《红字》读书报告

A Book Report of The Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet Letter is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist, and was published by Shanghai Translation Press in 1989.The story is set in Boston in the 17th century .At that time, the City Fathers moved to New England, and built the houses, the churches aswell as the prisons with their own hands. They brought the customs and religion of old England with them, and strong bias(歧视) towards women.The gist of the story is as follows: Hester Prynne is the female protagonist in this novel. She is a young, beautiful and gentle woman –a perfect woman in people’s eye. However, she married Roger Chilingworth, an old misshapen man, who is also a doctor. She feels no happiness at all. Several years later, her husband was lost on the sea, sowith nobody accompanying her, she had to live a lonely life. Just like the flaming fire in the night, a young, energetic priest named Arthur Dimmesdale, came into her life. They fell in love with each other, andthey spent a period time of life full of passion and true love. Soon Hester found that she became pregnant. Owing to this, she was arrested and gave birth to a little girl in the prison. At that time, only would she tell the public the name of the adulterer, could she got rid of the imputation. Aswe know, a priest would be blamed and punished badly if he does something that is forbidden by God. In order to protect his high positionand good reputation, she accepted the shame, wore the scarlet letter, which referred to shame, and stood alone under the scaffold in the public.The person who questioned Hester happened to be Mr. Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale himself had a pure heart--he may couldn’t help cry ing outthat he was the adulterer, but at last he didn’t bring himself to admit his guilt. To him, the letter was a combination of guilty, misery and evilness. From that day on, he had printed the letter A in his mind .Hester’s former husband Chilingworth came back someday and he decided to take revenge on the priest. He pretended to be the priest’s doctor and friend,but his real intention was to gnaw his heart with endless guilty. His revenge lasted for seven years. And finally, Mr. Dimmesdale couldn’tbear the misery hidden deep in his heart, and he told the townspeople,who always thought highly of him, that he was the very man. Standing under the scaffold, he became strong enough to do the thing that he failed to do seven years ago. He pulled open his shirt for them to see the scarlet letter on his chest. No one had ever put the letter on his chest, butthey saw the red-hot “A” blazing up. He felt his life was lies, emptinessand death. Luckily, he got a clear conscience in the end.After reading this novel, I begin to understand the western culture and the religion in the 17th century. Here I can only give you my own view instead of the common view. The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century in American Puritan society. The basic conflicts and problems of its main characters, however, are familiar to readers in the present. The female protagonist, has born a child out of wedlock and has been jailed for over three months and sentenced to wear a symbol of her adultery, a scarlet “A” on her dress at all times. It concerns about the moral, emotional and psychological effect of the sin on people in general. It’s not simply a love story or a story of sin. The Scarlet Lette r by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the scarlet letters to symbolize the harshness of Puritan society, showing how they brand sinners for life.The story happened in Boston about 200 years ago. It narrates love affairs between three persons. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester’s husband, Who called himself Roger Chillingworth. He is an old doctor. Hester does not love him at all. Another man is a young minister, Dimmesdale, who has a high position among ministers and is highly respected among his people in town. Hester and Dimmesdale love each other. But their love is forbidden in that time. It is sinful. Due to this, Hester is punished by society with a letter A on her chest, which considered an evil, a shame.In this novel, the mainline seems to be around the letter A. Hester is brave enough to face the cruel reality. She is always with a mind of courage. She has been alone with her child for so long, with little communication. Shame! Hopelessness! Loneliness! Hester has to wear the letter A day after day, seven years as for punishment and ill fame. When a woman has lived through a difficult experience, her character changes a great deal. If she be alltenderness, she will die. If she survives, the tenderness will leave her .Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. The letter on her chest represents her work on earth, always helping others, without expecting any thanks. Never afterwards, does that scarlet letter leave her chest. The townspeople no longer view the letter as a punishment, but rather as representing her great strength and bravery and thy say it means “Able”. But Arthur Dimmesdale, his sin against Hester and Pearl is that he will not acknowledge them as his wife and daughter in the daylight. He keeps his dreadful secret from all those under his care in the church for seven years for fear that he will lose their love and will not be forgiven. He is too weak to admit his sins. He suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. What’s worse, he is an advisor to the townspeople about their sins. After Mr. Dimmesdale’s death , no one changes more in appearance than Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy has been used to harm his patient. This unhappy man has made his aim in life to add to the suffering of the young minister. When the evil old man no longer has such a purpose, the devil takes him back to the hell. It is a curious subject of observation, however, whether hatred or love are not of the same place. Each takes a great deal of emotion from one person. The two feelings seem basically the same, expect that one is smiled upon by God, while the other is worshipped by the devil.Before reading the bo ok, I didn’t know what the writer would say about an ordinary letter “A”. But after reading, I have learnt that you should be brave enough to show your guilty, or it will be worse to hide it in mind. It is like a snake keeps biting your heart and won’t mak e you feel better until you speak your mind.。