On the Aspects of Loneliness in The Scarlet Letter 论《红字》中的孤独因素.doc

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1、On the Aspects of Loneliness in The Scarlet Letter论红字中的孤独因素AbstractNathanial Hawthorne is an extremely renowned American writer of fiction. He not only has created quiet a few classic novels, but also has written quantities of thought-provoking short stories. Until now, Hawthorne and his works have

2、been the focus of discussion from the Chinese and foreign scholars. The theme of The Scarlet Letter is characterized by multiplicity and various conclusions are dram in the filed of the thematic studies. It seems that scholars have shown major concern with such diathesis as the original sin, the mor

3、al consciousness of Hawthorne, religious belief, individual and society, thoughts of female doctrine and the conflict between the head and the heart. However, very few scholars have ever done a thorough research into the loneliness diathesis of the novel. These detailed analyses four characters lone

4、liness and express the aspects of loneliness in The Scarlet Letter.Key WordsThe Scarlet Letter; loneliness; symbol摘要纳撒尼尔霍桑是美国非常著名的小说家。 他不仅创造了若干部经典的长篇小说,而且还书写了数量可观且耐人寻味的短篇小说.至今为止，霍桑和他的作品一直是中外学者讨论的对象。红字是霍桑的代表作品，它的主题具有多样性的特点，因此在主题研究领域存在各种不同的结论。大部分学者偏重于探讨小说中的原罪意识、霍桑的道德观念、宗教信仰和女性主义思想、个人与社会的关系以及大脑和心灵之间的冲突

5、等因素, 而对小说中孤独因素的深入研究并不多见。 本文分析小说中的四位主人公各自的孤独感，表达霍桑在小说红字中体现的孤独因素。关键词红字；孤独；象征IntroductionThe Scarlet Letter was declared a classic almost immediately after its publication in 1850, and it has stayed in print and in favor ever since, it has been hailed both as the first symbolic novel and as the first p

6、sychological novel. But what really secures the place of The Scarlet Letter in the literary history is its treatment of human nature, sin, guilt, and pride-all timeless, universal themes-from a uniquely American point of view. There are many different comments and criticism and on the writers family

7、 background, the novel multiple themes and writing styles, the novels social and historical backdrops together with the novels significance in society and literature. This article has done a thorough research into the aspects of loneliness in the novel. The thesis is to elaborate four characters lon

8、eliness: Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale and little Pearl. They are having different loneliness. Hester is a lonely pursuer for love; Chilingworth is a lonely revenge-seeker; Dimmesdale is a lonely beggar for gods grace; Pearl is a lonely child asking for recognition. There are many symbolic repre

9、sentations in The Scarlet Letter. Such as names, appearances of the characters, some special events and actions, these can symbolize loneliness.I. A Brief Information about Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter.A. A Brief Introduction about HawthorneHawthorne was born on the fourth of July, 1804 in Salem

10、, Massachusetts. 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 Salem Witchcraft Trail in 1692. Gr

11、adually, 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. Nathaniel Hawthorne is an extremely renowned American writer of fiction. Herman Melville even hails him as the “American Shakespea

12、re”. He is the first American writer to define his works as romance; his romantic writing is a landmark of the romantic period in American literature. Besides, Hawthorne is one of the forefathers of symbols. Hawthornes works mainly include four romances: The Scarlet Letter, The House of The Seven Ga

13、bles, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun, Three hort stories collections: Twice-Told Tales, Moss from an Old Manse, and The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales, and two myth collection: A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys and Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys./PB. A Brief Contents about Th

14、e Scarlet LetterThe story of The Scarlet Letter is a triangular love affair set in the Seventeenth-Century Boston, then a puritan settlement. An aging English scholar sends his beautiful young wife, Hester Prynne by name, to make their new home in New England. But for unknown reasons, the husband ha

15、s not joined her in the colony. The consensus is that he has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester loved with Arthur Dimmesdale, her puritan minister, and has given birth to a child, pearl. The love affair between Hester and Dimmesdale results in adultery. Hester confesses but refu

