美国文学红字TheScarletLetter优秀课件

1、1The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel HawthorneAdvanced American LitMr. Mays2The AuthornNathaniel Hawthorne American novelist and short story writer, most famous for his novel The Scarlet Letter3Nathaniel Hawthorne, BackgroundnBorn Salem, Mass. on July 4th, 1804, son of a sea captain.nGraduated from Bowdo

2、in College and began to write. nInsufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to take a job in the Salem Custom House.nBy 1842, he was able to earn enough to marry Sophia Peabody and move to Concord, which was then the center of the Transcendental movement.nHawthorne returned to Salem in 1845 a

3、nd in 1850, his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter was published. nNathaniel Hawthorne died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 18th, 1864.Picture found on Google Images4nHe discovered that he had Puritan ancestors.nOne relative had served as a judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692nHawthorne add

4、ed the “w” to his name to distinguish himself from his ancestors.nHe wrote during the Romantic period of literary history (1830-1865) along with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Edgar Allen PoePersonal Notables5The Custom HousenSatirical introducti

5、on to the novelnAutobiographical of HawthornenUsed to show his dislike for the Puritans and their strong religious beliefsnHe is bored at his job which leads him to search through old boxes and discover the manuscript and the scarlet letter.6The Custom House- Cont.The story is based on a historical

6、manuscript that he found.The narrator of the story is nameless, but shares many qualities with Hawthorne himself. He creates the narrator similar to Hester since they both feel alienated from those around them.Narrator says one day he will be remembered by his name on the custom stamp, while Hester

7、will be remembered for her scarlet cloth.7Primary Document 1 Custom House ReceiptnSalem Custom House Receipt, April 18, 1848nSigned by Nathaniel Hawthorne/images8Primary Document 2 A letter from HawthornenPage one of a copy made by George B. Curwen of a letter from Hawt

8、horne to Horace Ingersoll.nWritten in Lenox in the summer of 1850 about his firing as surveyor at the Salem Custom House the year before.courtesy of The House of the Seven Gables Historic Site9Primary Document 3 Original Book CovernTitle page of 1850 edition of The Scarlet LetternFirst PublishingnHa

9、wthorne was a Romantic Author(courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum)10Defining ScarletFunction: adjective1 of the color scarlet2 a : grossly and glaringly offensive sinning in flagrant and scarlet fashion - characterized by, or associated with sexual immorality Function: nounMiddle English scarlat, scarl

10、et, from Anglo-French escarlet, from Medieval Latin scarlata, from Persian saqalAt, a kind of rich cloth1 : scarlet cloth or clothes2 : any of various bright redsMain Entry: scarlet letterFunction: noun: a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adultery11Defining Puritan Main Entry: 1puritan Function:

11、 nounEtymology: probably from Late Latin puritas purity1 capitalized : a member of a 16th and 17th century Protestant group in England and New England opposing as unscriptural the ceremonial worship and the prelacy of the Church of England2 one who practices or preaches a more rigorous or professedl

12、y purer moral code than that which prevailsSee Endicott and the Red Cross Chapter at the end of the book.12Nathanial Hawthorne as a paradoxPhilosophynInfluenced by Calvinism, which believed in “original sin”, but recognized its furor, peremptoriness and hypocrisynAccepting Emersons mysterious philos

13、ophy, but put the goodness and evilness of Calvinism as a standard of knowing the world. “I wish God had given me the faculty of writing a sunshiny book.” The Scarlet Letter “is a positively hell-fired story, into which I found it impossible to throw any cheering light.” One of the recurring themes

14、is a sense of struggle and conflict with the workings of his own imagination. His stories and novels seem to be continually attempting to wrestle out of his control.nDiscontent with the fallen social, moral and hypocritical aristocracy, but reluctant to make a radical change to the unreasonable soci

15、al system13the implication of protagonists namesHester PrynneHester: Hestier in Greek mythology, Zeuss sister, a woman of beauty hestier (hasty)Prynne: prurient prune: purify her sin pry: probe into the interior of ones heart Arthur Dimmesdale Arthur: Adam, adulteryDimmesdale: dim + dale: dim interi

16、or (to hide ones sin) Roger ChillingworthRoger: rogue (revenge)Chillingworth: chilly (cruel, inhumane) + worth (induce Arthur to speak out his own sin) Pearl: good, pure and precious14Hester Prynne: opposite to Arthur (Hawthorne)1. Knows and acknowledges her guilty, but never hides her character and

17、 identity under a new exterior2. Bears her humiliation with supreme dignity, hides her agony 3. Quietly submits to the punishment and performs acts of charity to those in trouble She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it in requita

18、l for what she had suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies. “Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge? It is our Hester the towns own Hester who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comforting to the afflicted.”15The symbolic letter AThe physical letter A:this affair of fine red cloth, much worn and faded,