[教育]英美文學(xué)ppt課件6.nathanielhawth

1、Nathaniel Hawthorne （July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864),American novelist and short story writer,Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. H

2、is fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep

3、psychological complexity.,Features of His Works,A. sense of sin and evil (sin and punishment)B. tension between head (intellect) and heart (emotion),The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne,,The Scarlet Letter (1850) is

4、a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, considered to be his masterpiece. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery and struggles to create a new l

5、ife of repentance and dignity.,About the novel,Hawthorne creates a sense of ambiguity or uncertainty in readers, using metaphors to create this effect.The novel is not realistic — characters are symbols, not real people

6、The novel may be considered an allegory, a tale in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities.,Although commonly called a novel,Considered to be a “romance”Concerned with “intern

7、al truths” or “truths of the human heart”Use of imagination rather than realistic representationsEmbellishes relationship between human and nature,Hawthorne called the novel a “romance”—not tied to ordinary experience.

8、,Hawthorne makes this distinction because at the time he was writing, novels were supposed to deal with realistic representations of human experiences or external truths. Romances allowed the author to deviate from reali

9、ty in favor of imagination.Thus The Scarlet Letter is not an historical novel about Puritan Boston, but a romance set 200 years before Hawthorne’s time in which he tells a tale that may have occurred, given some histori

10、cal facts and many insights into human nature.,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 communit

11、ies.,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.,The Scarlet Letter: Background,Puritans sought the freedom t

12、o live by their beliefs.,However, the Puritan leaders did not tolerate religious beliefs that differed from their own.,The Puritans believed that all things are controlled beforehand by the will of God. This doctrine is

13、called predestination.,No one could know for certain if they were destined to receive salvation.,The Scarlet Letter: Background,However, a good Puritan still had to live as pure and righteous a life as possible—and to w

14、atch for signs of sinfulness in others.,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 o

15、f life was truly private.,People kept a close watch on their neighbors.,The Scarlet Letter: Background,Those considered sinners were publicly—and harshly—punished, as an example to others.,In Boston, the laws of the chur

16、ch were the laws of the state. A Puritan could be whipped, banished from town, or imprisoned for offenses.,Laws prohibited everything from swearing to excessive decoration on women’s caps to murder,It was illegal to mis

17、s church on Sabbath days安息日. It was also illegal to sleep during sermons布道 that could run 3 or more hours long – during each session (morning and afternoon) on a Sabbath.Virtually any offense could land you in the pillo

18、ry, or stocks. The Puritans imported this punishment to New England from England.,一位年輕的女孩赫絲特·普林（Hester Prynne）出生于英格蘭。她有深黑的眼睛，烏黑的頭發(fā)，令人非常的著迷。她嫁給一個(gè)年老的醫(yī)生、學(xué)者羅格·齊靈窩斯（Roger Chillingworth）。當(dāng)時(shí)是英國人移民新大陸的熱潮，齊靈窩斯決定定居到美國波士頓

19、。他讓赫絲特·普林先行出發(fā)，老學(xué)者兩年后才前往美國。這時(shí)赫絲特卻和他人通奸，生下一名女兒珠兒（Pearl）。按清教徒的法律，犯了通奸罪，要在胸前佩帶紅Ａ字。,《紅字》故事梗概,,赫絲特孤苦頑強(qiáng)地生活著，靠著刺繡維生。齊靈窩斯在替牧師丁米司兌爾（Arthur Dimmesdale）治病時(shí)，終于發(fā)現(xiàn)丁米司兌爾就是那位姘頭，想置之死地。牧師長期受到內(nèi)心世界的折磨，更為自己偽善的角色感到厭惡。七年的精神折磨之后，在一次新市長就職盛大典

20、禮中，他終于向世人坦承他所犯的罪，隨即氣絕死在赫絲特懷里。赫絲特帶著珠兒遠(yuǎn)走他鄉(xiāng)。幾年后珠兒長大成人，嫁人去了。赫絲特再回到波士頓，仍帶著那個(gè)紅色的Ａ字，把紅字變成了道德、光榮的象征，一直到老死。,,The novel begins with the narrator, a Custom House official, who happens to find a scarlet letter “A” in a box he finds

