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1、Nathaniel Hawthorne（July 4,1804 May 19,1864),American novelist and short story writer,Much of Hawthornes writing centers around New England,many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration.His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and,more specifically,dark roman
2、ticism.His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity,and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.,Features of His Works,A.sense of sin and evil(sin and punishment)B.tension between head(intellect)and heart(emotion),The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthor
3、ne,The Scarlet Letter(1850)is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne,considered to be his masterpiece.Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston,it tells the story of Hester Prynne,who gives birth after committing adultery and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.,About the novel,Hawthor
4、ne creates a sense of ambiguity or uncertainty in readers,using metaphors to create this effect.The novel is not realistic characters are symbols,not real peopleThe novel may be considered an allegory,a tale in which characters,actions,or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities.,Althoug
5、h commonly called a novel,Considered to be a“romance”Concerned with“internal truths”or“truths of the human heart”Use of imagination rather than realistic representationsEmbellishes relationship between human and nature,Hawthorne called the novel a“romance”not tied to ordinary experience.,Hawthorne m
6、akes this distinction because at the time he was writing,novels were supposed to deal with realistic representations of human experiences or external truths.Romances allowed the author to deviate from reality in favor of imagination.Thus The Scarlet Letter is not an historical novel about Puritan Bo
7、ston,but a romance set 200 years before Hawthornes time in which he tells a tale that may have occurred,given some historical facts and many insights into human nature.,The Scarlet Letter:Background,The setting of The Scarlet Letter is Boston in the 1640s.Persecuted in England,the Puritans came to N
8、orth America to form their own communities.,The Scarlet Letter:Background,Life in the Colonies was harsh,but it gave the Puritans the opportunity to form a society based on their religious ideals.,The Scarlet Letter:Background,Puritans sought the freedom to live by their beliefs.,However,the Puritan
9、 leaders did not tolerate religious beliefs that differed from their own.,The Puritans believed that all things are controlled beforehand by the will of God.This doctrine is called predestination.,No one could know for certain if they were destined to receive salvation.,The Scarlet Letter:Background
10、,However,a good Puritan still had to live as pure and righteous a life as possibleand to watch for signs of sinfulness in others.,The Scarlet Letter:Background,As for personal freedom,every member of the community was held to strict standards of behavior.,In a Puritan community such as Hesters,no as
11、pect of life was truly private.,People kept a close watch on their neighbors.,The Scarlet Letter:Background,Those considered sinners were publiclyand harshlypunished,as an example to others.,In Boston,the laws of the church were the laws of the state.A Puritan could be whipped,banished from town,or
12、imprisoned for offenses.,Laws prohibited everything from swearing to excessive decoration on womens caps to murder,It was illegal to miss church on Sabbath days安息日.It was also illegal to sleep during sermons布道 that could run 3 or more hours long during each session(morning and afternoon)on a Sabbath
13、.Virtually any offense could land you in the pillory,or stocks.The Puritans imported this punishment to New England from England.,一位年轻的女孩赫丝特普林（Hester Prynne）出生于英格兰。她有深黑的眼睛，乌黑的头发，令人非常的着迷。她嫁给一个年老的医生、学者罗格齐灵窝斯（Roger Chillingworth）。当时是英国人移民新大陆的热潮，齐灵窝斯决定定居到美国波士顿。他让赫丝特普林先行出发，老学者两年后才前往美国。这时赫丝特却和他人通奸，生下一名女儿珠
14、儿（Pearl）。按清教徒的法律，犯了通奸罪，要在胸前佩带红字。,红字故事梗概,赫丝特孤苦顽强地生活着，靠着刺绣维生。齐灵窝斯在替牧师丁米司兑尔（Arthur Dimmesdale）治病时，终于发现丁米司兑尔就是那位姘头，想置之死地。牧师长期受到内心世界的折磨，更为自己伪善的角色感到厌恶。七年的精神折磨之后，在一次新市长就职盛大典礼中，他终于向世人坦承他所犯的罪，随即气绝死在赫丝特怀里。赫丝特带着珠儿远走他乡。几年后珠儿长大成人，嫁人去了。赫丝特再回到波士顿，仍带着那个红色的字，把红字变成了道德、光荣的象征，一直到老死。,The novel begins with the narrator,a
15、 Custom House official,who happens to find a scarlet letter“A”in a box he finds one day in the office.The narrator then relates the story of Hester Prynne,the original bearer of the scarlet letter,who lived in Boston when it was just a small Puritan settlement in the seventeenth century.,Hesters sto
