《红字》的读书报告

A Reading Report of The Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet Letter is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was an influential American romantic novelist. Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England, combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism. The Scarlet Letter makes Hawthorne known all over the world.Puritanism is the practices and beliefs of puritans. The American puritans accept the doctrine and practice of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement through a special infusion of grace from God. But due to the grim struggle for living in the new continent, they become more and more practical. American Puritanism is so much a part of the national atmosphere rather than a set of tenets.A prominent characteristic of Hawthorne’s works is describing the dark side of society and humanity, which is inseparable to the influence of Calvinism on people's “original sin” and “intrinsic depravity” theory. Hawthorne is a pione er of psychological novel, who is good at analysis human’s “heart.” He focused on the ethics and the problem of evil, and advocated good deeds and self repentance to wash sin and purify the mind, and thus be saved. However, not all Hawthorne’s works are wrote the dark, at the same time in his expose social evils and human evil, he placed great sympathy for many kind-hearted heroes. As his friend, the great writer Herman Melville noted that Hawthorne's dark kept the dark even more bright dawn ahead. Hawthorne has made a great contribution on the development of American literature. The influence for writers such as Henry James, Faulkner and Malamud is obvious.Hawthorne's works are imaginative and structured. In addition to psychological analysis and description, also use the symbolism. His sophisticated imagery idea added romantic to his works, deepened meaning for his works. But in his works, some places are mysterious obscure.In The Scarlet Letter, he used symbolism skillfully to enhance the artistic effect. So it is regarded as the first symbolic novel in American Literature. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions. Symbolism issometimes used to refer specifically to totemic symbols that stand on their own, as opposed to linguistic symbols.In psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung envisioned symbols as being not of the mind, but rather the mind's capacity to hold information. The mind uses symbols to form free association, organization, and connections between symbols. Jung and Freud diverged on the issue of common cognitive symbol systems and whether they exist within the individual mind or among other minds, whether cognitive symbolism was innate or defined by the environment.Symbolism is important to religion. Some religious oracles divine by interpreting symbols. Max Weber described religion as a system of sacred religious symbolism.The story is set in Boston in the 17thcentury. At that time, the City Fathers moved to New England, and built the houses, the churches as well as the prisons with their own hands. They brought the customs and religion of old England with them, and strong bias 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, so with 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, and they 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. As we know, a priest would be blamed and punished badly if he does something that is forbidden by God. In order to protect his high position and 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 be able to help crying out that 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’t bear 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, but they saw the red-hot “A” blazing up. He felt his life was lies, emptiness and death. Luckily, he got a clear conscience in the end.The novel is not a simple tragic love story. At the very beginning of it, we have seen the part of adultery ends and that it brings disaster to Hester. The majority of The Scarlet Letter is a mortal tragic story, especially showing the mental torture of Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth’s vengeance.The novel tells us other symbolism of the letter “A” which also means being able even admirable. Hester eventu ally turned the word “Adultery” to “Angel”. I don’t think she is a tragic figure. On the contrary, she is the most fortunate one among the three. Because of a letter “A” on the breast of her gown, her guilt opens to the world. She can be honest to God and herself. So there is a distinct gap between her and the ordinary. She enjoys the solitude. She is not guilty to others. On the one hand, she believes God. She thinks Pearl is the origin of her happiness and pain. She accepts the punishment in the form of t he living scarlet letter “A”. She always wears the scarlet letter “A” till her death, though she tries to get rid of it for one time. On the other hand, she lives out of religion. She seems too free and brave. She hates the religion’s restriction to human nature. Hester’s secret about Pearl’s father shows not only her love to Dimmesdale but the defiance to Puritan colony. She persuades Dimmesdale to go away with her and their daughter. It needs extraordinary courage in that time.Dimmesdale is often thought to be a weak, pitiful and hateful figure. Readers usually appreciate Hester and look down upon Dimmesdale. In my opinion, everyonehas human nature’s weakness. It can be understandable. As a nature person, Dimmesdale isn’t as brave as Hester. He leaves Hester alone to confront others’ abuse. He hides his guilt and punishes himself secretly. But as a social man, he has the social role of pastor to play. He is loyal to his belief. He has the duty to listen to believers’ confession and relieve their pain. Di mmesdale’s social role is totally different from Hester’s. He needs bear more torment from his soul. He couldn’t get away because his belief doesn’t permit him to do so. His confession let his soul peaceful finally.Roger Chillingworth was honest, kind and meek before. His soul becomes distorted because of the shame of Hester’s adultery. He is the most tragic figure among the three. He becomes uglier during the retaliation. However, his life ends soon after Dimmesdale’s death. I believe his animosity is al so ended.The Scarlet Letter mainly shows the three persons’ mortal development. As far as I am concerned, beliefs can guide our life rather than dominate ourselves. Regions shouldn’t restrain human nature. We should have the venture to forgive and tolera nt others.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 borne a child out of wedlock and has been jailed for over three months and sentenced to wear a sy mbol 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 of sin. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the scarlet letters to symbolize the harshness of Puritan society, showing how they brand sinners for life.。