论文总字数：43537字

摘 要

浪漫主义派别的作家纳萨尼尔霍桑来自于美国，他在19世纪完成了一部长篇小说的编写，也就是《红字》。在文中，女主人公名叫海斯特，尽管她同医生齐灵沃斯已经完婚，然而，两者间并不存在感情，在齐灵沃斯下落不明期间，海斯特与丁梅斯代尔一眼误终生，海斯特与他还有了一个女儿，名叫珠儿。因此海斯特遭受了来自公众的惩罚，迫使她带上代表“通奸”的意义的红字A进行示众。 丁梅斯代尔则遭受着来自自身与齐灵沃斯的惩罚，最后将自己的罪行在大众广庭之下吐露出来，获得了灵魂的救赎与解脱。

本文旨在研究作者在《红字》中展现出的以矛盾为主的善恶观，分析这种矛盾的善恶观是在什么样的社会背景、宗教环境、作者个人成长经历中形成的,以及这种善恶观的矛盾，是如何在《红字》得到体现。作者霍桑又是如何看待这种善恶观的。

关键词：霍桑；《红字》；善恶观

Introduction

1.1 Background of the research

1.1.1 About Nathaniel Hawthorne

As the first person who gave a birth of psychoanalytic novels in American history, Nathaniel Hawthorne is praised as the most magnificent, important romantic writer in 19th century of the United States. Hawthorne came from Salem, Massachusetts, USA. He lost his father in his childhood. He was a lonely and unreasonable child. Because his childhood is not happy as others, he feel lonely and suffered all the time, which make him did not care about social reforms, nor did the rapid development of the capitalist economy. The foreign public believed in the Puritanism in Christianity. Hawthorne was influenced by the Puritanism and knew more about the original sin theory and the theory of atonement. In 1825, Hawthorne graduated from Boden University, he went back to his hometown, and wrote a lot of stories, including short stories and long stories. When he got a job in 1839 in Boston Customs, he had been there for more than two years. After that, he worked for Brooklyn Farm, for the first time contacted with Transcendentalism and began to analyse the masterpieces of Thoreau and Emerson. Ever since, Hawthorne got chance to go to the Salem Customs, which influenced him a lot in writing The Scarlet Letter. The release of The Scarlet Letter made him famous in the history of American literature and also had a tremendous impact on the next generations. Hawthorne’s been treated as bystander of life, due to his attitude of life, which particularly made him interested and insightful about people's inner and mental activities. The original sin theory had a deep impact on him, and this original sin theory required passed on from generation to generation, advocating that people wash their sins through good deeds and finally realize the purification of the soul.

.

1.1.2 About the Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter tells about the love tragedy that occurred during the colonial period in North America. The heroine character Hester got married with Chillingworth, however, there is no chemistry between them. When Chillingworth was missing due to unclear reasons, Hester fell in love with Dimmesdale who was a priest and she also gave birth to a daughter who was named Pearl. Therefore, Hester was punished by the public, forcing her to wear the red letter “A”, which represents the meaning of “adultery”. However, Hester still refused to say the identity of the child's father and was willing to sacrifice herself for love.

1.2 Purpose and Importance of the Study

The Scarlet Letter was Hawthorne's first long novel which mainly focuses on psychological analysis writing. In 1850, this story was firstly published, which made him famous in America, and he became the most important writer recognized by the public during that period. Hawthorne turned his "romantic history" into "psychological romance" later, which shows its emphasis on psychology. He valued psychological description due to that he misunderstood the influence between soul and spirit with religions and the times. He thought that such things should be revealed, punished or promoted: good and evil, love and hatred, sin for the existence of the soul. Further, people’s behaviors were based on their psychology. If they do not engage themselves in psychological excavation, the characters can only stay on the surface and must appear superficial. If readers are used to reading traditional characters, they may feel that the story is going slowly, but he created the psychoanalytic novels of American for the first time. This novel is respected as the Bible in psychoanalytic literature, even critics have been paying attention to this novel. Now, the Scarlet Letter is recognized as a world-famous monumental work, and Hawthorne has been highly praised by everyone. The purpose of this paper is to study how Hawthorne attempts to get rid of the shackles of Puritanism, what characteristics of the good and evil view he himself highlighted, and the reasons for the formation of the characteristics. He focused on the human spiritual world, formed his original "psychoanalytic novel", and unconsciously showed how he was in the novel, struggling in the old religious views and new thoughts trend. The importance of this research lies in understanding the entanglement, struggle, and contradiction of the book in describing the psychological activitie. Through research, people can how they will recognize and adjust their own worldview under the influence of the times.

