英美名篇赏析之红字

2.The Scarlet Letter: Background
Life in the Colonies was harsh, but it gave the Puritans the opportunity to form a society based on their religious ideals.
Hester succeeds to persuade Arthur to run away with her.
scene 5 Arthur confesses his sin and shows his scarlet "A".
He dies with peace through confession.
Laws prohibited everything from swearing to excessive decoration on women’s caps to murder
Brief Introduction
The Scarlet Letter follows the public shaming and punishment of a young woman named Hester Prynne in mid-17th century Boston.
2.The Scarlet Letter: Background
Puritans sought the freedom to live by their beliefs.
However, the Puritan leaders did not tolerate religious beliefs that differed from their own.
"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."
一片墨黑的土地， 一个血红的A
In other words, marked on the headstone is a scarlet letter A drawn over a black background.
• Protagonists: Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, both bearers of the scarlet letter of adultery, one public and one private. Hester Prynne, the bearer of the scarlet letter in public, is the central character of the book. However, the suspense of the story revolves around Dimmesdale and his private mark of adultery. • The antagonist is the effort to hide the identity of the male adulterer. The largest threat to Hester and Dimmesdale's secret is Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband. He wants to have his revenge on Hester's lover.
When Hester becomes pregnant, everyone believes her to be guilty of Adultery（通奸），she has been separated from her husband for two full years.
The judge and ministers order her to wear a scarlet letter "A" on her dress, so that everyone can know about her adultery.
scene 2 Hester recognizes her husband.
She is asked to keep secrete.
Her husband disguises himself as a doctor & adopts a fake name. seek revenge
scene 3
Roger keeps haunting his mind and soul.
Roger detects the minister as the lover.
scene 4
Arthur is afraid to confess. Hester realizes the evil of his husband and reveals the true identity of Roger to Arthur.
1
Introduction of Hawthorne
• 1.2 Major Works
• Fiction • The Blithedale Romance (1852,《福谷传奇》) • Mosses from an Old Manse (1846,《古屋青苔》) • The House of Seven Gables ( 1851,《七个尖角阁的房子》) • The Marble Faun (1857,《玉石雕像》) • The Scarlet Letter (1850, 《红字》) • Short Stories • The Minister’s Black Veil • Young Goodman Brown • Dr.Rappacini’s Daughter
The Scarlet Letter: Background
Those considered sinners were publicly—and harshly— punished, as an example to others.
In Boston, the laws of the church were the laws of the state. A Puritan could be whipped, banished from town, or imprisoned for offenses.
Chapter One: The Prison Door
• A large crowd of Puritans stands outside of the prison, waiting for the door to open. The prison is described as a, "wooden jail ... already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front." The iron on the prison is rusting and creates an overall appearance of decay. • Outside the building, next to the door, a rosebush stands in full bloom.
Why is the prison the setting of Chapter 1 and what is the implication of the description of the roses?
In the manner that Hawthorne describes it, the prison embodies the unyielding severity of puritan law: old, rusted, yet strong with an "ironclamped oaken door." Puritan law is coated in the rust of tradition and obsolete purpose. But despite the evolution of society, the laws have not kept up. As a result, the door remains tightly shut and iron-clamped. It seems it will take a superhuman force to somehow weaken the mores that control the society in which the story will take place.
2.The Scarlet Letter: Background The Puritans believed that all things are controlled beforehand by the will of God. This doctrine is called predestination. • No one could know for certain if they were destined to receive salvation. • However, a good Puritan still had to live as pure and righteous a life as possible—and to watch for signs of sinfulness in others.
2.The Scarlet Letter: Background
The setting of The Scarlet Letter is Boston in the 1640s. Persecuted in England, the Puritans came to North America to form their own communities.
scene 6 Hester and Pearl escape.
After Roger dies, he leaves all his money and property to Pearl.
Hester returned.
scene 7 When she dies, she is buried near the minister, and they share a gravestone.
The Scarlet Letter: Background
As for personal freedom… every member of the community was held to strict standards of behavior. In a Puritan community such as Hester’s, no aspect of life was truly private. People kept a close watch on their neighbors.
Protagonists
scene 1 Hester is released， holding her baby .
She is forced to paraded(游行示众) and displayed the scarlet “A”
She refuses to reveal the father's name.
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
2013—2014（I）
ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้
1
Introduction of Hawthorne
Nathaniel
• 1.1Life and Career
Hathorne.(1804-1864) Born in Massachusetts. Read a lot in his childhood 1821, Bowdoin College. New England history, his own family History Transcendental ideas, Ralph Waldo Emerson Frienship with Herman Melville (Moby Dick) Consulship in Liverpool and Manchester