Nathaniel Hawthorne

and The Scarlet Letter

Teaching Objectives

Understand Hawthorne’s Creation Study the main characters and theme in the n

ovel; Study the main writing techniques in The Sca

rlet Letter, esp. symbolism; Understand the tradition of American Literatur

e influenced by Puritanism;

Teaching Procedures

Brief Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Major Works

A General Introduction to The Scarlet Letter Analysis of the main characters, symbols and

theme Interprete Chapter V

Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)

Romantic novelist, short-story writer

First great American writer of fiction to work in the moralistic tradition. Combined the American romanticism with puritan moralism

Life Introduction

Hawthorne was born on the fourth of July, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, into a prominent Puritan family and a declined aristocratic family as well.

His father, a sea captain, died of yellow fever in 1808, leaving at Salem a widow and three children in poverty. With the financial support from his more prosperous maternal relationships, Hawthorne was able to read some books of those literary master minds, such as Shakespeare, Spenser, which were essential for his formation as a writer.

Major Works The House of Seven Gables 《有七个尖角阁的房子》 Young Goodman Brown 《好小伙子布郎》 Mosses from an Old Manse 《古屋青苔》 The Scarlet Letter 《红字》

Hawthorne’s Sayings

There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.

The wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones. （因果报应）

A piece of literary work should show how we are wronged and wrongers, and avenge one another.

Artistic Features the structures and the form of his writing are alwa

ys carefully worked out. his novel is thoughtful, full of mental activities. wit

h his special interest in the psychological aspect of human beings, there isn’t much action while he is good at exploring the complexity of human psychology.

Hawthorne is a master of symbolism. The symbol can be found everywhere in his writing. .

Thematic Concerns

evil, guilt, sin Most of his works discuss the important issues

that concern the moral life of man and human history.

Hawthorne’s view of man and human history originates, to a great extent, in Puritanism. He was not a Puritan himself, but he had Puritan ancestors who played an important role in his life and works. He often wondered if he might have inherited some of their guilt. This sensibility led to his understanding of evil being at the very core of human life.

Structure of the novel Structure: compact in a tiny frame and impregnated with meaning. 2

4 chapters are closely knitted together by the scaffold scenes appearing three times.

The Custom house: introductory part Chapter 1: The prison door Chapter 2: market place Chapter 3: the recognition Chapter 4: the interview Chapter 5: Hester at her Needle Chapter 6: Pearl … Chapter 23 the revelation of the scarlet letter Chapter 24: conclusion

Characters Introduction

The Connotation of the Name

Hester Prynne: First, Hester reminds the reader Hestier ---the Goddess of Beauty in Greek fairy, showing the author’s praise to Hester’s beauty and saint, Goddess-like beauty. Second, the pronunciation of Hester is very close to hastier (the comparative degree form of hasty), here the author implies that her marriage is haste, her love with Dimmesdale is haste, and to the extreme, her joy with the priest is haste.

Arthur Dimmesdale

First, Arthur reminds the reader of Adam, human beings ancestor who committed the Original Sin with Eve in the Garden of Eden, Arthur Dimmesdale, the initials AD are the beginning of “Adultery”;

Secondly, “Dim” means lack of light,” dale” Means valley, which symbolizes the minister’s dim-interior world of his love and the shadow of sin and guilty of his mind. Arthur Dimmesdale means someone who committed adultery but dares cowardly to confess his sin or crime, and has to conceal it in the shadow and suffer it interiorly.

Roger Chillingworth

Roger Chillingworth has two aspects. “Roger” is the homonymic of Rogue (hoodlum, scoundrel, bully), which expresses his act to his wife; “Chilling” means chilly. “Worth” tells us Roger’s act is, to some extend, worth/valuable----the author’s contradictory psychology to Puritanism.

Pearl “Pearl” has many symbolic meaning. First, it me

ans treasure--- the treasure to her mother. Second, pearl is the homonymic of purl (stream), Pearl’s fate and life is like the purl in the forest, mysterious, can only flow in the forest, seldom bathe the sunshine.

