红字中海斯特的性格分析.doc

AbstractAs one of the worlds most famous writers and “the Shakespeare of American” Nathaniel Hawthorne played a critical role in the highlight of romantic novel. As a trailblazer of writing romantic novel with psychology analysis, His representative work Scarlet Letter boosted him in the literary creation. And The Scarlet Letter has wined the world-wide attention. Especially the female protagonist Hester Prynne has attracted large numbers of scholars to analysis her characters. This paper is determined to detect the characters of Hester through three approaches which are her life experience, her daughter and the social environment she lives in. The result we get is that Hester is a pure, courageous, and kind-hearted woman whose spirit has enlightened a generation of women who lived in the dark corner of the world.Key words: pure; courageous; kind-heated摘要作为世界著名作家之一和“美国的莎士比亚”，霍桑在将浪漫主义文学推向了高峰。霍桑是将心理分析融进浪漫主义小说的创始人。他的代表作“红字”更是吸引了世界范围内人们的注意。而女主人公海斯特更是吸引着无数学者研究她的性格，对她的各种分析也是屡见不鲜。本论文将从海斯特的生活经验，家庭以及生存环境来分析她独特的性格。得出的结论是她是一位纯洁，勇敢，善良的女性并且激励者一代又一代生活在黑暗处的女性。关键字：海斯特； 纯洁；勇敢；善良 1. Introduction of the novel and the authorNathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Some of his ancestors were men of prominence in the puritan theocracy of seventeenth-century New England. One of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious for his part in the persecution of the Quakers. Young Hawthorne was intensely aware of the misdeeds of his puritan ancestors, and this awareness led to his understanding of evil being at the core of human life. All his life, Hawthorne seems to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Reading his tales and romances, one cannot but be overwhelmed by the “back” vision which these works reveal. And his representative novel Scarlet Letter is the best embodiment of this viewpoint. The way in which Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter suggests that American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritan moralism. In the novel, what Hawthorne predominantly concerned with was the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general and those complicated in it in particular. The Scarlet Letter is not a praise of a Hester Prynne sinning, but a hymn on the moral growth of woman when sinned against. Hawthornes flair of symbolism and supernatural in the novel greatly shows his ingenious craftsmanship. The Scarlet Letter stands high in the peak of American Romanticism, and was the pioneering work of romanticism which rolled with psychology elements. It contributed greatly to Hawthornes reputation, which offers another testimony of Hawthornes power and permanence.Analysis of Hesters character2. Description of Hesters complex characteristics2.1Pure: She has a pure love with Dimmesdale.In the Old Testament, women was lured by snake which was the symbol of mans Penis, thus begun the degeneration of human beings. So women were bounded to be one of the original sins together with sex. As a consequence, since always, women are regarded subject to men. In the settlement of Christian man, Bible and male chauvinism were even legalized and rules are issued to emphasize mans superior to women. However, our female protagonist Hester Prynne is a pure love-seeker. She and her husband lack of understanding and communication which are the most critical and basic factors in love. Being deformed, her husband cant satisfy her both physically and mentally. After she came to New England, she fell in love with the young priest. They hit it off quickly. However, the thing was discovered quickly because her pregnancy of baby. She went to jail waiting for the trail. When the time came, the pastor asked her who the father of baby was. She looked at the audience with an air of dignity indifference, without any shame, guilty, or regret. She rejected to tell the name of her lover for the sick of protecting his prestige. She burden every jeers and sneers; all the blame and contemns. It was intolerable to be borne. Of an impulsive and passionate nature, she had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely. After she had finished the serving in the prison, she could go to a new place to start over. Her sin and her ignominy were the roots which she had struck into the soil. It was as if new born, with stronger assimilation than the first, had converted the forestland, still so uncongenial to the pilgrim and wonderer into Hester Prynnes wild and dreary, but long-lived home. But what she compelled herself to believe, what, finally, she reasoned up as a motive for continuing the resident of New England was half truth and half self-delusion. And the love she had for Dimmesdale support her to live on in the place. So, Hester Prynne did not flee, nor did she afraid of the coming life. She lived in a thatched cottage, established herself and the enfant. Lonely was her situation, without a single friend, she, however incurred no risk of want, she possessed an art which is the needle work that sufficed to supply food for her thriving infant and herself. She bore on her breast in the curiously embroidered letter, a specimen of her delicate and imaginative skill. She decorated the infants attire with fanciful, fantastic ingenuity but she is doom to wear one ornament-scarlet letter. The love Hester had for Dimmesdale can be fully displayed in chapter 17 and 18 when she met with Dimmesdale in the forest at night. She passionately hugs the man she love and motivate him to run away with her, to seek the happiness of their own, to live freely and dignity. She took off the Scarlet Letter and threw it in the dump of rotten leaves. Then she unbound her long, dark hair. This evident that no matter how the situation changes, her romance and passion never dies out. She never ceases pursuing her happiness. Never