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【摘要】 小说《红字》是一部有名的文学作品，自从它在1850年出版问世之后，就深受欢迎。许多研究者较多地关注其中红字A的意义转变。而在本文中，笔者选取了一不同于前人的视角，其主要内容就是揭示小说中的悲观色彩，并且通过揭示书中的悲观色彩来突出清教主义在压迫人性上体现出来的残酷性。
【关键词】 红字；悲剧色彩；清教主义；压迫人性
PartⅠ Introduction
The fiction——the scarlet letter is such a fascinating book that people who begin to read it will be deeply impressed by the story of Hester Prynne. The author of the fiction is Nathaniel Hawthorne, an excellent American writer in the nineteenth century. He was born on July the fourth, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, and some of his ancestors took part in the local government of New England in the seventeenth century. It is known that Puritanism was the dominant factor in the seventeenth-century New England, besides, the influence of Puritanism was passed generation by generation in his family, as a result, Nathaniel Hawthorne had a good knowledge of Puritanism, so he succeeded in embodying puritan hue in his works.
Now it is time to mention the fiction——the scarlet letter, it can’ t be denied the story of Hester Prynne is an impressive one and Hester Prynne can be regarded as an example of redeeming the society by personal efforts, but on the other hand, the pessimistic hue in the fiction is a noteworthy perspective. So the main content of the article is the revelation of the pessimistic hue in the fiction and such hue has been implied by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In order to finish the article, it is necessary give a brief introduction of the cause of the pessimistic hue at the beginning of the second part of the article, and then the analysis of the main characters is an indispensable step for the article, in this step, it is the main task to introduce the pessimistic hue reflected on the main characters,. Finally, the final conclusion will be drawn in the end.
PartⅡ The main cause of pessimistic hue in the fiction
From the fiction——the scarlet letter, it can be noticed that the Christian belief has played an important role and the pessimistic hue in the fiction is intimately connected with the Christian belief, especially, one of its branches, Puritanism. In the seventeenth century, many puritans fled from the European continent to the New England because of the severe persecution from the orthodox Christianity. When they arrived in the New England, they established the dominant theocratic politics in order to realize their religious ideal, in their daily life, the puritans upheld the serious moral principles and propagandized the asceticism, so they denounced various earthly desires, besides, they were influenced by the theory of seven deadly sins, which was a part of the dominant Christian ideology during the Middle Days. According to the theory, the seven deadly sins include Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Avarice and Wrath, such sins were regarded human passions which harmed the divinity, so people thought any one who committed such sins should be punished in the end. When it comes to the main characters in the fiction, it can’t be denied that all of them had committed such sins, Hester Prynne had committed the sin of Lust and the master, Mr. Dimmesdale had committed the same sin, too. While the physician, Old Roger Chillingworth had committed the sins of Envy and Wrath. In other words, the pessimistic hue reflected on them originated from the sins they had committed, as a result, they were doomed to suffer from their miserable fate, and a thorough analysis will be accomplished in the following part.
