论《红字》的清教观(1)学毕业论文网

Abstract

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s representative work, is a classical novel in American literature in the 19th century. The novel displays Puritanism’s great impact on people's life and thought. This thesis will give a picture of puritans’ life and ideology through the analysis of the Puritan town Boston and some related characters, and introduce how the communities in the town are deeply influenced by Puritanism. Meanwhile, by analyzing the main character Hester, the thesis will present the harshness and the strict punishment in Puritan society. In Puritan communities, whoever commits a sin will be punished. The thesis also presents Hawthorne’s attitude towards Puritanism. On one hand, he appreciates the Puritan thought and value; on the other hand, he condemns the negative impact of Puritan society on people’s spirit.
 
Key Words:  Puritanism, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Boston，Hester

 内容提要

霍桑的代表作〈〈红字〉〉是19世纪美国文学史上的一本古典小说。〈〈红字〉〉表现了清教主义传统在人们思想上和生活上的烙印，使人们对18世纪的美国社会有了一定的了解。在当时，一切都受到宗教的束缚，宗教有着神圣不可侵犯的权威。本论文通过对一些主要人物和波士顿小镇的分析向人们展示了清教徒的思想和他们的生活方式。交代了小镇上人们深受清教主义的影响。通过对主人公海丝特等人的分析揭示了清教社会的严酷以及严厉的刑罚制度。任何人无论谁犯了错都要受到惩罚。霍桑在一定程度上也受到清教主义的影响。一方面他肯定了宗教思想与价值，另一方面批判了清教社会对人的精神的负面影响。

关键词：清教主义；纳撒尼尔·霍桑；〈〈红字〉〉；波士顿；海斯特

Chapter1

Ⅰ.Introduction

A.    Puritans

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was written in 18th century. The setting of The Scarlet Letter is in the 17th century in Boston, America. Before proceeding to the analysis of the Puritanism in the novel, some fundamental definitions need to be established. Who were the Puritans? When did they arrive in the New World—America? How about their ideology and lifestyle? How about the author?

Puritan is the name given in the 16th century to the more extreme Protestants within the Church of England. These Protestants thought the English Reformation had not gone far enough in reforming the doctrines and structure of the church. They wanted to purify their church. In the 17th century many Puritans immigrated to the New World, where they sought to found a holy Commonwealth in New England. “The Puritans did not allow religious dissent (holding different religious belief).They insisted that high position,and achievements were signs of ‘eternal grace’, that is, favour of God, and they wanted to force God’s will on the rest of mankind.Puritan tradition also involved a respect for learning which led to the estalishment of schools and the spread of literacy.”[1] (P238) Puritanism remaines the dominant cultural force in that area into the 19th century.

B.    New England

According to historical data, in 1620, the English Monarchy, as eager to be rid of the Puritans as the Puritans were to be rid of the King, granted a group of Puritans a charter to make a settlement in the English colonies that is now the New England of America. There were economic incentives for the Puritan to move to the New World, including economic upheaval in Europe and the prospect of making a profit in America, but their chief incentive was religious: they would be able to practice their religion freely. So in late fall some 103 settlers sailed on the Mayflower and arrived in New England. Then in 1628, provoked by King Charles I’s increasing intolerance, another group of Puritans formed a business corporation, the Massachusetts Bay Company, for settlement of the New World. They arrived on Cape Ann, just north and east of what is now called Boston. Thirteen years later, about 1,000 English settlers, largely the Puritans, had immigrated to the Boston area. By 1643, there were some 20,000 in the general area of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, making Boston the largest and the most prosperous Puritan town in America.

Considering the large number of all these Puritan settlers, their wide distribution and their strong faith, religious and daily life in the new American colonies, especially in Boston, was mainly of Puritan color. In addition, religious doctrine became civil law, and the rule of the leaders was absolute. While the whole of New England was largely Puritan, it is those who settled in and around Boston, who influenced American culture profoundly and of whom Nathanial Hawthorne wrote.