stop loving even in the most dreadful place.2.2 Courageous: She is courageous enough to face with the social reality.To begin with, Hester is a courageous woman who pursues the true love of life. The combination of her and Chillingworth is a false because a marriage without love is like a flower without water, it will wither quickly. The moment she met Dimmesdale, she knew it clearly that is where her happiness lies. Without hesitation, without regret, like a moth fly to a fire, she embrace the secret love with open arms though it is to blame by worldly conception. Whats more, In contrast to the two distorted male personalities who counterpoise her- one obsessed with revenge, another with his purity-Hester appears almost a miracle of wholeness and sanity. While these men struggle with their own egos and fantasies, she has real battles-to maintain her self-respect in a community that scorns her, to stay sane in solitude, to support herself and her child, to raise that child to normal adulthood despite so many obstacles. Curiously, though she has been cast out of society, Hester remains very much in the world, whereas Chillingworth and Dimmesdale at the very center of the society, are totally immured in their self-absorption. In her inner integrity and her outer responsiveness, Hester is a model and a counterstatement. In front of the audience, she kept an air of regretful, and she did it successfully, but in her inner heart, she still held an active and rebellious attitude. When she stood on the execution qround, facing the harsh words of people and their investigation, she always kept quiet and wont let any information of the father of her daughter. She didnt compromise, nor did she give up, this was the first time that she challenges the public authority and was succeed. When the viceroy and the pastor want to split her daughter from her, she tried her best to overcome the difficulty, to challenge the authority and to pursue the happiness she deserves. This was her second success. To make a conclusion, Hester is indeed brave enough to challenge the male-chauvinism and the authority which conquered the then society. Her rebellious companied with solitude, push her on the lonely way to fight for free love and happiness, and she had no road back. Her courageous was highlighted when she selected to live in New England to face the harsh life and the people who hate her, and to start a new life under such circumstance. She continued her life with the scarlet letter on her bosom which always mentioned her that she is someone guilty, but she is trying hard to fit in with her kindness and patience.2.3 Kind-hearted: She treats others in a friendly way regardless of other peoples opinions.After Hester selected to continue live in New England, she lives on by her beautiful hand-work to support her and her baby. Except for small expenditure for her child, Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on the less miserable than herself and who frequently insulted the hand that feed them. Much of the time, she employed in making coarse garments for the poor. She had in her nature a rich, voluptuous, oriental characteristica taste for gorgeously beautiful. As time went by, she got associated with people in the community and won their respect with her kindness and goodness, people gradually forget her misstep and accepted her as a common member of their community. Once an old priest suffered a thrust and come to the low ebb of his life, at the most miserable of his all life-time, Hester came to his bed to take after him and persuade him to leave the place to search new and free life. With determination and perseverance, Hester not only fitted in the community, but also change peoples concept. Years later, she donated the letter “A” some new, positive meanings. People now say that “A” is the representative of art, for she boasted a splendiferous handcraft. Another saying is that “A” symbolizes able, for she could manage to bring up the baby so well in such tough condition. Some say it symbolizes the Acts of the apostle. And it also can represent angel. Because year after years repeat, she finally finished the Holy Journey from the hell to purqatory, and through all the way to heaven.3. Reasons of the forming of the character3.1 Social environmentIn her time, peoples ideas were constrained by rules and laws. And their everyday life is strictly carried on in consistence with the doctrine of The Bible. The Puritans were solemnity and preciseness. An important embodiment of their rigorous is their attitude towards women and sex. They considered women the source of sin and lower than men. They hold that the sexual life is just the tool to multiply next generation. Women were never the master of themselves. Before marriage, they should obey their father and brother, on entering the marriage, they fate controller transited to their husbands. So for women to against the society personally is powerless. Whats worse is that the male chauvinism dominates the whole New England and deep-rooted in peoples concept that even women themselves didnt realize anything wrong and hold a blur idea about independence and self-esteem. The manifests of male chauvinism not only lay in the legalization of the Bible, but also the unequal law which emphasize the superior position of man. Another important social factor is that the new land where everything should be justifiable and righteous, gives habitants a very promising future without ugliness and sin(at least in ideal).people have high expectations to a new land or new start, especially for those puritans sick of the corruption of Catholic. They loath cheating, stealth, extravagance and any other way of showing disgrace. In such a society, adultery is almost like a fatal sentence to a woman, and no doubt Hester is used as a