21、one day in the office. The narrator then relates the story of Hester Prynne, the original bearer of the scarlet letter, who lived in Boston when it was just a small Puritan settlement in the seventeenth century.,,Hester’

22、s story begins on a scaffold just outside the town prison. She has committed adultery, given birth to a child out of wedlock, and refuses to name the man with whom she had the affair. The village leaders hope to shame h

23、er into naming her lover by making her into a public spectacle. Even under intense pressure, Hester refuses to reveal her secret. She alone must bear the shame and isolation resulting from her actions. As a punishment,

24、Hester is made to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest at all times. The letter “A” stands for adultery and causes her and her daughter to be scorned by the members of her community.,Hester’s former husband returns to

25、witness Hester’s shame. He decides to seek revenge against the man who, in his opinion, ruined Hester’s life and stole his wife from him.,Chillingworth eventually determines that Dimmesdale is the father of Hester’s daug

26、hter, Pearl. He plots an elaborate scheme in order to avenge the wrong he perceives was committed by Dimmesdale.,Hester discovers Chillingworth’s plan to torture Dimmesdale on a daily basis, and recognizes that Dimmesdal

27、e’s health is significantly impacted by the revenge plot. Her secret is slowly killing the minister. As a result, Hester must break the promise she made years ago to never reveal the identity of Chillingworth in order to

28、 save Dimmesdale’s life.,She reveals Chillingworth’s true identity to Dimmesdale and begs for his forgiveness. She expresses her desire for Dimmesdale to leave the country for his own safety, but Dimmesdale does not want

29、 to be alone. Hester offers to leave with him, and they plan to leave on a ship bound for Europe in three days.,The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and

30、Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Heste

31、r and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead ju

32、st after Pearl kisses him.,The Scarlet Letter: analysis of the theme,,,What happens when a private sin becomes a public crime?,The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of the sin on

33、 people.,Theme,The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in knowledge of what

34、 it means to be human.,Although Puritan society condemns Hester, Dimmesdale “adds hypocrisy to sin” by refusing to admit the affair, which enflames his internal torment until he confesses. Only when Dimmesdale climbs th

35、e scaffold in the town square and confesses is he free.,Hawthorne clearly indicates that Chillingworth's sin of tormenting Dimmesdale is greater than Dimmesdale's sin of adultery with his wife. His vengefulness

36、and evil disposition are revealed in his cruel manipulation and torture of Dimmesdale.,SymbolismGenerally speaking, a symbol is anything which is used to represent some thing other than itself. In literature, it is mos

37、t often a concrete object which is used to represent something broader and more abstract---often a moral, religious, or philosophical concept or value.,“The Scarlet Letter” is usually regarded as the first symbolic novel

38、 to be written in the United States.?,The town magistrates sentenced Hester to wear the scarlet “A” for the rest of her life so all would recognize her as an adulteress. Over time, however, newcomers did not know the his

39、tory of Hester’s badge and asked its significance.Some townspeople remembered its origin, but others forgot, or transformed its meaning to indicate “able” in deference to Hester’s steady performance of tasks benefiting

40、the sick and needy.,The letter “A”,,Just as the scarlet letter took on new significance during Hester’s lifetime, so may it hold meanings beyond those associated specifically with Hester’s sin.Within the novel, the “A”

41、might be enlarged to embrace all those who, like Hester, have been alienated or who feel alone. It might even be interpreted to symbolize America, a country born in the sin of revolution but which eventually prospered—j

42、ust like Pearl.,Symbols of letter “A”:,1. Adultery(私通，Between Prynne and Dimmesdale); 2. Admirable（Prynne's iron and her behavior）; 3. Angel； 4. Able(才干)； 5. Apostle（基督教12大信徒）；6. Alone（inner loneliness）； 7. Ali