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Bibliography19
Acknowledgements.20
I. Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is a worldwide renowned American writer of fiction. Herman Melville hails him as the “American Shakespeare”. He not only creates quite a few classic novels, but also writes lots of thought-provoking short stories.
Hawthorne’s works mainly include four romances: The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun, three short story collections: Twice-Told tales, Moss from an Old Manse, and The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales, and two myth collections: A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys and Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys. Also, his collection of stories displays stylistic freshness and a keen interest in American subject matter instead of the continental literature and life . So he is acclaimed as “one of the first American novelists” by critics. He originally gains insights into the local legends, scenery, inhabitants together with their experiences and thoughts and reveals a persity of themes in his work. One theme is concerned with Hawthorne’s negative attitude towards the scientific development. He condemns the morally irresponsible scientific research and creates images of a certain inhuman scientist. Another theme is that of male withdrawal from marriage. Besides, Hawthorne tends to depict the complexity of the human heart in contradiction. Some other themes involve Hawthorne’s religious belief, his moral vision, and his feminist ideas. Hawthorne also “stands out for his graceful and polished writing styles”. With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Hawthorne is regarded as the most accomplished American storyteller and novelist. The publication of The Scarlet Letter marks the maturity of Hawthorne in novel writing not only because of the creative symbols, ambiguous art, but also because of his psychological seriousness, structural unity and poetic languages in it. The novel arouses a literary sensation in the United States and Great Britain. Henry James not only regards The Scarlet Letter as Hawthorne’s masterpiece, but also considers it “the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country”.
The plot in The Scarlet Letter is a triangular love affair set in the 17th century Boston. 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 has not joined her in the colony. The consensus is that has been lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair 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 refuses to reveal the name of the child’s 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 the pillory, wearing 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 then disguises himself as a physician and changes his name 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 sin and hypocrisy, Dimmesdale is fearful of the consequences of confession, which would be more severe for the 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 and withers spiritually as well as physically.