The Sin and Atonement of Hester Prynne.doc

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1、The Sin and Atonement of Hester Prynnein The Scarlet LetterI. IntroductionIn one more century, the number of the commentary on The Scarlet Letter is innumerable. A lot of critics have analyzed the novel from different aspects. However, this work is seldom analyzed from the point of view of sin and a

2、tonement for sin.Hawthorne is far familiar with the Bible. He lives in an age when the literature is dominated by Christianity. A lot of western authors take Bible as one of the sources of their creations. As creating his work, Hawthorne is chiefly influenced by the Bible. In The Scarlet Letter he f

3、ully expresses his thoughts by concerning the topic of” sin and atonement for sin”.As is known to all, writers take literature as a way to express their conceptions and thoughts on the society in which he lives, on nature in which human constitute an element, and on his fellow beings. As an author,

4、Hawthorne is not an exception, so his thoughts will be reflected by his works, and thus The Scarlet Letter is analyzed from this point of view.A. Introduction to Hawthornes Life Nathaniel Hawthorne（1804-1864）, is an American novelist and short story writer, a central figure in the American Renaissan

5、ce, whose works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement. His best-known works include The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gambles (1851). Like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne took a dark view of human nature.He was born in Salem, Massach

6、usetts, July 4, 1804. His ancestors were prominent in the affairs of the colony. John Hawthorne was one of the judges who tried the witches in 1620, and John Hawthorne was a member of the dignified school committee of Salem in 1796. Hawthornes father, a ship captain died in a foreign land when his s

7、on was only four years old; his mother lived for forty years after her husbands death. The people of Salem looked on Nathaniel as a lazy and very queer boy. He grew up in a unique solitude. During these years of seclusion, Hawthorne acquired the habit of keeping silent on all occasions, and reading

8、a few books frequently and thoroughly. The New gate Calendar must have supplied him with many subtle suggestions for his later writings on sin and crime, for in almost all of his productions his imagination is tinged with this old Puritanical philosophy and theology.He entered Bowdoin College in 182

9、1 and graduated from this institution in 1825. He had as classmates Longfellow and Franklin Pierce who afterward became president of the United States. After his graduation, Hawthorne returned to Salem, where he lived with his mother and sisters in almost absolute seclusion for fourteen years. Durin

10、g this period he wrote daily and spent his nights in burning what he had written in the daytime.He was clerk of the Boston Custom House from 1839 to 1841, when the Whig party removed him for being ultra-partisan on behalf of the Democrats. He married Sophia Peabody, July 9, 1842. From 1842 until 184

11、6, they lived in Concord in the house formerly occupied by Emerson. These were the happiest years of his life. In 1846 he returned to Salem as surveyor in the Salem Custom House. He retired from this office in 1850 and lived in Lenox Massachusetts for two years. In 1852, he settled in Concord. Presi

12、dent Pierce appointed him consul at Liverpool in 1853, and he served in this position until 1857.After leaving Liverpool, he traveled three years in England and on the continent. He returned to Concord in 1860. He died in the White Mountains, May 18, 1864. Although he is a silent man and a seeker of

13、 solitude during his life, few writers have ever experienced such wide publicity of their inmost lives since his death. The publication of his Notes has opened his life and workplace to every one, and has revealed to us a magnanimous, sympathetic, and pure man, who realized his responsibilities as a

14、 writer and improved all his literary opportunities.With modern psychological insight, Hawthorne probed the secret motivations in human behavior. He explored the guilt and anxiety that grew out of sins against humanity and asserted that emotional and intellectual ambivalence was inseparable from the

15、 Puritan heritage of America. Hawthorne characterized most of his books as romances; this approach freed him to represent symbolically the passions, emotions and anxieties of his characters and to expose “the truth of the human heart” that he believed lies hidden beneath mundane daily life.B. The In

16、fluence of Bible on HawthorneChristian cultures influences on literature synchronize with the birth of the Christiananity. “Atonement for sin” can be regarded as the first archetype in the BibleChristianity comes into being in the first century. It has great influence on the western world. It was re

