The Scarlet Letter《红字》读后感.docx

1、The Scarlet Letter红字读后感The Scarlet LetterHistorical ContextThe Transcendentalist MovementThe Scarlet Letter, which takes as its principal subject colonial seventeenth-century New England, was written and published in the middle of the nineteenth century. Hawthorne began writing the novel in 1849, af

2、ter his dismissal from the Custom-House, and it was published in 1850. The discrepancy between the time represented in the novel and the time of its production has often been a point of confusion to students. Because Hawthorne took an earlier time as his subject, the novel is considered a historical

3、 romance written in the midst of the American literary movement called transcendentalism (c. 1836-60).The principle writers of transcendentalism included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and W. H. Channing. Transcendentalism was, broadly speaking, a reaction against the rat

4、ionalism of the previous century and the religious orthodoxy of Calvinist New England. Transcendentalism stressed the romantic tenets of mysticism, idealism, and individualism. In religious terms it saw God not as a distant and harsh authority, but as an essential aspect of the individual and the na

5、tural world, which were themselves considered inseparable. Because of this profound unity of all matter, human and natural, knowledge of the world and its laws could be obtained through a kind of mystical rapture with the world. This type of experience was perhaps most famously explained in Emersons

6、 Nature, where he wrote, I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part and parcel of God.Even though Hawthorne was close to many transcendentalists, including Emerson, and even though he lived for a while at the transcend

7、entalist experimental community of Brook Farm, he was rather peripheral to the movement. Hawthorne even pokes fun at Brook Farm and his transcendentalist contemporaries in The Custom-House, referring to them as his dreamy brethren indulging in fantastic speculation. Where they saw the possibilities

8、of achieving knowledge through mystical experience, Hawthorne was far more skeptical.Abolitionism and RevolutionMore important to Hawthornes literary productions, and particularly The Scarlet Letter, was abolitionism and European revolution. These, in Hawthornes view, were episodes of threatening in

9、stability. Abolitionism was the nineteenth-century movement to end slavery in the United States. Though it varied in intensity, abolitionism contained a very radical strain that helped to form a climate for John Browns capture of Harpers Ferry in 1859. (John Brown intended to establish a base for ar

10、med slave insurrection.) The rising intensity and violence of abolitionism was an important cause of the Civil War. Hawthornes conservative position in relation to abolitionism did not necessarily mean that he was pro-slavery, but he did quite clearly oppose abolitionists, writing that slavery was o

11、ne of those evils which divine Providence does not leave to be remedied by human contrivances.What Hawthorne feared were violent disruptions of the social order like those that were happening in Europe at the time he wrote The Scarlet Letter. The bloody social upheaval that most interested Americans

12、 began in France in 1848. This, and other revolutions of the period, pitted the lower and middle classes against established power and authority. While the revolutions eventually failed, they were largely waged under the banner of socialism, and it was this fact that caused concern in America; as on

13、e journalist wrote, as quoted by Bercovitch, here there were foreboding shadows of Communism, Socialism, Pillage, Murder, Anarchy, and the Guillotine vs. Law and Order, Family and Property. Critics have recently pointed to Hawthornes guillotine imagery in The Custom-House (where he even suggests the

14、 tidle The Posthumous Papers of a Decapitated Surveyor for his tale) and metaphors of his own victimization as some evidence of his sympathies with regard to revolution and social order.The Puritan ColoniesThe novel was written in the mid-nineteenth century, but it takes the mid-seventeenth century

15、for the events it describes (1642-49). The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by John Winthorp (whose death is represented near the center of the novel) and other Puritans in 1630. They sought to establish an ideal community in America that could act as a model of influence for what they saw a

16、s a corrupt civil and religious order in England. This sense of mission was the center of their religious and social identity. Directed toward the realization of such an ideal, the Puritans required a strict moral regulation; anyone in the conmmunity who sinned threatened not only their soul, but th

17、e very possibility of civil and religious perfection in America and in England. Not coincidentally, the years Hawthorne chose to represent in The Scarlet Letter were the same as those of the English Civil War fought between King Charles I and the Puritan Parliament; the latter was naturally supporte

18、d by the New England colonists.Plot summaryThe novel takes place during the summer in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms and on the breast of her gown a rag of scarlet clo

19、th that assumed the shape of a letter. It was the uppercase letter A. The Scarlet Letter A represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sina badge of shamefor all to see. A man, who was elderly and a stranger to the town, enters the crowd and asks another onl

20、ooker whats happening. He responds by explaining that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hesters husband, who is much older than she, and whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead to America whilst settling affairs in Europe. However, her husband does not arrive in Boston, and the consensus

21、 is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her daughter. She will not reveal her lovers identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and

22、secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her childs father.2The elderly onlooker is Hesters missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent on rev

23、enge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter Pearl grows into a willful, impish childin Hawthornes work, Pearl is more of a symbol than an actual characterand is said to

24、 be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hesters love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and dau

25、ghter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-t

26、he-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the ministers torments and Hesters secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an

27、 A burned into Dimmesdales chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.2Dimmesdales psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hesters charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One nigh

28、t, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearls req

29、uest that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red A in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning adultery. Hester can see that the ministers condition

30、is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdales self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.2Later in the story, while walking through the forest, the sun would not shine on He

31、ster, although Pearl could bask in it. They then encounter Dimmesdale, as he is taking a walk in the woods that day. Hester informs Dimmesdale of the true identity of Chillingworth and the former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship saili

32、ng from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved

33、 and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately trie