Characterization

Hester Prynne:

strong-willed, contemplative;independent;maternal; intelligentArthur Dimmesdale

loving, conscientious, reluctant to repent,Emotional and eloquent in preachingRoger Chillingworth

cold; indifferent; revenged; evil; malevolentPearl

innocent, perceptive, insightful

 

Hester at her Needle (main plot)

Her term of imprisonment was over, Hester is now free to go anywhere in the world, yet she does not leave Boston; instead, she chooses to move into a small, seaside cottage on the outskirts of town. She supports herself and Pearl through her skill as a seamstress. Her work is in great demand for clothing worn at official ceremonies and among the fashionable women of the town — for every occasion except a wedding. Despite the popularity of her sewing, however, Hester is a social outcast. The target of vicious abuse by the community, she endures the abuse patiently. Ironically, she begins to believe that the scarlet A allows her to sense sinful and immoral feelings in other people.

Para 1 To her sick and morbid heart, how did she look at the su

nshine when she went out of the prison-door?

The sun seems to her as though it has no other purpose than to expose the letter A on her chest.

What are her complicated feelings toward the law? To destroy her and encourage her as well.

Notice Hester’s worrying about her future fate

She thinks about the future spread out before of her, knowing she will become a symbol of female passion and frailty for the entire town.

Para 2 the narrator’s questions

1. What are the narrator’s wonders?

It may seem marvellous…(no limits of her staying here, this woman would still call this place her home…)

2. According to the narrator, what are Hester’s choices?

free to…, to hide her character…, to avoid the punishment of the law

3. Why is the narrator marvellous at Hester Prynne’s decision? And how he convinces himself?

The narrator gets a bit long-winded as he wonders why a woman would remain at the scene of her public humiliation. He philosophizes that humans are drawn to the places where "some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime," and dark events are even more "irresistible"

这事说来令人不可思议：既然她的判决词中没有限制她不得超越清教徒居民区的条款，那么在这片边远偏僻的土地之外，她面对着整个世界，原可以自由地回到她的出生地或任何其它欧洲国家，改头换面，隐姓埋名，一切从新开始；她还面对着通向阴森莫测的莽林的道路，也可以在那里逃脱制裁她的法律，使自己不驯顺的本性在生活习俗完全两样的民族中相得益彰。看来实在不可思议的是，她竟然仍把这地方视作自己的家园；而恰恰在这里，况且也只有在这里，她才会成为耻辱的典型。

但确实有一种天数，一种具有冥冥之力的如此不可抗拒和难以避免的感情，迫使人们象幽灵般出汲并滞留在发生过为他终生增色添辉、引人瞩目的重大事件的地方，而且那事件的悲伤色调愈浓，人们也就愈难以背离那块地方。她的罪孽，她的耻辱，便是她深扎于此地的根。她在这块土地上好象获得了比她降生人世更具融熔力量的新生，海丝特 ·白兰的这一新生把所有其他移民和飘泊者仍感到格格不入的森林地带，变成了她自己荒凉阴郁但却是终生安身立命之家。世界上别的景色，甚至包括她度过幸福的童年和无暇的少女时期的英格兰乡村——象是早巳换下的衣服，交给她母亲去保管了——，相比之下，那些地方在她眼里那是它乡异地了。将她束缚在这里的，是源源傲进她心灵深处的铁打的锁链，永远不可能断裂了。

Para 3 more descriptions of her inner heart

Her affection for Dimmesdale makes her stay here with no hesitation.

Here had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment

The torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and…

The changes of the narrative point of view

Para 1

(objective the third person point of view) Para 2

(subjective the narrator’s point of view) Para 3

(shift to the Heroine’s view)

Main idea of the following paragraphs Hester, meanwhile, makes a home in a small cottage on

the outskirts of town. She frightens children, because she is alone, shunned,

and wears this strange scarlet symbol on her breast. She makes a living by needlework. She is such a good seamstress that her work becomes

fashionable; her sinning hands embroider the details of clothes worn by the Massachusetts Bay governor, military men, ministers, and so on. Yet, she is never called to make or to embroider a single wedding gown for fear of symbolically staining the bride’s purity.

Perhaps as penance, Hester makes a lot of clothing for the poor. But even the poor (like the rich) think that she is beneath them because of her past.