Part Ⅲ the analysis of sins committed by the main characters
In order to reveal the pessimistic hue reflected on the main characters in the fiction, it is necessary to give a detailed analysis of the sins committed by them, Hester Prynne is the first main character that should be analyzed at the beginning, because she was the first main character appearing in the fiction. In the second chapter, Hester Prynne was described as a culprit, it can be known from the gossip of the people in the market that Hester Prynne had committed the sin of Lust, in other words, she fell in love with another man in a secret way although she was a married woman, but such relationship of love was unacceptable according to the common moral principles, so she had to stand on the scaffold as a culprit with a capitalized letter A on her bosom, and the letter A indicated the sin she had committed, besides, she was kept in prison. After her prison life was over, Hester Prynne was expelled from the settlement and led a humble, lonely life in a small cottage on the outskirt of the town, besides, she supported her little baby and herself through some needlework for the people in the settlement. Apart from the simple life, Hester Prynne was in danger because some people of high ranks intended to deprive her of her child, Pearl in order to cherish the more rigid order of principles, in their opinion, Hester Prynne wasn’t a qualified mother and she couldn’t bring Pearl up in a decent way, so they wanted to transfer Pearl from Hester Prynne to another person of wiser and better guardianship than Hester Prynne, in other words, she might lose her Pearl, but with the help of the master Mr. Dimmesdale, she didn’t lose her Pearl,But her miserable life wasn’t over; another miserable event is Hester Prynne’s failure of rescuing Mr. Dimmesdale from severe torture of Old Roger Chillingworth. After knowing about the fact that Old Roger Chillingworth was taking revenge on Mr. Dimmesdale, she decided to help Mr. Dimmesdale, at first, she had an interview with Mr. Dimmesdale in the forest and revealed the identity of Old Roger Chillingworth, besides, she described her plan of leaving the settlement secretly together to have a fresh start in other remote places, but after hearing that Old Roger Chillingworth would be on the same ship with them as a physician, Hester Prynne realized that her plan would end up with a failure, and the result was a disappointing one, Mr. Dimmesdale died in Hester Prynne’s embrace after finishing his final sermon during the inaugural ceremony of the new governor, before his death, he admitted his secret romantic relationship with Hester Prynne. In other words, the sin of Lust deprived Hester Prynne of her happy life. The next main character is the poor minister, Mr. Dimmesdale. It can be known that Mr. Dimmesdale was an excellent scholar and he had a good knowledge of religious scriptures because he was well-educated when he was a student in a famous university in England, and then he improved his professional skills through his diligent work. But Mr. Dimmesdale was in a dilemma after falling in love with Hester Prynne, on one hand, he had to conceal his secret love, and on the other hand, he had to maintain the rigid order of society, that was why Mr. Dimmesdale felt very painful, and his poor health was indicated by his pale face and his act of putting his hand on his bosom. Mr. Dimmesdale took some measures to release his pain, so he made great efforts to improve his professional skills; as a result, he made great progress and gained a good reputation. But such a good reputation made him feel more painful and he couldn’t get rid of the dilemma at all, in other words, he couldn’t escape from his doomed fate.
As time went by, Mr. Dimmesdale suffered a lot and his health began to deteriorate, so it was necessary for him to ask a physician for help, so the Old Roger Chillingworth appeared as a physician and he succeeded in probing into the mental world of Mr.Dimmesdale and knew why the physician felt painful, so he began to carry out his plan of revenge. Meanwhile, the great pressure had Mr.Dimmesdale involved in constant vigil, at one night, Mr.Dimmesdale climbed up to the scaffold on which Hester Prynne used to stand for the ignominious trial, at the same time, Hester Prynne passed by with Pearl, after seeing Hester Prynne and Pearl, Mr.Dimmesdale asked them to climb up to the scaffold, while standing with them hand in hand on the scaffold, Mr. Dimmesdale said he would admit what he had done and they would stand together on the scaffold in one day.
After the secret interview, Mr.Dimmesdale met Hester Prynne again in the forest, he knew her plan of leaving the settlement secretly and he hoped to do so, so he felt invigorated because he knew he would have a fresh start. After finishing his sermon during the inaugural ceremony of the new governor, Mr.Dimmesdale admitted his romantic relationship with Hester Prynne before the audience and stood on the scaffold with Hester Prynne and Pearl, although Old Roger Chillingworth stopped him from doing so. But it was a surprise that Mr.Dimmesdale died in the embrace of Hester Prynne. In a word, his miserable life and his doomed death consisted of a pessimistic story. It’s time to analyze the third main character; he was the physician, Old Roger Chillingworth, which wasn’t his real name, and he used it to conceal his real identity, besides, the word Chillingworth meant a chilling man. After arriving at the settlement, the physician found the woman on the scaffold was his wife, Hester Prynne, besides; he knew from the people that his wife fell in love with someone secretly in the godly master, Mr.Dimmesdale’s church because she had no tidings of her husband, after hearing the story, the physician felt very painful, but he tried to keep himself calm and said as a stranger that the learned man should come himself to look into the mystery, which was his real plan, for he wanted to know who was the secret lover of his wife, the physician had an interview with Hester Prynne to enquire from her that who was her secret lover. To his surprise, Hester Prynne refused to say anything about her secret lover. But he succeeded in persuading her to conceal his identity.