1.3 Literature review

For The Scarlet Letter, a lot of Chinese scholars have conducted in-depth research and analysis on it. A portion of scholars use the method of analyzing the social background and story structure of the work to confirm the theme he wants to express. For example, Liu Xiaoning wrote“The Contradiction of Hawthorne's Thought and Its Embodiment in The Scarlet Letter”（2008）In which, she had an interpretation of the social and religious environment in which Hawthorne was. Some scholars also showed the images of women in the works of the colonial era. The self-seeking of marriage and love was studied. For example, Li Xiaofei interpreted The Scarlet Letter by adopting the perspective of ecological feminism（2017）Some scholars analyze the symbolism which is used in The Scarlet Letter. However, most scholars still pay more attention to the analysis of the character, psychology and image of the hero and heroine in the work; they do some research on the human nature of the three main protagonists to find out the impact of Puritanism.

There are many works that study the influences of religion on Hawthorne and how Hawthorne and other writers at that age shared their views on human good and evil under the religious influence. For example, Zhan Wenjie’s “An Analysis of the Humanism Thought in the Renaissance and Its Historical Influence”(2011), Wang Yimeng published “Hawthorne's Subversion of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter “ (2010) and Mi Yaning made “The Influence of Puritanism on Early North American Literature” (2010).

2. Origins of Hawthorne’s Views on Good and Evil

2.1 The impact of Puritanism

In the 16th century, King Henry VIII of England launched a religious reform in the United Kingdom, ordering Britain to leave the Holy See, and he became the only king to take charge of world affairs. However, the British Protestantism was not as smooth as it was imagined in the country. Many people thought that this reform was not thorough enough. Therefore, the new sects had been established from the state religion, and the new sects was Puritanism. The Puritans and the state religions were in constant conflict. The Puritans were suppressed and persecuted by the local state religions. Many Puritans left their homeland and reached the New World to establish their own Kingdom of Puritanism. However, influenced by the unity of Henry VIII, the British colonial region still retained the unity of politics and religion. Church members could directly intervene in government affairs. When the Puritans were persecuted in their motherland, they had established their own sects in the New World, they also began to persecute, suppress heresy and created all kinds of torture. The value system advocated by the Puritanism was still based on the original sin theory of Christianity, according to the Redemption theory, and advocated the restraint on human beings. Hawthorne grew up in a Puritan family but he was dissatisfied with the boring and cumbersome Puritan laws and regulations, but the limitations imposed by the environment made his view of good and evil a very strong religious influence.

2.1.1 Original sin theory

Original sin theory refers to Christianity belief that anyone is born guilty, except Adam and Eve, who were the ancestors of mankind. They know that they should not, but they are tempted to eat the fruit that distinguishes between good and evil, and violates the rules of God, causing God to be furious. This paradox brought sin, guilt and shame. The original view of Christianity was founded by the Nordic theologian Augustine based on the content of the Bible. He advocated that people were influenced by the sin of Adam and Eve. They were born without the sin. Only Jesus Christ who believed in the sin of the world could be saved from the sin. From the point of Christianity, all people have crimes and original sin, even saints are inevitable. The original sin lies in people's innermost feelings, leading to people's tendency to commit crimes. When this tendency and internal strength are driven by external forces, crimes will be revealed. This original sin on the one hand laid the foundation of Christian thought and theory, and is the starting point and core of Christian doctrine. It is precisely because people are born guilty that they have the Christian confession of repentance. On the other hand, this affects the history of literature throughout Europe.