Everywhere Hester goes, she is met with reminders of her adultery. If she enters a church, she may be the subject of the sermon.

As she goes about town, children mock her. Young women glance at the scarlet letter and then haughtily glance away. This is all not so much fun.

Hester feels really sad and disheartened. But sometimes, she wonders whether many more people shouldn’t have scarlet letters attached to their clothes.

Perhaps those who are the most judgmental should suffer the same punishment she suffers.

However, at the same time, a part of her believes that there is no greater sinner than herself.

Symbolism

What are the symbolic meanings of the following things?

letter “A” Each character Forest Prison/ scaffold Nights Sun

Symbolic Meanings in The Scarlet Letter

The novel started with the embroidery letter A Hester wore and ended with the scarlet letter A engraved in the tombstone. Thus, the letter A is penetrated through the novel. The symbolic A is ambiguous. A critic analyzes its meanings from the following five aspects:

A1 = Adultery （通奸）→ Apple(苹果 ) （文本意义） A2= Arthur ( 情人亚瑟 ) →Adam(亚当 ) （情感意义） A3= Angel ( 天使 ) → Able(能干 ) （审美意义） A4 =Amicable ( 和睦友好的女人 ) →Admirable( 可尊敬的 女人 ) 群体层意义 A5= America (政教合一时代的美国 ) →Authority (上帝的 群为 ) 政体层意义

The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. The letter’s meaning shifts as time passes. Originally intended to mark Hester as an adulteress, the “A” eventually comes to stand for “Able” or “Angel”.

Besides Hester, Dimmesdale also ironed the letter A on his body, which provoked his self-consciousness and showed his repent for what he did.

Pearl, their baby, wore a green letter A in a piece of seaweed while playing on the beach. This green letter A symbolizes vitality or new life, and also suggests her inheritance from her mother.

Symbolism "A"

"adultery", a token of shame a sign of Hester's "ability" "Angel" appearing in the sky "adamic", since the sin is prehistoric and human the rising " America"

Hester: Western (blonde beauty), able to reconstruct her life and win a moral victory; forest, solitude, wilderness around her

Dimmesdale: refined settlement, civilized yet effete, undergoing a spiritual disintegration

Chillingworth: pure intellect, the old world of evil, who commits the "unpardonable sin" the violation of the human heart

Pearl: the rising nation; vital spirit and passion

The Symbolic Meaning of Pearl

(vital spirit and passion that engendered from sin)

Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Yet, even as a reminder of Hester’s “sin,” Pearl is more than a mere punishment to her mother: she is also a blessing. She represents not only “sin” but also the vital spirit and passion that engendered that sin.

Thus, Pearl’s existence gives her mother reason to live, bolstering her spirits when she is tempted to give up. It is only after Dimmesdale is revealed to be Pearl’s father that Pearl can become fully “human.”

Other scenes with symbolic meanings

Prison -- the black flower of civilized society (crime and punishment of civilized society)

Scaffold-- is not only a symbol of the stern Puritan code for Hester accepted the punishment, but also becomes a symbol for the open acknowledgment of personal sin. It is the place to which Dimmesdale knows he must go for atonement, the only place where he can escape the grasp of Chillingworth or of the devil.

Nights--is used as a symbol for concealment, and the day for exposure; Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold to give out his pain at nights; and in the end confesses his guilt and sin in the day.

Forests--is a symbol of darkness and devil. It is a place where witches gather, where souls are signed away to the devil, and where Dimmesdale can “yield himself with deliberate voice”.

Sun-- is used as of untroubled, guiltless happiness, or the approval of God and Nature. It shines on Pearl, but flees away from Hester and from Dimmesdale, even in the forest.