C.    Puritans ideology and lifestyle

On the other hand, Puritan ideology is very important for Puritans for they designed their lives after that. The puritans believed in the majesty, righteousness and sovereignty of God. They regard him as omniscient and omnipotent. In contrast,all human beings were depraved sinners. They believed that God had predestined some of these fallen creatures for the gift of salvation. This status of the elected or non-elected signified God’s choosing of those to whom the grace of salvation was to be offered. The Puritans took the scripture, and the sermons as God’s own words, which they interpreted, following the works of the French Peter Ramus, in the most accurate way, and expected all Puritans to live strictly following these parameters.It did not mean that sinners could save themselves, but the elect could improve their souls. Two of the main points of Puritan theology are the covenants of grace and work. The covenant of grace required a faith in God, and that God himself gave the elect to grasp. The covenant of work, on the contrary, depended only on human action. Although the Puritans believed in predetermination they did not wait their God-given fate. They spent their whole life trying to find out their destiny, whether it might be heaven or hell. Work, even if it did not guarantee salvation, was their way to express their faith and to show their hope for heaven.Everyone who did not work was deprived of the high morality and a good life.

However, Puritans paid much attention to their education. They thought that only those who were able to read the Bible would find religious truth. The Bible was read and interpreted very accurately and strictly. And this truth, that was to be found by accurate interpretation, was synonymous with a good life. Although the Puritans have been very strict in religious way, on the other hand they could be quite tolerant. The grade of tolerance was dependent to the extent of the appropriate thing. For example they condemned the drunkard, but not the consumption of alcohol itself. And they did not taboo sexuality, as long as it was sexuality between husband and wife and not extramarital sexuality. But the strict Puritan code was far from tolerant. Relationship between men and women was very constrained and that are what made adultery such a bad sin in the eyes of everyone who in the community believed that their fate was controlled by God. Public discipline and punishment were used to discourage everyone else from committing the same crime or sin as the offending criminal did. The community was to follow the belief of God and to do their duties the best they could, yet were there to criticize and punish all who disobeyed the religion or laws.

Church was the cornerstone of the 17th century life in New England. Everything was very strict and everyone was expected to follow the laws. It was against the law not to attend church—where men and women sat on opposite sides through long services. The Puritan lifestyle was restrained and rigid: People were expected to work hard and repress their emotions or opinions. Individual differences were frowned upon. Even the dark, somber Puritan dress was dictated by the church.

D.    Hawthorn’s family background

As one of the most influential Romantic novelists in America in the 19th century, “Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works mostly describe the people’s mental attitude, thought contradiction and life tragedy under Calvinistic pressure by the cruel clericalism domination in the colonial period. Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, his hometown, has ever been the place where Puritanism forces are rampant and several generations of his ancestors are fanatic Puritans; therefore, the rich Puritanism thought from his family has deep-rooted effect on Hawthorne. Because Puritanism itself owns the complicated state that positivism and negativism are coexistent, Hawthorne has doubtful or religious attitude to Puritanism. Hawthorne is inclined to conservation in political thought, and holds pessimism for future. On one hand, he assails Puritan criminal behaviors such as religious fanaticism and impermissibility to heresy; on the other hand, he takes the religious basic creed as the criterion to cognition and judgment.” [2](P65) The contradictive mentality is typically and deeply represented in his masterpiece “The Scarlet Letter”. His family was of Puritan belief for generations and had been prominent in the area since colonial times. Hawthorne knew Bible very well and went to church frequently. When he was four, his father died on a voyage, but maternal relatives recognized his literary talent and financed his education. As a boy he went to the East Salem Church, which was described as “on the verge of Unitarism”. During his study in the Bowdin College, among his classmates were many of the important literary and political figures of the day: writer Horatio Bridge, future Senator Jonathan Ciley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and future President Franklin Pierce. These prominent friends supplied Hawthorne with government employment in the lean times, allowing him time to bloom as an author. Later, when he served as a Consul in England, he attended services at a Unitarian church in Liverpool. But, it could not be more typical for a Puritan that he could not get along with the religious rituals and ceremonies, like, for example, funerals. He simply had these Puritan aversions that already caused the Puritans to split from the Anglican Church. He simplely wanted to have a small regular income that would allow him to forget everything, which was not important to him.