16、ry begins on a scaffold just outside the town prison.She has committed adultery,given birth to a child out of wedlock,and refuses to name the man with whom she had the affair.The village leaders hope to shame her into naming her lover by making her into a public spectacle.Even under intense pressure
17、,Hester refuses to reveal her secret.She alone must bear the shame and isolation resulting from her actions.As a punishment,Hester is made to wear a scarlet letter“A”on her chest at all times.The letter“A”stands for adultery and causes her and her daughter to be scorned by the members of her communi
18、ty.,Hesters former husband returns to witness Hesters shame.He decides to seek revenge against the man who,in his opinion,ruined Hesters life and stole his wife from him.,Chillingworth eventually determines that Dimmesdale is the father of Hesters daughter,Pearl.He plots an elaborate scheme in order
19、 to avenge the wrong he perceives was committed by Dimmesdale.,Hester discovers Chillingworths plan to torture Dimmesdale on a daily basis,and recognizes that Dimmesdales health is significantly impacted by the revenge plot.Her secret is slowly killing the minister.As a result,Hester must break the
20、promise she made years ago to never reveal the identity of Chillingworth in order to save Dimmesdales life.,She reveals Chillingworths true identity to Dimmesdale and begs for his forgiveness.She expresses her desire for Dimmesdale to leave the country for his own safety,but Dimmesdale does not want
21、 to be alone.Hester offers to leave with him,and they plan to leave on a ship bound for Europe in three days.,The day before the ship is to sail,the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever.Meanwhile,Hester has learned that
22、 Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship.Dimmesdale,leaving the church after his sermon,sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold.He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter,and confesses publicly,exposing the mark supposedly sea
23、red into the flesh of his chest.He falls dead just after Pearl kisses him.,The Scarlet Letter:analysis of the theme,What happens when a private sin becomes a public crime?,The theme of the story should be the moral,emotional and psychological effects of the sin on people.,Theme,The experience of Hes
24、ter and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because,in both cases,sin results in expulsion and suffering.But it also results in knowledgespecifically,in knowledge of what it means to be human.,Although Puritan society condemns Hester,Dimmesdale“adds hypocrisy to sin”by refusing to admit the
25、 affair,which enflames his internal torment until he confesses.Only when Dimmesdale climbs the scaffold in the town square and confesses is he free.,Hawthorne clearly indicates that Chillingworths sin of tormenting Dimmesdale is greater than Dimmesdales sin of adultery with his wife.His vengefulness
26、 and evil disposition are revealed in his cruel manipulation and torture of Dimmesdale.,SymbolismGenerally speaking,a symbol is anything which is used to represent some thing other than itself.In literature,it is most often a concrete object which is used to represent something broader and more abst
27、ract-often a moral,religious,or philosophical concept or value.,“The Scarlet Letter”is usually regarded as the first symbolic novel to be written in the United States.,The town magistrates sentenced Hester to wear the scarlet“A”for the rest of her life so all would recognize her as an adulteress.Ove
28、r time,however,newcomers did not know the history of Hesters badge and asked its significance.Some townspeople remembered its origin,but others forgot,or transformed its meaning to indicate“able”in deference to Hesters steady performance of tasks benefiting the sick and needy.,The letter“A”,Just as
29、the scarlet letter took on new significance during Hesters lifetime,so may it hold meanings beyond those associated specifically with Hesters sin.Within the novel,the“A”might be enlarged to embrace all those who,like Hester,have been alienated or who feel alone.It might even be interpreted to symbol
30、ize America,a country born in the sin of revolution but which eventually prosperedjust like Pearl.,Symbols of letter“A”:,1.Adultery(私通，Between Prynne and Dimmesdale);2.Admirable（Prynnes iron and her behavior）;3.Angel；4.Able(才干)；5.Apostle（基督教12大信徒）；6.Alone（inner loneliness）；7.Alienation(疏远)；8.America（American Spirit）;9.Adamic(亚当之罪),