After that interview, the physician began to carry out his plan of revenge, the first step was getting close to Mr.Dimmesdale, for Mr.Dimmesdale suffered a lot from his disease, the physician Old Roger Chillingworth appeared as a doctor to look after him and lived with him under the same roof, through his medical service, the physician successfully earned Mr.Dimmesdale’s trust and became a confidential friend of Mr.Dimmesdale, which paved the way for him to probe into the mystery of the scandal of Hester Prynne. One day, Mr.Dimmesdale fell into a deep slumber in his chair, so the physician entered the room of Mr.Dimmesdale without being discovered, he came up to Mr.Dimmesdale and thrust aside the vestment of Mr.Dimmesdale, to his surprise, he noticed that there was a symbol on Mr.Dimmesdale’s bosom, which was identical to that one on Hester Prynne ‘s bosom, it meant that the godly master Mr.Dimmesdale might be the secret lover of Hester Prynne, so the physician felt very angry and envious of the minister, as a result, the emotions of envy and wrath controlled him completely and drove him to take revenge of Mr.Dimmesdale. At one night, the physician saw Mr.Dimmesdale standing on the scaffold with Hester Prynne and Pearl, so he could confirm that Mr.Dimmesdale was the secret lover of Hester Prynne, but he pretended to know nothing about it and led Mr.Dimmesdale to their home, but Mr.Dimmesdale felt frightened and disappointed because he realized that the mystery of the secret love affairs was in danger of being revealed, meanwhile, the physician continued his plan of revenge, while noticing that Mr.Dimmesdale was severely tortured by the mystery of the secret love affairs, the physician tried to prevent Mr.Dimmesdale form admitting his sin in order to keep him under the great pressure, when Mr.Dimmesdale decided to admit his sin before the audience during the inaugural ceremony of the new governor. The physician made his last efforts to stop him, but he failed, Mr.Dimmesdale admitted his secret love affairs with Hester Prynne and regarded Hester Prynne and Pearl as his beloved ones, at that time, the physician felt very disappointed and his energy withered quickly, he died in the end because he felt that his life was meaningless. So his death indicates the pessimistic hue reflected on him. Part Ⅳ the effect of pessimistic hue in the fiction
In the above part, it can be known that Nathaniel Hawthorne successfully implied the pessimistic hue in the fiction. It can be known that the sins committed by the main characters was the cause of the pessimistic fate of them, but it is obvious that the theocracy in New England also resulted in their pessimistic fate because it inherited the features ofnarrow-mindedness and bigotry from the Christianity on the European continent, besides, the theocracy also accepted the belief that the divinity of God should be emphasized meanwhile the humanity should be looked down, as a result, under the influence of the theocracy, people treated the dissidents and other people with moral defects in a cruel way, especially, they show no sympathy towards people purchasing earthly pleasure because they believed that people purchasing earthly pleasure should be punished severely finally, so the main characters in the fiction suffered a lot from their sins.
As time goes by, great changes have taken place in young nation, the theocratic belief was gradually replaced by new ideas and more and more attention has been paid to the humanity and purchasing earthly pleasure has been regarded as reasonable behavior, such new ideas have been accepted as the dominant ideas while the theocratic belief still played a role in the daily life, but in a civilized society, the theocratic belief has been considered as untimely, so the basis of theocracy, Puritanism should be criticized for its features of narrow-mindedness and bigotry, so Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasized the pessimistic hue reflected on the main characters in order to criticize the features of narrow-mindedness and bigotry underlying the Puritanism in a profound way.