17、garded as the state religion in Rome in the 4th century; it develops into a necessary ingredient of western culture.As a kind of spiritual civilization and collective consciousness, Christian culture plays an important role in influencing the formation of moral standards held by the whole society an

18、d thus the way of thinking. From then on, the literary school such as Revival of Learning in the modern times, Reformation in the 16th century, Romanism movement, Realistic literature, even Critic-realism in the 19th century, bears the marked brand of the Christian culture.There are archetypes which

19、 take their root in the Bible contributing a lot to Christian culture. The “original sin and atonement for sin” is regarded as the most important archetype of the Bible.Hawthorne is a pious Christian, and is deeply influenced by the theology from the Bible. He is so much in doglegged in religious do

20、ctrine that people can find the reflection of the god almost everywhere in his works. In Hawthornes age, Christian religion is the dominating social culture and at that time he lives in almost every university taking Bible as the main course, so everyone will be influenced by it from its very birth.

21、According to the Bible, everyone is sinful. That is the explanation of the original sin when god creates the world. When God creates the world, he first creates a man called Adam and then a woman called Eve, both of whom live happily in the Garden of Eden. God tells them that they can eat every kind

22、 of fruit in the garden except those on the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Instigated by the serpent, the two cannot suppress their curiosity and violate Gods order by eating the fruits from that forbidden tree. That enrages God. From that time on, they become sinful and are expelled from the G

23、arden of Eden. Thus as their descendents, human beings are born with sin. All successive generations are their descendants and therefore inherit their sin. At the time one is born, he/she bears sin and has the root of committing crime.This is the original sin and also the source for Hawthornes creat

24、ing of his works. Hawthorne believes that evil is at the core of human life and most of his works reveal the black vision of the Bible. Evil exists in human hearts all the time. Hawthorne is ruled by three doctrines in his life: Bible is the supreme law of God, original sin and the inherent evil of

25、all human beings and the belief in predestination. According to these doctrines, sin will surely be punished one way or another and if committing a sin, one should face it bravely and try to atone for it; only in this way can the one be forgiven and accepted by the society! The above is the influenc

26、es of the Bible on Hawthorne. And this will be reflected in his works, writing Hesters life is a good ground to prove this.CIntroduction to the Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthornes representative work, is a classical novel in American literature in the 19th century. The novel is ab

27、out the struggle three people face while trying to live their lives and find happiness in a Puritan society.The story is like this. In the early 1640s, Hester has come to the small town of Boston, Massachusetts, from Great Britain, while her husband, Chillingworth has left to deal with something. Bu

28、t after then, there is no news about him and nobody know whether he is alive or not for two years. Then Hester and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the towns priest, engages in the act of adultery and produce a baby girl named Pearl. Although only she knows that Dimmesdale is the father, Hester has promi

29、sed Dimmesdale not to reveal his identity. Hester is put on display in front of the entire town to accept the punishment, serving as an illustration to the towns people from sinning. She is then put in jail with the baby for a few months and forced to wear a scarlet letter A which stands for Adulter

30、y forever. Hesters husband, Roger Chillingworth, who had been captured by Native American Indians on his way to New England and held in captivity for two years, escapes and enters the town of Boston. After learning of what Hester had done, Chillingworth poses as a doctor and vows to discover the ide

31、ntity of Hesters partner in sin. Hester agrees to keep his true identity a secret too. From main idea of this story, its easy for us to see the fact that it exposed gloomy and despicable repulsion of human nature and at the same time extolled glorious soul by portraying the dark reality under Purita

32、nism in the 17th century.3 (P92) through this novel, the characters and situations have helped us to understand the sin and atonement.II. The Suffering and Atonement of Hester PrynneA. The Suffering of Hester PrynneHester has married. Her husband, a scholar much older than she is, sent her ahead of

33、him to Boston, but he has not arrived for a long time. As is most likely, her husband may be at the bottom of the sea. She is youthful and fair, and doubtless was strongly tempted to her fall. While waiting for her husband, Hester has apparently had an affair, as she has given birth to a child. She

34、disobeys God by committing adultery which is an extremely sinful act according to God and is unforgivable. In such a situation, Hester forgets Gods instruction and is completely degenerated. According to tom Waltson, the nature of sin is evil: Firstly, sin fouls people; sin is not only a flaw, but a

35、lso a contamination. Sin to soul is the same as rust to gold. It is just like a blemish on a beautiful thing. The Bible compares sin with “plague” (1King 8, 38). Sin fouls Gods image and stain the pure of soul. Secondly, Sin makes God worry. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4, 30).