In The Scarlet Letter, the unsacred combination of Hester and Dimmesdale is likened to Adam and Eve who ate the forbidden fruit. As a result of the original sin theory, Hawthorne as a Puritan, was convinced that the combination of the two who spoof the forbidden fruit could be classified as "evil", so Hester and Dimmesdale must be treated like Adam and Eve. Therefore, Hester suffered a punishment from the public, forcing her to wear a red letter “A” representing the meaning of "adultery" in public and was cast aside by everyone. Dimmesdale was suffering from self-punishment every day and night.

What is the instinctive tendency of human nature? Love. But love is the temptation of sin in Christian righteousness, because love breeds and evokes desire, and desire is not tolerated by Puritanism. Hester and Dimmesdale had deep love for each other which urged them to unite. The disappearance of Chillingworth and the whereabouts of the unknown were what promoted them together. With the combination of the two of them, the birth of Pearl was not only the crystallization of love, but also the fruit of sin. As pointed out by the original sin theory, the sin can be passed down between generations.

2.1.2 Atonement

The original sin theory is the theoretical basis of Puritanism. There are both original sin theory and redemption theory. When Hester and Dimmesdale committed adultery, Hawthorne’s recognition of the theory of redemption also persisted. Although he does not deny that this love is a human instinct, even if this radiance of pursuit of real happiness cannot be concealed by secular doctrine, Hawthorne's own limitations make him sternly punished by default. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester suffered a punishment from the public, forcing her to wear a red letter A all the time, and she was ignored and rejected by all. She also committed the crime of bullying, even if it was from the initial heart of protecting the lover, but it was still a human sin, so it also paid a corresponding price - Dimmesdale suffered the spirit of Chillingworth for seven years, tortured his soul and flesh. Thirteenth chapter of The Scarlet Letter thus said:

‘it is also realized that although Hester has never proposed the humblest title of sharing the privileges of the world - in addition to breathing ordinary air, using the faithful labor of her hands to earn the daily bread for the little Pearl and herself - She soon admitted that she was a sister, only a man's race was good, but shared the privilege of the world. No one is more willing than her to dedicate one of her own material to every person who needs poverty, even if this resentful swearing can reproduce the food that is often brought to his door, or the clothes that are sewed with his fingers, the robes of the monarch. No one can be as intoxicated as Hester when pestilence stalked through the city. ’(Hawthorne,2011:157)

Dimmesdale was a clergyman. After being accused of adultery even he was protected by Hester, he still could not help but suffered from the pain of himself. He was also suffering from Chillingworth disease. The eleventh chapter of the book said:

‘His inner troubles made him act more in accordance with the fallen beliefs of ancient Rome than with the better light of the church he was born and raised. In the secret closet of Mr. Dimmedale, there is a bloody scourge hidden under the lock and the key. Usually, the spirit of Protestant and Puritans put it on their shoulders and smiled at themselves while slamming against the more devout Puritans and fasting them – however, unlike them, in order to purify the body, to make it a more suitable celestial lighting medium - but it is very harsh until his knees tremble, this is his act of atonement. ’(Hawthorne,2011:128)

He must also be painfully shackled in the role of the comforters and deceivers of the people. Although he emphasized his sins over and over again, people were humble and more respectful to him. Until the end, he could confess his self-crime in the face of the public and gain the rest of his soul. Chilingworth was gradually degenerating in the sense of accomplishment of tormenting Dimmesdale. When Dimmesdale died, his heart was empty; revenge could no longer be his sustenance, leaving the property to Pearl when he died. Finally, he passed away in the end of depression. In the redemption of these three people, Hawthorne's religious orientation is embodied. Salvation itself is a religious force. Only by helping others' good deeds and reflecting on their own sins can the purification of the soul be realized. Therefore, it can be seen from this that Hawthorne's view of good and evil can't get rid of religious shackles. The traditional ideas and fixed patterns of original sin, crime, and atonement are rooted in his view of good and evil.