【关键词】 红字；悲剧色彩；清教主义；压迫人性
PartⅠ Introduction
The fiction——the scarlet letter is such a fascinating book that people who begin to read it will be deeply impressed by the story of Hester Prynne. The author of the fiction is Nathaniel Hawthorne, an excellent American writer in the nineteenth century. He was born on July the fourth, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, and some of his ancestors took part in the local government of New England in the seventeenth century. It is known that Puritanism was the dominant factor in the seventeenth-century New England, besides, the influence of Puritanism was passed generation by generation in his family, as a result, Nathaniel Hawthorne had a good knowledge of Puritanism, so he succeeded in embodying puritan hue in his works.
Now it is time to mention the fiction——the scarlet letter, it can’ t be denied the story of Hester Prynne is an impressive one and Hester Prynne can be regarded as an example of redeeming the society by personal efforts, but on the other hand, the pessimistic hue in the fiction is a noteworthy perspective. So the main content of the article is the revelation of the pessimistic hue in the fiction and such hue has been implied by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In order to finish the article, it is necessary give a brief introduction of the cause of the pessimistic hue at the beginning of the second part of the article, and then the analysis of the main characters is an indispensable step for the article, in this step, it is the main task to introduce the pessimistic hue reflected on the main characters,. Finally, the final conclusion will be drawn in the end.
PartⅡ The main cause of pessimistic hue in the fiction
From the fiction——the scarlet letter, it can be noticed that the Christian belief has played an important role and the pessimistic hue in the fiction is intimately connected with the Christian belief, especially, one of its branches, Puritanism. In the seventeenth century, many puritans fled from the European continent to the New England because of the severe persecution from the orthodox Christianity. When they arrived in the New England, they established the dominant theocratic politics in order to realize their religious ideal, in their daily life, the puritans upheld the serious moral principles and propagandized the asceticism, so they denounced various earthly desires, besides, they were influenced by the theory of seven deadly sins, which was a part of the dominant Christian ideology during the Middle Days. According to the theory, the seven deadly sins include Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Avarice and Wrath, such sins were regarded human passions which harmed the divinity, so people thought any one who committed such sins should be punished in the end. When it comes to the main characters in the fiction, it can’t be denied that all of them had committed such sins, Hester Prynne had committed the sin of Lust and the master, Mr. Dimmesdale had committed the same sin, too. While the physician, Old Roger Chillingworth had committed the sins of Envy and Wrath. In other words, the pessimistic hue reflected on them originated from the sins they had committed, as a result, they were doomed to suffer from their miserable fate, and a thorough analysis will be accomplished in the following part.