16、ses to reveal the name of the childs father. As a punishment, she is sentenced to three hours on the scaffold and a lifetime of wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her chest, the mark of her shame. When the elderly husband comes over two years later, he is bewildered to see his wife in pillory, wearing

17、the scarlet letter “A” on her breast, holding her illicit child in her arms. The wronged husband, whose pride has been deeply wounded, is determined to seek out the adulterer and vows revenge on the man who has cuckolded him. The old scholar the disguises himself as a physician and changes his name

18、to Roger Chillingworth. Gradually, he discovers that the villain is no other than the much-admired brilliant young clergyman, Arthur Dimmesdale. Though weighed down by the secret knowledge of his and hypocrisy, Dimmesdale is fearful of the consequences of confession, which would be more severe for t

19、he minister. He deals with his guilt by tormenting himself physically and psychologically, developing a serious heart condition as a result. In the meanwhile, his conscience is ruthlessly preyed upon by Chillingworth. Dimmesdale cuts himself off from community withers spiritually as well as physical

20、ly.On the other hand, Hesters response to the scarlet letter “A” and her sin is a positive one. Though living on the fringe of the community and suffering social ostracism, she nevertheless bears her punishment courageously, expiates her sin by performing good deeds so that the community gradually c

21、hanges its attitude and some of her peers even show their trust and admiration for her honesty and skillfulness. At one time Hester plans to leave America and flee to Europe, where the true lovers can live with Pearl as a family. The day before the ship is to sail, Dimmesdale preaches his most eloqu

22、ent sermon for the townspeople. Afterwards he impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and daughter and confesses his sin and hypocrisy at public gathering. He falls dead, as pearl kisses him.Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth died a year later. But in the very withering he makes his las

23、t will and testament and bequeaths a very considerable amount of property to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne by Dimmesdale. As heiress to his fortune, Pearl grows up to be married into a noble family of Europe.Causes the Aspects of Loneliness in The Scarlet LetterA. Hawthornes Loneliness

24、 in His Personal LifeHawthornes father, who is a well known ship captain died at sea and left his wife. Then his wife at the age of twenty-eight, with children aged 6 and 4 and an infant of a few month. She withdrew entirely from society, and permitted the habit of solitude to grow up to such a degr

25、ee that she actually remitted a strict hermit to the end of long life. Hawthorne himself though that such an unhealthy and separated family atmosphere provided a morbid consciousness that paralyzed his powers. When Hawthorne after leaving the Bowdon College, he returned to his uncles old house in Sa

26、lem. He devoted himself to reading and writing with less contact with the family members as well as outside world. One of his close friends Jonathan Cilley wrote:I love Hawthorne. I admire him, but I do not know him. He lives in a mysterious world of though and imagination while he never permits me

27、to enter (Rubinstein, 1988:82).From his family and his friends provided clues to Hawthornes life were feelings of gloom and alienation.B. Social and Cultural Backdrops of the novelThe story in The Scarlet Letter was happened in Boston in the 1600s. At that time, the puritans were prosecuted in Engla

28、nd because they refused to abide by the rules of the Church of England, and then they left their home and came to American as permanent settlers. They were forced to settle in a new land far from homeland. The Pilgrim Fathers suffered terrible hardships during the first winter and half of them died.

29、 In order to survive, they had to fight against the natural disasters and endure loneliness in the new world. Four characters Loneliness in The Scarlet LetterA. Hester Prynnes Lonely Pursuer for LoveHester Prynne is the main character in the novel; she was an honesty and goddess woman.Hester spent h

30、er happy childhood times with her parents, later; she grew up to be a beautiful young lady with an extremely passionate nature. She married with a handicapped scientist Chillingworth. Chillingworth regarded himself as a man of thought, the bookworm of great libraries-a man already in decay, have the

31、 best years to feed the hunger dream of knowledge(Nathaniel, Hawthorne.1996: 29). In contrast, Hester was in her budding youth, and had a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hairand a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of co

32、mplexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes (Nathaniel, Hawthorne.1996: 56). She had an impulsive and passionate nature, whereas the husband devoted himself wholly to seeking the so-called truth in books. Chillingworth did not have an eye for Hesters youth and bea