certain case to preserve the mighty of religion. She is an underdog, and the religion has in way too much control over humanity. During Hesters time, woman would be hanged if she commits adultery which nowadays is pretty much a private thing. But Hester, different with million of women, realized she was an independent individual and has emotion and feeling of her own. She believed that sound relationship should be laid on the foundation of the reservation of each others integrity and independence. And healthy love came from communication and understanding. So love is indeed, the most powerful way for Hester to express her rebellious against social oppress. She even said in the novel that she wanted to change the situation. She hoped that one day women can choose freely as men were. Hawthorne advances the notion that if society is to be changed for the better, such change will be initiated by women. But because society has condemned Hester as a sinner, the good that she can do is greatly circumscribed. Her achievements in a social sense come about as by-products of her personal struggle to win a place in the society; and the fact that she wins her place at last indicates that society has been changed by her. Might there be in the future a reforming woman who had not been somehow stigmatized by society? In The Scarlet Letter the possibility, though faint, is there. In the later part of the novel, when Hester was accepted by the people, it means she has change the idea of people that she is not a sinner, but a pure woman struggling for independence and self-determination.3,2 Hesters life experienceHester spent her happy childhood times with her parents, later; she grew up to be a beautiful young lady with an extremely passionate nature. She married with a handicapped scientist Chillingworth who regarded himself as a man of thought, the bookworm of great libraries-a man already in decay, have the best years to feed the hunger dream of knowledge. In contrast, Hester was in her budding youth, and had a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hairand a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes. She had an impulsive and passionate nature, whereas the husband devoted himself wholly to seeking the so-called truth in books. The unhappy marriage indicated that there was no mutual understanding and communication between her and husband. When she settled alone in Boston, a place far from her parental home, the scenes of hometown were foreign to her. The connection between Hester and her relative in England seemed to have broken off. Hester is a woman in need of consolation. Hester, who is strong in character and intelligent in wit, cant always fit well with the puritans living massively in America. Some spats and incompatibilities are inevitable. Anyways she doesnt make any vital mistakes in the first place. But, like every old story goes, love changes everything. She just falls in love with the young and handsome priest in the new land-Mr. Dimmesdale, who is very respectable and prestigious. How can she resist a righteous Romeo! They both fall in love and touch the taboo. After a night of passion, Hester found herself pregnant and fails to keep it a secret from those sophisticated and sly puritans. She is sentenced to jail .while Mr. Dimmesdale insists to reveal his sin, Hester firmly refutes it in consideration of her lovers reputation and future. This is the highlight of this fiction, how a woman alone tolerate all these scandals and condemnations. Hester gives birth to her child named Pearl in Jail .As she denied to tell who the childs father is, the court cannot verdict her to garrotte which is the punishment for adultery at that time. So they decided to enbody a scarlet letter A on her bosom which is a representative for Adultery. They incarcerated Hester and she must wear the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom, the scarlet letter “A” symbolic “Adultery”. When she finished her service in prison, she kept live in New England for the man she loves. Hester lived in the seclusion on the outskirts of the town, in all her intercourse with society, there was nothing that made she feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind. Sometimes, once in many days, or perchance in many months, she felt an eye-a human eye-upon the ignominious brand that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half of her agony were shared. The daydreaming indicated that Hester had hoped that her lover could to comfort her and therefore she would be relieved from the state of loneliness for the time being. Hester wore the scarlet letter A, somewhat willingly, for the purpose of confessing her sin, of meditating and of reforming herself. Hester Prynnes experience is unique in the way that her sins are encompassed in the sins of others. An example of this is her promise to keep the identity of Roger Chillingworth secret. Chillingworth is going to torture Dimmesdale and Hester does nothing about it leaving him to suffer. Hesters guilt is derived from the fact that she cannot reveal the identity of her husband. She sees the personal anguish of Dimmesdale and yet does not try and alleviate him by telling who Chillingworth really is. Her sin of adultery is also encompassed into on of Dimmesdales sins. Dimmesdale was not there to help her during her time of trial and persecution. Hester was alienated and shamed by her community and was left to struggle through the experience by herself. This changes Hesters personality and view on society. She is no longer a tender and passionate rather, the scarlet letter has made her cold and bitter; only a harsh outline of her former self. However, the scarlet letter did not change Hester for the worse. It in fact made her a stronger woman. Hester though shunned and mocked by the community