2.2 The impact of New England Renaissance

After working at Boston Customs for more than two years, Brooklyn Farm membership used up most of Hawthorne's savings. He got chance to come into contact with Transcendentalism and also with great honor he met with Emerson and Thoreau, the founders of Transcendentalism. Around 1841, the wave of Transcendentalism began to sweep the area of Boston, and it also affected Hawthorne. In the concept of transcendental philosophy, an ideal transcendental entity exists in the universe. Beyond science and experience, people can grasp through intuition. People can find the truth by intuition. Human beings are God in a certain range. They believe religions. During the new round of reflection and criticism period, people abandoned the Calvinist sect's view of "God-centered", and advocated individual liberation, intuition and humanistic spirit, resisted with rationality, and emphasized personal values. This kind of thoughts were produced for the society at that time, and had great influence on Europe, because theological thoughts occupied a dominant position, Transcendentalism had a promotion on the liberation of American thought and culture, and also had a impact on the American literature, and became a very crucial part of American literature. Transcendentalists look at nature with a new look and think that nature is a supersoul or a symbol of God. In their view, nature is not just a matter of matter. It has life, the spirit of God fills it, it is the coat of the supersoul. Therefore, it has a healthy nourishing effect on human thought. The eighteenth chapter of The Scarlet Letter said

‘the sympathy of Nature is like this - the wild nature of the forest, the pagan nature, never conquered by human law, nor illuminated by higher truths - with the happiness of these two souls! Love, whether it is newborn or awakened from death like sleeping, must always create a kind of sunshine that fills the mind with light so that it overflows into the outside world. If the forest kept gloom, Hester's eyes would be bright, and so Dimmesdale would.’(Hawthorne,2011:181)

Here is the change of nature that reflected the heart of Hester and Dimmesdale from darkness to seeing hope, it also showed the impact of Hawthorne's Transcendentalism. It often uses symbolism and uses nature. Reflecting the social environment in which the character is located and the inner heart of the character, Transcendentalism advocates returning to nature and accepting its influence to become a spiritual person.

2.3 Family history, personal growth environment and experience

Nathaniel Hawthorne was given birth on July 4, 1804. His family used to be aristocrats in Salem, Massachusetts. It was the fifth generation of descendants of his Puritan ancestors after immigrating to North America. Hawthorne’s family history, growing environment, and 12 years of seclusion, his passion for exploring the history of his hometown and the Transcendentalism he touched at Brooklyn Farms have had a huge impact on his creation.

2.3.1 Family history

The understanding of family history and religion has a direct impact on Hawthorne's creative thinking. Hawthorne’s ancestors came from the United Kingdom, and all generations believed in Calvinism. Two generations of ancestors also played an important role in Massachusetts State-Government. One of them was named William Hassan; he was the first speaker of the Massachusetts Colonial Parliament. As he was involved in the persecution of the Whig Party, he was notorious. The other named John Hassan is his uncle, who was a magistrate. In 1692, the famous "Witching Case" occurred in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. At that time, there was an epidemic in the town of Salem. Some people told the witches to do this. In the eyes of some Western countries, there is a traditional belief that the "witches" and the devil Satan are a group. "Witches" got supernatural power from devil Satan. In the human world, they used this power to spread diseases and kill babies. The town of Salem is a major town of Calvinism. The Calvinist and the Whig Party continued to fight for religious power and aimed to eliminate heresy. The case was widely involved. About 200 people were arrested, and more than 150 were put into prison, and about 10 persons were hanged to die. Actually, this was a kind of forced religion. Most of the victims were residents who were innocent. The judge of this incident was Hawthorne's uncle John, a religious fanatic who was extremely cruel.