The rich lore of family and local history provided much of the material for Hawthorne’s works. The majority of his works takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to the greatest effect. Hawthorne perhaps chose this dark subject to convey his contempt for Puritanism. He indicates that his main purpose is to picture a way of “life” in the Salem Custom House, the satirical “the Custom House” became the critically acclaimed prologue to The Scarlet Letter, not before described. While not recognized by Hawthorne himself as his most important work, the novel is regarded not only as his greatest accomplishment, but also frequently as the greatest novel in America literary history. After it was published in 1850, critics hailed it as initiating a distinctive American literary tradition.

Chapter 2

Ⅱ.Puritanism in the novel 

A.The summary of the story

The novel, The Scarlet Letter, is about the struggle three people face while trying to live their lives and find happiness in a Puritan society.  It told the story 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 .But 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 town's priest, engages in the act of adultery and produce a baby girl named Pearl. Although only Hester know that Dimmesdale is the father, she has promised Dimmesdale not to reveal his identity. Hester is put on display in front of the entire town in order to punish her, and to also serve as an illustration to the town's 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 "Adultery" forever. Hester's 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 identity of Hester's partner in sin. Hester agrees to keep his true identity a secret, too. "From main idea of this story, it's 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 Puritanism in the 17th century."[3] (P92) Through this novel, the characters and situations have helped to describe the Puritan town Boston and Puritanism.

B.Hester,one of the victims of Puritanism

Firstly, Hester Prynne, one of the main characters, who in order to pursuit her own real love is convicted of adultery and is condemned to wear The Scarlet Letter “A” on her chest as a permanent sign of her sin. In modern society, Hester has done nothing wrong. She is brave and of graceful nature. She isn’t hide her own feeling and to love Dimmesdale bravely and commit a sin. But in the Puritan society, Hester should have kept adherence to her husband, even she had not a bit love for him. And furthermore, she should kill her natural love within her, instead of letting it released and committing such a sin at Boston. After Hester commits the sin, the Puritan society immediately enforced its law against her. “Hester betrayed her husband and went against the principle of honesty on Puritan, so she must accept the severe penalty in the Puritan society at that time.”〔[4] (47) Besides to wear the red letter, she must suffer public shame on the scaffold.

The beliefs of the general public at that time can easily be summed up in the first scaffold scene, which also gives a prospective of what Hester Prynne must deal with. “On the summer morning when our story begins its course, that the women, of whom there were several in the crowd, appeared to take a peculiar interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue.”[5] (P42) For the public, Hester’s punishment is reasonable. They don’t pay any pity on her, but take her punishment as one way of amusing themselves. It is a typical phenomenon of Puritanism thought. And the introduction of the words “Boston”,“Cornhill” ,“King’s introduction” also brings to the mind a picture of historic Boston and early American Puritanism. Boston, a staunch Puritanical town, is a moralistic and gloomy place where the citizens dress in drab colors and lack any liveliness. Even on the Election Day holiday, they cannot relax and enjoy themselves. Here the stonehearted Puritans are about to denounce Hester. She is forced to stand on a high platform, called scaffold, in full view of everyone, as a public penance for committing adultery. One of the women said, “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead.”[6](P43) How stonehearted they are.