Part Ⅲ the analysis of sins committed by the main characters
In order to reveal the pessimistic hue reflected on the main characters in the fiction, it is necessary to give a detailed analysis of the sins committed by them, Hester Prynne is the first main character that should be analyzed at the beginning, because she was the first main character appearing in the fiction. In the second chapter, Hester Prynne was described as a culprit, it can be known from the gossip of the people in the market that Hester Prynne had committed the sin of Lust, in other words, she fell in love with another man in a secret way although she was a married woman, but such relationship of love was unacceptable according to the common moral principles, so she had to stand on the scaffold as a culprit with a capitalized letter A on her bosom, and the letter A indicated the sin she had committed, besides, she was kept in prison. After her prison life was over, Hester Prynne was expelled from the settlement and led a humble, lonely life in a small cottage on the outskirt of the town, besides, she supported her little baby and herself through some needlework for the people in the settlement. Apart from the simple life, Hester Prynne was in danger because some people of high ranks intended to deprive her of her child, Pearl in order to cherish the more rigid order of principles, in their opinion, Hester Prynne wasn’t a qualified mother and she couldn’t bring Pearl up in a decent way, so they wanted to transfer Pearl from Hester Prynne to another person of wiser and better guardianship than Hester Prynne, in other words, she might lose her Pearl, but with the help of the master Mr. Dimmesdale, she didn’t lose her Pearl,But her miserable life wasn’t over; another miserable event is Hester Prynne’s failure of rescuing Mr. Dimmesdale from severe torture of Old Roger Chillingworth. After knowing about the fact that Old Roger Chillingworth was taking revenge on Mr. Dimmesdale, she decided to help Mr. Dimmesdale, at first, she had an interview with Mr. Dimmesdale in the forest and revealed the identity of Old Roger Chillingworth, besides, she described her plan of leaving the settlement secretly together to have a fresh start in other remote places, but after hearing that Old Roger Chillingworth would be on the same ship with them as a physician, Hester Prynne realized that her plan would end up with a failure, and the result was a disappointing one, Mr. Dimmesdale died in Hester Prynne’s embrace after finishing his final sermon during the inaugural ceremony of the new governor, before his death, he admitted his secret romantic relationship with Hester Prynne. In other words, the sin of Lust deprived Hester Prynne of her happy life. The next main character is the poor minister, Mr. Dimmesdale. It can be known that Mr. Dimmesdale was an excellent scholar and he had a good knowledge of religious scriptures because he was well-educated when he was a student in a famous university in England, and then he improved his professional skills through his diligent work. But Mr. Dimmesdale was in a dilemma after falling in love with Hester Prynne, on one hand, he had to conceal his secret love, and on the other hand, he had to maintain the rigid order of society, that was why Mr. Dimmesdale felt very painful, and his poor health was indicated by his pale face and his act of putting his hand on his bosom. Mr. Dimmesdale took some measures to release his pain, so he made great efforts to improve his professional skills; as a result, he made great progress and gained a good reputation. But such a good reputation made him feel more painful and he couldn’t get rid of the dilemma at all, in other words, he couldn’t escape from his doomed fate.
As time went by, Mr. Dimmesdale suffered a lot and his health began to deteriorate, so it was necessary for him to ask a physician for help, so the Old Roger Chillingworth appeared as a physician and he succeeded in probing into the mental world of Mr.Dimmesdale and knew why the physician felt painful, so he began to carry out his plan of revenge. Meanwhile, the great pressure had Mr.Dimmesdale involved in constant vigil, at one night, Mr.Dimmesdale climbed up to the scaffold on which Hester Prynne used to stand for the ignominious trial, at the same time, Hester Prynne passed by with Pearl, after seeing Hester Prynne and Pearl, Mr.Dimmesdale asked them to climb up to the scaffold, while standing with them hand in hand on the scaffold, Mr. Dimmesdale said he would admit what he had done and they would stand together on the scaffold in one day.
After the secret interview, Mr.Dimmesdale met Hester Prynne again in the forest, he knew her plan of leaving the settlement secretly and he hoped to do so, so he felt invigorated because he knew he would have a fresh start. After finishing his sermon during the inaugural ceremony of the new governor, Mr.Dimmesdale admitted his romantic relationship with Hester Prynne before the audience and stood on the scaffold with Hester Prynne and Pearl, although Old Roger Chillingworth stopped him from doing so. But it was a surprise that Mr.Dimmesdale died in the embrace of Hester Prynne. In a word, his miserable life and his doomed death consisted of a pessimistic story. It’s time to analyze the third main character; he was the physician, Old Roger Chillingworth, which wasn’t his real name, and he used it to conceal his real identity, besides, the word Chillingworth meant a chilling man. After arriving at the settlement, the physician found the woman on the scaffold was his wife, Hester Prynne, besides; he knew from the people that his wife fell in love with someone secretly in the godly master, Mr.Dimmesdale’s church because she had no tidings of her husband, after hearing the story, the physician felt very painful, but he tried to keep himself calm and said as a stranger that the learned man should come himself to look into the mystery, which was his real plan, for he wanted to know who was the secret lover of his wife, the physician had an interview with Hester Prynne to enquire from her that who was her secret lover. To his surprise, Hester Prynne refused to say anything about her secret lover. But he succeeded in persuading her to conceal his identity.