2.3.2 Personal growth environment

In 1808, when Hawthorne was 4, his father surprisingly died in Dutch Guiana because of yellow fever. His mother had to go to the maiden brother of Maine with three children and only a little savings in her family, and spent a lifetime of silence and widowhood. The death of his father and the widowhood of his mother had a huge impact on Hawthorne’s childhood.

Hawthorne never went to church when he was a child, but liked to open the window on Sunday and stand behind the curtains watching men, women and children to pray. He realized that the Puritan ethics suppressed the human nature and ruined the happy life, but at the same time could not completely get rid of this cultural tradition that he had witnessed since childhood.

2.3.3 Personal experience

Hawthorne graduated from university in 1825 and went back to Salem to live a seclusive life. During the next 12 years, all of the books in the local library were read by him. Since 1825, he spent 12 years in Salem which had an extremely effect on Hawthorne, leading him become a writer. During this period in hometown, he was interested in exploring the history of his hometown. He knew every part of the history of his hometown, especially prominent in the era of witchcraft. He read the historical books of United Kingdom and also wrote novels. Most of his novels were written according to the colonial times and the cruel religious rule used by governors, the contradictions of the spiritual world and ideology that existed at that time and the tragic experience of religion were described.

Hawthorne found that religious dogma fanaticism had a greater impact on people's thoughts and ideas, and he also saw that religion had a negative impact on people. People in parts of Massachusetts had a close relationship with life and religion. Religion and law had the same effect and authority. At the same time, fanatics and Puritans carried out this strict rule. In a sense, religious worship was a trampling of human dignity.

The Salem area had a very strong Calvinism, because the backwardness of science and technology led to the ignorance of the aboriginal people. This place had a large number of folklore and mythological stories full of magical colors. There was a witchcraft activity here, and as Calvinism began to spread to North America, it had a tremendous impact on Hawthorne and also greatly changed his perception of the world.

Although Hawthorne's life was no longer a mainstream force in New England, the American mind and life were still largely influenced by the attention of the Puritans. Puritanism and Hawthorne's character were harmonious. Hawthorne's attitude towards the problem and the way of thinking was influenced by Puritanism. It was difficult for Hawthorne to avoid looking at the world from the perspective of Puritanism，and he also maintained a very positive attitude towards the attention of the Puritans. For example, the tenacious spirit and pioneering spirit exhibited by early American Puritans were positive, which was reflected in Hester Prynne. However, the Puritans’ attitude toward oppression and abstinence was not criticized and recognized. Hawthorne had a very deep understanding of the history of the development of American Puritanism. The influence of the Puritanism could play a positive role in maintaining the rule, but people would gradually lose their nature under the harsh rules. Hawthorne had a very clear thinking and cognition about Puritanism.

3. The Performance of the Main Characters

3.1 Hester

Hester’s inner world was complex.

First is the analysis of Hester's "evil". Hester committed the seventh precept in the Ten Commandments of Christianity and the crime of adultery. She derailed the clergy and even gave birth to the "sin of sin", which must not be allowed in the harsh Puritan environment at that time. Therefore, for a morally degrading person like her, the Puritan regime with the unity of politics and religion would use her as a standard for disciplinary crimes, show her humiliation, and punish her for wearing the red letter “A” symbolizing "adultery" for life.

Hester was guilty of adultery, although it was presented in front of people as an attempt to redeem the crime by doing good deeds. It is not difficult to find that she was not a saint in the full sense. After she was punished, she “does everything”, but :

“She was patient—a martyr, indeed but she forebore to pray for enemies, lest, in spite of her forgiving aspirations, the words of the blessing should stubbornly twist themselves into a curse”.(Hawthorne.2011:176)

She treated her needlework：

"as a sin as if she were looking at other fun"（Hawthorne,2011:86）

And Hawthorne pointed out in the fifth chapter of the book:

“This morbid meddling of conscience with an immaterial matter betokened, it is to be feared, no genuine and steadfast penitence, but something doubtful, something that might be deeply wrong beneath.”(Hawthorne,2011:76)

Hester’s sentence ended, and the verdict did not order her to refuse to pass the Puritan’s residential area. She could return to her birthplace or any European country on her own, but she still chose to stay here because she thought it was where her sin and shame are rooted, so she wanted to stay here and wash her own sinful soul by accepting shame. Here is Hawthorne's sense of atonement.