Later the official sentenced Hester to stand for three hours on the platform of the pillory and for the rest of her life, to wear The Scarlet Letter “A” on her bosom.The Puritan communities were formed in a theocratic state where the Church and State share authority, and having equal responsibility for keeping law and order in the colony. This is based on the social order pictured in the Old Testament, and scholarly clergymen such as John Wilson and Arthur Dimmesdale, the English university graduates, explain it. Emphasis is placed on the Biblical Covenant, which promised obedience to elect leaders. They were “magistrates” in the Puritan colony. Such social order helps to explain that the different professions represented by the different characters.For example,the Governor,a military man, and the ministers assembled on the balcony overlooking the scaffold. The Scriptures demand death for adultery, and the Puritan laws closely follow the Biblical pattern. Thus, Hester’s crime of adultery is punished to death. Since her husband (Dr. Prynne) is reported to be dead, the magistrates extend to her what they consider to be great mercy.

This scene also shows the weight of values and morals upon society in the 17th century where public punishment was not only used as a punishment but as a way to discourage others from committing the same crime. The community was the key helper in making this punishment because it didn’t helped to alienate Hester but to further her pain. The punishment brought forth of Hester's underlying pain, Hester sent forth a cry then she turned her eyes downward at The Scarlet Letter, and even touched it with her finger to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. This pain only broke surface once,yet throughout the whole story Hester must deal with the shame and emotional pain of The Scarlet Letter.The stranger summed it up best with the quotation, Thus she would be a living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone. Near in the end of Chapter XIV;Chillingworth says to Hester that, since her first step in the wrong direction, “it has all been a dark necessity …”[7](P147) He refers to the consequences of her action. Hester’s disobedience to God’s will is her act of adultery, a fearful word on Puritan days, for this act against fidelity in marriage endangers the very basis and strength of the Puritan life.

C.Hester’s rebellion to the Puritanism

Secondly, if we have a glimpse of Hester’s state of mind and her attitude towards her sin during her punishment in scaffold; it is evident that Hester does not feel that she has sinned against God. Partly this is so because God has never been a very real presence in her life. Even her lover, Dimmesdale just remains spiritually in her mind. Hester shows her rebellion against Puritanism to the community. This also can get approved by following stages. One is “her strong protest against her daughter being taken away from her”. Another is “her standing out in helping her lover, the weakened priest Dimmesdale against the leech, Roger Chillingworth. Hester’s bravely, in a large extent, brought much sunlight to the sober Puritanical society.”[8] (85) For one thing, she breaks a law for love of Dimmesdale. For another, she persists in loving him when he is in danger. In fact,one aspect of Puritanism is a Trinity with absolute power, controlling everything. Man has no real decisions to make things which concern the world around him, for God-at His whim-will completely decide for him. There is hope through the sacrifice of the Christ. But not all people are to be saved. The Doctrine of the Elect states that God choose some for heaven and in the same manner, allows others to go to hell. One does not exactly know who is destined for heaven, but hold the generally idea that reverends are sent by God to help people.As in the case of Dimmesdale, the highly reputable Boston minister there is a strong feeling that some sainted individuals are certainly fated to go heavenward. In The Scarlet Letter, part of Dimmesdale’s torture is his knowledge of his own sin, which was not confessed, will keep him from heaven. Faithfulness between husband and wife is important. Certainly a woman destined for heaven would never commit adultery as Hester Prynne did. She could not do so if she wished to, because her conduct is determined ahead of time. Then too, Hester and Arthur’s action are affected by predestination. Since Adam and Eva, man has lost the power to make decisions for himself, for the “original sin” disobedience to God’s will in the Garden of Eden. So man has lost the power of free will. God absolutely makes all the decisions. But Hester doesn’t think so. She believes one has the right to determine their own destiny. In rebellion against Puritanism, she achieves her goal and comes to understand that the society is not fixed by God in immutable law but is subject to change. So at the end of the story, the author Hawthorne arranges Hester back to the town which shows that Hester wants to give the puritan society a big-show of her victory against the Puritanism. She also gives others more and more understanding of her love of life. Although the Puritan believes that man is saved by faith, rather than by work, which is also seen in The Scarlet Letter. Over and over again, Hester aids those around her who need help. She especially makes great efforts to nurse and sew for the poor. However, often this group repays her by taunting her with bitter words. And in the official estimation of the Puritans, it is impossible for Hester to advance her standing by helping others.

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