for the ornate ness of the embroidered badge on her chesta letter “a” stitched in gold and scarlet. from the womens conversations and hesters reminiscences as she walks through the crowd, we can deduce that she has committed adultery and has borne an illegitimate child, and that the scarlet ”a” on her dress stands for “adulterer”. the beadle calls hester forth. children taunt her and adults stare.this is hesters first suffering. although it is no great distance from the prison-door to the market place, to hester prynne it is reckoned a journey of some length. she finally stands on the scaffold and is crowded by people who are somber and grave. she must give herself the energy to stand steadily when seeing peoples relenting eyes concentrating upon her bosom. she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her as if her heart has been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.although people dont abuse her with terrible words, this spiritual abuse is more severe than that. hester feels uneasy by this kind of rigid countenances and she tries to make the scarlet “a” as beautiful as an ornament which is described by the crowds: “the pang of it will always in her heart”. furthermore, she sees her husband in the crowd. this makes her feel bad and even frightens her severely.then she is sent back to the jail. on seeing her husband chillingworth come in, she immediately becomes as still as death. her husband tells her not to reveal a real identity. by doing this hester makes another sin. she must keep this secret in the whole of her life. she feels guilty on seeing chillingworth use his identity-doctor to cheat people, especially to cheat damsdile to get to his purpose-to find who the person whom hester has affair with is. this is hesters second suffering. after that hester steps out of prison-door and comes into the sunshine, which “falling on all alike, seemed to reveal her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast.” (hawthorne. nathaniel. the scarlet letter) this description tells the reader that although she is free from prison and can live her own life, people outside even will still not accept her. she lives “on the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage.” she will suffer from loneness. she settles in an abandoned cabin on a patch of infertile land at the edge of town. hester remains alienation from everyone including the town fathers, respected women, beggars, children and even strangers. she serves as a walking example of a fallen woman, a cautionary tale for everyone to see. as shame burns inside her, she searches for companionship or sympathy, but to no avail. she devotes part of her time to charity work, but even this is more punishment than solace: those she helps frequently insult her. thus, hester feels that she doesnt belong to the society. every gesture, every word and even the silence of those with whom she comes in contact, implies and often expresses that she is banished. the token-the scarlet” a” is never forgotten by people but to grow even more sensitive to them.because hester is a sinner, sufferings to her are necessary. all that she can do is to bear these until she gets the forgiveness from god. as we know, god has a kind heart and he doesnt want to see people tortured. “praise the lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits who forgive all your sins” (plasm103, 2, 3)b. the salvation of hester prynnealthough sinners must be tortured, this suffering is not forever. they will receive salvation “the lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.”(numbers 14:18) the assurance of salvation is born of confidence in christ. he has said: “him that comes to me i will in no wise cast out.” god save people out of his love - his universal love. to doubt salvation is not modest or commendable: it is the sin of distrusting god, or making him untrue. “but if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. none of the offences he has committed will be remembered against him. because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. do i take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the so