《红字》中的生死观The Meaning of Living and Death in The Scarlet Letter

1、红字中的生死观the meaning of living and death in the scarlet letter学 院： 专 业： 英 语 学生姓名： 学号： 指导教师： 职称： 合作导师： 职称： 完成时间： 成 绩： contentsabstract(english)iiabstract(chinese) iicharpter 1：introduction 1charpter 2：the origin of the sin 1charpter 3：the way of redemption 231 the situation of hester3charpter 4：conclus

2、ion 3works cited 4红字中的生死观摘要：霍桑的小说红字，描绘了三位主人公的不同的生活处境和不同的结局，主要讨论了关于罪与赎罪的问题，其中体现出了生即遭罪和赎罪，而死则是解脱，获得新生的道理。本文分三个主要部分，来讨论小说中体现出作者对生死的独到阐释。首先第一章结合宗教思想探究了罪恶的起源，分析生与死之中所包含与罪恶有关的联系。紧接着第二章详尽分析三位主人公的不同生活境遇中的痛苦，他们的赎罪的过程及最终如何解脱的过程，从而探讨出生死与罪恶之间的联系及生死的不同意义。结尾部分结合了小说的创作背景和作者的清教主义思想，重申了作者对生死的理解。被公认为首批美国作家的霍桑，其小说蕴含着深

3、刻的思想内涵不仅深深地影响着他同时代的许多作家，而且极大地影响了后世作家。关键字：圣经，罪恶，赎罪，生死，新生the meaning of living and death in the scarlet letterabstract: nathaniel hawthorne novel, the scarlet letter, described the different life conditions and ends of the three heroes and discussed mainly problems of sin and redemption, which reflect

4、s that to live is to suffer from sins and atone for ones sin, whereas the death is a way of relief，and access to rebirth. this paper is divided into three main parts to discuss the novels theme, namely, the authors unique explaitions of life and death. the first chapter combines religious thoughts a

5、nd explores the origin of evil, analyzising the relevant links between life-death and sin. the second chapter makes a detailed analysis of the different living conditions of the heroes suffering, their processes of redemption and, ultimately, how the process of liberation, which explores the links b

6、etween life -death and sin and the significance of life and death. at the end, connected with the background of the novel creation and the authors puritan ideology, the paper reiterates the authors understanding of life and death. recognized as one of the first american writers, hawthornes novel con

7、tains a profound ideological connotations which not only deeply influence many of his contemporary writers, but also greatly influenced later writers.keywords: bible,sin, redemption ,life and death, rebirthchapter 1: introduction nathaniel hawthorn was born on the fourth of july, 1804 in sales, mass

8、achusetts. some of his ancestors were big shots in seventeenth-century new england, which was under the control of puritanism. one of them was a colonial magistrate; notorious for his participation in the persecution of quakers, and another was a judge at the sales witchcraft trail in 1692. graduall

9、y, the family fortune declined. hawthornes father was a sea captain, who died in an accident and left his mother and him behind to struggle to live for themselves. young hawthorn was quite aware of the misdeed of his puritan ancestors, and this awareness made him believe that evil was at the core of

10、 human life. to some extent, hawthorn wrote some of his books, such as the scarlet letter and the house of the seven gambles to try to make up for the sin of his ancestors.he is an extremely renowned american writer of fiction. he not only has created quiet a few classic novels, but also has written

11、 quantities of thought- provoking short stories, including the scarlet letter (1850), the house of the seven gables (1851), the blithesome romance (1852) and the marble faun (1860). and another novel-length romance, fanshawe, was published anonymously in 1828. until now, hawthorn and his works have

12、been the focus of discussion from the chinese and foreign scholars. we look upon him as one of the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth.chapter 2: the origin of the sinaccording to the bible , it is just as sin is accompanied with one person into the world, and d

13、eath is coming from a sin; then death befalls him,because he is guilty of a crime. the crime has been in the world before the law; but without law should the crime be not the “crime”. however, from adam to moses, death had been the king, even those who did not commit the same sin with adam were unde

14、r the rights of his,too. human beings can not get rid of the original sin for the sake of adam and eve in the garden of eden , which is a fundamental doctrine of christianity, and puritans also holds the same thought in theology.hawthorne comes from puritan family, so his morality is built on the re

15、ligious teachings. the original sin” of puritanism occupies a central role in his moral values. he believes that man is born with guilty ands evil is human nature.accordingly; the theme of the original sin is most commonly expressed in his creation works. at the beginning of the novel, it goes as “t

16、he founders of a new colony ,whatever utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a potion of the virgin soil as a cemetery , ands another portion as the site of a prison .”(the scarlet letter 1

17、) chapter 3: the way of redemptionin the article, heroes live a suffering life, and they suffer huge pains of the earth. however, no matter how misery the situation is and how tough the days are, the author has not arranged one of them to die early, when they commit great sins. why? whats the purpos

18、e for him doing that?as we all know, hawthorne is affected by religous teachings from his young age. christians believe that one , who sincerely repents and admits all sins committed and relies on jesus christ , is definitely together with the lord jesus . “no perish but eternal life”, which treats

19、death as being with god ,following god and being closer to god, can be said christianitys transcendental view of death. therefore, it can be concluded that death is the end of redemption and the way of forgiveness and soul to be freed so as to gain a new life , while to live is to suffer all torture

20、s for the sake of redemption. shortly, that opinions of living and death guides the author arranging the fates of heroes. and now the following explanations can strengthen that idea.3.1 the situation of hesterin the charpter two of the novel, hester , found guilty of adultery , was judged by puritan

21、 rulers crulely and stood on the scalffold ,suffering all pepole accusation and contempt.those degrees of mocking infamy and ridicule might be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself . what is worse, this is the most vicious atrocity to punishe her standing on the s

22、calffold, just as the author said ,” whatever be the delinquencies of the individual,- no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame .” (the scarlet letter 14) in this spectacle of guilt and shame , thousands of unrelenting eyes all were fastened upon her ans the con

23、centrated at her bosom-the scarlet letter. in fact , it is agreed that peal is the entity of the scarlet letter in the novel, and she is the living embodiment of all the symbolic meanings of the scarlet letter “a” see ye not , she is the scarlet letter , only capable of being loved , and endowed wit

24、h a millionfold the power of retribution for my sin ? ”(the scarlet letter 106) at the end of the novel, hester took her daughter to leave the colony, and then years later, she returned to the house at the seaside, still wearing the scarlet letter. many people believe that she is to obtain a new lif

25、e .however ,as a matter of fact ,it can not be rebirth. after she went through a cruel fate and suffered misrey life time and time again , she submitted to and accepted her trial judged by the puritan community.chapter 4： conclusion from above discussing, we can see that the heroes live a rather-die

26、-than-live life, and understand the meaning of living and death in hawthorne mind that is to living is to suffering and to atone for crimes while to die is to get relief from sins and rebirth in other world. in our society, the term “evil” has been replaced by terms such as “madness” or “insanity”.

27、people seem to feel the need to understand the minds of perpetrator of evil acts. in a society without a single and solid morality system, we human beings are endowed with exceptional freedom in conscious and behavior, but we should also take more responsibility for ourselves and the others in the society. that is an everlasting theme for the scholars of the modern and postmodern period.works citedbritton, ja