33、uty. For the young and beautiful wife, passion and true love should be the basic principle and purpose of a holy marriage. The old and lonely husband was physically deformed. To make the matter worse, the husband indulged himself in alchemy and in medical research, totally neglecting his wifes inner

34、 minds for much of the time. The unhappy marriage indicated that there was no mutual understanding and communication between her and husband. The parents did not know what Hester expected of her Mr. Right. Her marriage life was unromantic. The attitude of her husband made her loneliness too much. Sh

35、e need love from her husband, she was lonely.When she settled alone in Boston, a place far from her parental home, the scenes of hometown were foreign to her. The connection between Hester and her relative in England seemed to have broken off. She often memorized that her fathers face, with its bald

36、 brow and reverend white beardher mothers too, with the look of heedful and anxious love(Nathaniel, Hawthorne.1996: 27). Children will naturally recollect parents affection and happy moments spent together with relatives or friends, but then ,she hadnt .she was a lonely child deserted by her parents

37、.Hester is a woman in need of consolation from her lover-Dimmesdale. When she came to Boston alone, for a single woman, she fell lonely. Then she met the minister-Dimmesdale. They were fall in love each other, but this action was not allowed by the Puritan. They incarcerated Hester and she must wear

38、 the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom, the scarlet letter “A” symbolic meaning is “Adultery”.Hester lived in the seclusion on the outskirts of the town, in all her intercourse with society, there was nothing that made she feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence

39、of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind. Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears, since she has

40、 heart-smitten at the bewildering and confusing spell that so often came between Hester and her beloved daughter. Little Pearl was all her world, but there existed mental distance between the mother and her daughter. sometimes, once in many days, or perchance in many months, she felt an eye-a human

41、eye-upon the ignominious brand that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half of her agony were shared(Nathaniel, Hawthorne.1996: 32). The daydreaming indicated that Hester had hoped that her lover could to comfort her and therefore she would be relieved from the state of loneliness for the time

42、 being./PB. Chillingworths Lonely Revenge-SeekerRoger Chillingworth was an abandoned husband by his wife. He was an old and lonely scholar in England dehumanized by a life abstruse studying. His twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders mirror his distorted soul. He ignored his wife for most of the time.

43、 He made a mistake of marrying a young and beautiful wife, who had an impulsive and passionate nature. For Hester, marriage was not a sacramental union if the couples did not love each other. She considered her marriage with Chillingworth as invalid, for she reminded him, I felt no love (for you), n

44、or feigned any. Husband did not deserve true love from his wife and he was destined it live through a lonely married life. In view of the striking different between Chillingworth and Hester, their union can be regarded as unnatural relationships of age and youth, deformity and youth, and a studious

45、mind and a passionate nature. When Hester came to Boston alone and she fell in love with Arthur Dimmesdale, which resulted in adultery. From then on, Roger Chillingworth was totally abandoned by his young and passionate wife.Roger Chillingworth was an unapproachable stranger to little Pear. Pearl, t

46、he daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale, is often defined by many critics as the sin child, the unholy result of Hesters and Arthur Dimmesdale fall from grace. Pearls existence brought humiliation upon her mothers legal husband Chillingworth. It was natural for them to keep a distance physically and me

47、ntally whenever they came across each other.When Chillingworth knew the facts，He became a lonely revenge-seeker. He appeared as calm, gentle, passionless. There was yet, we fear, a quiet depth of malice, hitherto latent, but active now, in his unfortunate old man, which led him to imagine a more int

48、imate revenge than any mortal had ever reeked upon an enemy. To make himself the one trusted friend, to whom should be confided all the fear, the remorse, the agony, the ineffectual repentance, the backward rush of sinful thoughts, expelled in vain! All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, who

49、se great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the pitiless, to him, the unforgiving! All that dark treasure to be lavished on the very man, to whom nothing else could so adequately pay the debt of vengeance.To be a revenge-seeker, forlorn creature that he was, and more wretched than his victim. Roger Chillingworth will lonely in his whole life.C. Dimmesdales Lonely Beggar for Gods GraceDimmesdale was a hypocritical min