36、Sin is deliberately an affliction to God. God doesnt like sin because sin makes God be insulted. Thirdly, sin is contrary to God. A sinner trends on Gods principle and violates Gods decree.Fourthly, sin brings evil. Sin is like the Trojan horse which has a common outlook and terrible things inside.L

37、astly, sinners who dont repent will die out. Unrepentant sin brings about “the second death” (Revelation 20, 14) (Xi Tong Shen Xue)Sin is evil and a sinner who must be punished. She must atone for it to get the forgiveness from God.Suffering is a kind of way to atone for sin. Suffering is Gods mercy

38、 to his children because he gives them a way to clean their sin from their body and mind. Thus his children will live more happily ultimately.Suffering should be regarded as a necessity in ones private life, family life, and social life and so on. One enjoys love, friendship, money, health, marriage

39、, sex, job, etc and when any of these things is lost suffering comes.Suffering includes the following:Suffering of loss of health-physical pain, fever, paralysis, deaf, blindness, mute, etc. Suffering of the lack of daily necessities - food, clothing, shelter, etc.Suffering from the nature - floods,

40、 earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, storms, as well as freezing or hot weather, volcanoes and blizzards.Suffering from mental agony - worry, sorrow, fear, anguish, jealousy, etc.Suffering of being treated unfairly by law, regulation and standard or by other people. Everyone in this world must suffer

41、. You can find this opinion in The Imitation of Christ:“Wherever you are, wherever you go, you are miserable unless you turn to God. So why be dismayed when things do not happen as you wish and desire? Is there anyone who has anything as he wishes? There is no one in the world, be he Pope or king, w

42、ho doesnt suffer trial or anguish.”(Chapter 22: Thoughts on the Misery of Man). The reason for suffering is the original sin and crimes that people commit. And only through suffering can one get merit and learn experience. After death, they will go to the heaven and see God. So suffering in ones lif

43、e is not Gods way to show cruelty to man. On the contrary, it is Gods kindness. He is good, his love endures forever. Suffering is controlled by sin not God, it is to prove sins nature and makes one realize his sinful acts to avoid committing sins. In this way, God let people know that he doesnt giv

44、e up anybody. He just wants to educate his people and his final purpose is to save his people.So Hester must suffer. Only through suffering could she be forgiven and saved by God. Each suffers are in her benefits.As the crowds watch, Hester holding an infant emerges from the prison door and makes he

45、r way to a scaffold (a raised platform), where she is to be publicly condemned. The women in the crowd make disparaging comments on Hester; they particularly criticize her for the ornate ness of the embroidered badge on her chesta letter “A” stitched in gold and scarlet. From the womens conversation

46、s and Hesters reminiscences as she walks through the crowd, we can deduce that she has committed adultery and has borne an illegitimate child, and that the scarlet ”A” on her dress stands for “adulterer”. The beadle calls Hester forth. Children taunt her and adults stare.This is Hesters first suffer

47、ing. Although it is no great distance from the prison-door to the market place, to Hester Prynne it is reckoned a journey of some length. She finally stands on the scaffold and is crowded by people who are somber and grave. She must give herself the energy to stand steadily when seeing peoples relen

48、ting eyes concentrating upon her bosom. She perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her as if her heart has been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.Although people dont abuse her with terrible words, this spiritual abuse is more severe

49、 than that. Hester feels uneasy by this kind of rigid countenances and she tries to make the scarlet “A” as beautiful as an ornament which is described by the crowds: “the pang of it will always in her heart”. Furthermore, she sees her husband in the crowd. This makes her feel bad and even frightens her severely.Then she is sent back to the jail. On seeing her husband Chillingworth come in, she immediately becomes as