Themes and tone

Themes: Puritans (moral issue, emotional issue), the protagonists Hester and Prynne(love, original sin, atonement, death,and immortality), Chillingworth (revenge)

Tone: Varies—contemplative and somewhat bitter in

the introduction;

thoughtful, fairly straightforward, yet occasionally tinged with irony in the body of the narrative;

Techniques:

a. narrator: The narrator is an unnamed customhouse surveyor who writes some two hundred years after the events he describes took place. He has much in common with Hawthorne but should not be taken as a direct mouthpiece for the author’s opinions.

b. point of view  · The narrator is omniscient, because he analyzes the characters and tells the story in a way that shows that he knows more about the characters than they know about themselves. Yet, he is also a subjective narrator, because he voices his own interpretations and opinions of things. He is clearly sympathetic to Hester and Dimmesdale.

c. A strong fairy-tale element and supernatural element

The Role of Circumstance

Chillingworth’s failure to return. After their marrige, Hester went to Boston alone, and she failed to expect Chillingworth’s coming.

People’s Attitude All the people, including the governor, the priest and nei

ghbours showed their ridiculous and indifferent attitudes towards her, which aroused her rebellious spirits.

Suffering from severeal years of insult, Hester finally got acknowledged by the society. Especially, those women who had blamed her before showed respecr for her now. Women began to realize that they are the victims of patriarchy society and puritanism.

Puritanism (another theme)

Puritanism stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity and limited atonement from God’s grace. With such doctrines in their mind, Puritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were God’s people, who would enjoy God’s blessing on earth and in Heaven; they felt that they were exiles under the special grace of God to establish a theocracy in the New World. Over the years in the new homeland, they built a way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety.

Anti-Puritanism by Hawthorne (Hatred and Respect)

Through challenging Puritanism, Hawthorne establishes

his own “Puritanism”:

1. Their religious doctrines VS he believes in men’s ability

to redeem themselves or advocates individuality.

2. Their rigid, inhuman attitude toward life and enjoyment:

suppress men’s all desires, live a hard, disciplined and

ascetic life, discriminate men’s rights for happiness. VS

stress men’s rights and desires for pleasure.

3. Their hypocrisy VS clergymen commiting crimes against

their preaching and beliefs.

different results of the film and the novel “我们难道不能再相会了吗？”她俯下身去，把脸靠近他

的脸，悄声说。“我们难道不能在一起度过我们永恒的生命吗？确确实实，我们已经用这一切悲苦彼此赎救了！你用你那双明亮的垂死的眼睛遥望着永恒！那就告诉我，你都看见了什么？”

　　“别作声，海丝特，别作声！”他神情肃穆，声音颤抖地说。“法律，我们破坏了！这里的罪孽，如此可怕地揭示了！——你就只想着这些好了！我怕！我怕啊！或许是，我们曾一度忘却了我们的上帝，我们曾一度互相冒犯了各自灵魂的尊严，因此，我们希望今后能够重逢，在永恒和纯洁中结为一体，恐怕是徒劳的了。上帝洞察一切；而且仁慈无边！他已经在我所受的折磨中，最充分地证明了他的仁慈。

他让我忍受这胸前灼烧的痛楚！他派遣那边那个阴森可怖的老人来，使那痛楚一直火烧火燎！他把我带到这里，让我在众人面前，死在胜利的耻辱之中！若是这些极度痛苦缺少了一个，我就要永世沉沦了！赞颂他的圣名吧！完成他的意旨吧！别了！” 　　随着这最后一句话出口，牧师吐出了最后一口气。到此时始终保持静默的人们，进出了奇异而低沉的惊惧之声，他们实在还找不出言辞，只是用这种沉沉滚动的声响，伴送着那辞世的灵魂。

Further Discussion Work

Discuss the relationship between the scarlet letter and Hester’s identity. Why does she repeatedly refuse to stop wearing the letter? What is the difference between the identity she creates for herself and the identity society assigns to her?

Describe Chillingworth’s “revenge.” Why does he choose to torture Dimmesdale and Hester when he could simply reveal that he is Hester’s husband? What does this imply about justice? About evil?

Further Discussion Work Children play a variety of roles in this novel. Pearl is both

a blessing and a curse to Hester, and she seems at times to serve as Hester’s conscience. The town children, on the other hand, are cruel and brutally honest about their opinion of Hester and Pearl. Why are children presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults? How do children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions?

Adultery is elegantly named extra-marital love affairs nowdays. How do you look at it morally and emotionally? If you oppose its existence, what measures can be taken to stop it?