霍桑红字英语小论文.docx

The scarlet rose blossom on the humanity soil The Scarlet Letter(,1850) written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the tragic love story between Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, which takes place in the 17th century Puritan Boston. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a world-known American romantic novelist whose works often use symbolism and often have moral messages and psychological complexity. Like many of his other compositions, The Scarlet Letter centers on the inherent sin and evil of humanity. Through narrating the characters fortune, it reveals the cruelty of the social laws, the deceptive aspect of the religion and the hypocrisy of the moral in the 19th when American capitalism enjoyed a boom. The story unfolds at the point view of Hester. The heroine Hester Prynne married Dr. Chillingworth, but there was no love between them and Chillingworth disappeared for years. During this time, lonely Hester committed adultery with a local Minster Dimmesdale and gave birth to their daughter Pearl. Hester was punished in public, being forced to wear a scarlet letter of A which referred to adultery. Despite this, Hester refused to give her lovers name away to protect him. At the same time, the husband Chillingworth came back and swore to revenge for the shame. Hiding his own true name, he found out the truth step by step. In this course, he tormented Dimmesdale mentally, leading to Dimmesdales admission on the identity of Pearls father, and also his death. Chillingworth himself passed away soon after because he possessed nothing except hatred. Differing from those male characters, although Hester was treated unfairly, she overcome discriminations and won the citizens respect for her tenacity, kindness and diligence, transporting the meaning of the world into “able” and “angle”. At last, Hester chose to be buried with her lover Dimmesdale, leaving “Black land, a red A word” on the tombstone.” Hawthorne is absolutely a master in Formalism, including repeated images, contrastive colors, and sets of words.All of them take shape implied meanings, which make the passage profound and veiled. Among all of the images, the letter A is the most significant one. The meaning of the letter shifts with the time going by. In chapter1 and chapter 2, it represents a kind of punishment of the religious society for disgrace. In the middle part of the novel, A becomes the symbol of Hesters virtues: “There glimmered the embroidered letter, with comfort in its unearthly ray. Elsewhere the token of sin, it was the taper of the sick-chamber” “They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a womens strength.”(p141 chapter 13)At the latter stage, the token of A goes further. It is promoted to a goddess figure. The emphasis is no long on her capacity, but on her elevated spirits. Alongside the letter A, there are many images used in the composition. For example, at the beginning, it was Hester who walks up the guillotine to accept the worldly judgment, while at last it is Dimmesdale who walks up the guillotine to acknowledge his guilty and accept spiritual judgment. The guillotine establishes her ignominy first and proclaims his salvation lastly.In the ending sentence: “Black land, a red A word” on the tombstone.” The colors of black and white form pair of contrast and the two colors run through the composition. “ such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But no one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush. “(p39-40) The Great Whore in Revelation is dressed in scarlet, riding a scarlet beast. The color scarlet, in the Bible also symbolizes guilt. The prison is black, which builds a gloomy atmosphere and indicates the injustice of the prison. The color of Dimmesdales cape is black too, under which is the scarlet letter, his biggest secret. The concealment of the guilt (black and scarlet) creates huge pain.Repetitive words bring about the intense feeling of oppression, adding to words expressive force. He will be known emerges many times, from citizens or from Chiligworth, easily being associating with a hidden snake which lives on the dark secrets.Whats more, the book also reflects authors complex attitude and consideration on religion. Nathaniel Hawthorne is born in a Puritanism family, leading to his early research of Puritanism. However, he is not a completely Puritan. He keeps his doubt and confusion towards this religion.In his age, the Puritanism went to the extremes. They persecuted people who believed in different religions and oppressed the humanity under the banner of God. From the Hesters rebellion against the Puritan dogmas and the sufferings Dimmesdale undergone, we can infer his strong criticism, but meanwhile he trusts religious superstitions, not getting rid of such concepts like “origin sin”, “salvation” “determined fate”. He sings for the power of the religion to purify people. For example, Hester, this brave tenacious woman, sometimes also feels afraid, upset, worried. She turns to God for spiritual relive more than one time. The belief warns her to keep the goodness.Nathaniel Hawthorne uses multiple literal decorations to reveal the psychological state of the characters, to mold their personalities, to