Hawthorne believed that "sin" could be redeemed, he advocated the use of good deeds and self-deprecation to wash away sin and purify the soul, thus enabling "atonement". So he did not allow Hester to leave all these behind and start a new life, but let her make atonement after committing sin. In this long seven years, she overcame the loneliness and contempt that ordinary people could not bear. She relied on embroidered clothes to earn a meager income to support Pearl, and to earn good deeds. Her hard work and good virtues finally alleviated her "sin" and "purified" her soul. The red letter "A" worn on her chest was no longer interpreted by people as a symbol of "adultery" but as a symbol of “Able” and “ Angel”.

3.2 Dimmesdale

Dimmesdale’s sin, not just adultery, he also concealed his crimes. As a clergyman, he should have obeyed the rules and converted to God. He did not stop doing things he shouldn’t, he even made Hester pregnant and did not shoulder the punishment and responsibility he should bear as a man, a clergy. When Hester was humiliated, he did not admit that he was the biological father of the Pearl, and silently prayed that Hester would not say his name. No matter how he treated himself as a sinner, he still feared losing his reputation which he saw the most.

Standing in the position of his pastor role, he was guilty of revealing his crimes and repenting of his own atonement. But because he had no courage, he still used his position to spread his virtues.

Standing in his shoes, as a father, he should have taken the responsibility of helping Hester to raise Pearl and give Pearl love from a father, but he did not dare to do this because he feared that his crime was exposed to everyone and he would lose everything.

He concealed his crimes and escaped condemnation, but his self-blame and remorse became more and more serious, he even tortured himself by whipping himself and using his strong light to illuminate his own eyes.

Because of his self-blame, he stood on the square where Hester was humiliated at the time, and took the hands of Pearl and Hester to make self-repentance. Although this was his first initiative in self-crime, it was not in the public, but in the night of no one. This shows that he was still cowardly and timid, but this was also his first step he took to admit his crime. When he dealt with his work, he did what he could to help resolving pains in people's hearts. In eleventh chapter, the author said:

“He told the listeners that he was the most despicable person in the world, an abominable person, and committed unimaginable sin, but the only strange part was that they did not see his poor body anger at the Almighty. Atrophy in front of the eyes!”(Hawthorne,2011:132)

And there is a sentence in Chapter eleventh: “Not so, indeed! They all heard it, but still respect him”(Hawthorne,2011:136)

People’s action made Dimmesdale feel worse and worse, and these pains made Dimmesdale more empathetic, more able to resonate with the pain of others, and made him more respected. Dimmesdale was indeed a very qualified Puritan. Unlike the upper-level managers in the Puritan regime, such as the governor and Father Wilson, he worked conscientiously and lived simple, and worked hard to relieve people's sorrow. He was low-key, self-effacing. But the governor and Wilson pursued a luxurious material enjoyment. So Dimmesdale was an actual Puritan.

3.3 Chillingworth

Chillingworth was Hester’s husband and his marriage with Hester was his own wishful thinking, Hester did not love him. His original life was dull and boring. He devoted all his time to academics. He was originally a devout, eager to learn, eager to have a peaceful marriage life. But the affair of Hester and Dimmesdale made him a gentle old man into a demon who used his knowledge to torture others. He also gradually changed from a victim to a criminal. He kept peeping, dissecting Dimmesdale’s heart, using words to stimulate the torment of Dimmesdale, making his spiritual world more vulnerable and nealy collapse.

请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：43537字