After that interview, the physician began to carry out his plan of revenge, the first step was getting close to Mr.Dimmesdale, for Mr.Dimmesdale suffered a lot from his disease, the physician Old Roger Chillingworth appeared as a doctor to look after him and lived with him under the same roof, through his medical service, the physician successfully earned Mr.Dimmesdale’s trust and became a confidential friend of Mr.Dimmesdale, which paved the way for him to probe into the mystery of the scandal of Hester Prynne. One day, Mr.Dimmesdale fell into a deep slumber in his chair, so the physician entered the room of Mr.Dimmesdale without being discovered, he came up to Mr.Dimmesdale and thrust aside the vestment of Mr.Dimmesdale, to his surprise, he noticed that there was a symbol on Mr.Dimmesdale’s bosom, which was identical to that one on Hester Prynne ‘s bosom, it meant that the godly master Mr.Dimmesdale might be the secret lover of Hester Prynne, so the physician felt very angry and envious of the minister, as a result, the emotions of envy and wrath controlled him completely and drove him to take revenge of Mr.Dimmesdale. At one night, the physician saw Mr.Dimmesdale standing on the scaffold with Hester Prynne and Pearl, so he could confirm that Mr.Dimmesdale was the secret lover of Hester Prynne, but he pretended to know nothing about it and led Mr.Dimmesdale to their home, but Mr.Dimmesdale felt frightened and disappointed because he realized that the mystery of the secret love affairs was in danger of being revealed, meanwhile, the physician continued his plan of revenge, while noticing that Mr.Dimmesdale was severely tortured by the mystery of the secret love affairs, the physician tried to prevent Mr.Dimmesdale form admitting his sin in order to keep him under the great pressure, when Mr.Dimmesdale decided to admit his sin before the audience during the inaugural ceremony of the new governor. The physician made his last efforts to stop him, but he failed, Mr.Dimmesdale admitted his secret love affairs with Hester Prynne and regarded Hester Prynne and Pearl as his beloved ones, at that time, the physician felt very disappointed and his energy withered quickly, he died in the end because he felt that his life was meaningless. So his death indicates the pessimistic hue reflected on him. Part Ⅳ the effect of pessimistic hue in the fiction
In the above part, it can be known that Nathaniel Hawthorne successfully implied the pessimistic hue in the fiction. It can be known that the sins committed by the main characters was the cause of the pessimistic fate of them, but it is obvious that the theocracy in New England also resulted in their pessimistic fate because it inherited the features ofnarrow-mindedness and bigotry from the Christianity on the European continent, besides, the theocracy also accepted the belief that the divinity of God should be emphasized meanwhile the humanity should be looked down, as a result, under the influence of the theocracy, people treated the dissidents and other people with moral defects in a cruel way, especially, they show no sympathy towards people purchasing earthly pleasure because they believed that people purchasing earthly pleasure should be punished severely finally, so the main characters in the fiction suffered a lot from their sins.
As time goes by, great changes have taken place in young nation, the theocratic belief was gradually replaced by new ideas and more and more attention has been paid to the humanity and purchasing earthly pleasure has been regarded as reasonable behavior, such new ideas have been accepted as the dominant ideas while the theocratic belief still played a role in the daily life, but in a civilized society, the theocratic belief has been considered as untimely, so the basis of theocracy, Puritanism should be criticized for its features of narrow-mindedness and bigotry, so Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasized the pessimistic hue reflected on the main characters in order to criticize the features of narrow-mindedness and bigotry underlying the Puritanism in a profound way.