美国文学整理到现实主义时期
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Nathaniel Hawthorne:
Romantic novelist, short-story writer. Combined the American romanticism with puritan
moralism; a central figure in the American Renaissance
“Mosses from an Old Manse ( 1846 )
(“Young Goodman Brown” and “Rappaccini’s daughter”)
The Scarlet Letter (1850)
The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
The Blithedale Romance (1852)
The Marble Faun,(1860)
Interrogating the innocence
Strong sense of sin and evil in life.
Sin will get punished, and evil educates.
Source of sin: original sin, conflict between body and soul.
Source of evil : overweening intellect, a part of human nature
The Seven Commandments Of The Children Of Noah
Idolatry - Monotheism. Adultery. Murder. Blasphemy, not to curse God. Not to eat the live
meat not to steal Maintain courts to enforce these laws.
Seven heavenly virtues
Faith Hope Charity Fortitude Justice Temperance Prudence
Hawthorne’s aesthetics
Favor on “romance”, instead of “novel”
Contents: sensational material, such as poisoning, murder, adultery, crime.
Themes: explore the human nature, deal with moral problems, study the effects of sin on man.
Purpose: to show the inner world of man is the source of evil in society—the tragic rise born of
the fortunate fall,
fall→ rise innocence →maturity
The Scarlet Letter
• Time: in the mid-1600s Setting: Puritan town of Boston
Characters:
Roger Chillingworth Pearl
• The victim of the adultery A symbol: the symbol of the violation of the social laws
• A merciless avenger To Hester: the fruit of human love and passion
• The worst sinner To Dimmesdale: the reminder of his sin
• Symbol of devil To Chillingworth: the motivation to take his revenge
Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter
Puritan emphasis on the individual conscience.
Hawthorn’s attitude towards Puritanism – scolded the harshness of Puritans, yet took the
Puritanism as his living criteria. Purpose of The Scarlet Letter
1. Explore the source of evils:
unreasonable and inhuman social system
men’s inner world, defects in men’s nature: strong desire, dishonesty, cowardice, revenge.
2. Explore the effect of sin on different characters:
To brave Hester: gain moral rebirth by redeeming her sin, win respect/ love again.
To coward Dimmesdale: torment of conscience, suffer in hell fire.
To vicious and vengeful Chillingworth: reduced to demon, deteriorated, malicious sinner
3. Explore ways of redeeming sin:
brave to confess and face it
correct it through love, devotion, generosity and forgiveness.
Hawthorne’s Style
rich imagination; well-woven structure; psychological analysis; effective symbolism with delicate
imageries, ambiguity and mystery
Symbolism in the novel
Chillingworth is cold and inhuman and thus brings a “chill” to Hester’s and Dimmesdale’s lives.
“Prynne” rhymes with “sin”
“Dimmesdale” suggests “dimness”—weakness, indeterminacy, lack of insight, and lack of will, all
of which characterize the young minister.
“Pearl” evokes a biblical allegorical device—the “pearl of great price” that is salvation.
a token of shame “Adultery” at first
A
A symbol of being alone and alienation
“Angel”, “Able” ,”Admiration”
Hester offers the genuine sympathy and help to her fellow villagers
Herman Melville
a master of allegory and symbolism
1) early works
Typee (1846) : the “man who lived among cannibals.”
Omoo(1847)
Mardi (1849) :The first three drew from his adventures among the people of the South Pacific
islands;
Redburn (1849) is a semi-autobiographical novel, based Bedburn on his first voyage to
England
White Jacket (1850) relates his life on a United States man-of-war.
Moby Dick (1851)
Later works: Pierre (1852) The Confidence Man (1857) Billy Budd（1924）
Moby-Dick
is regarded as : * an encyclopedia of everything * the first American prose epic
The white whale Pequod ----a world in miniature
* Melville's bleak view --------"Everlasting Nay”
* One of the major themes --------- alienation,
* Ahab may have been Melville's portrait of an Emersonian self-reliant individual-----solipsism .
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"School-room Poets" or "New England Poets" or "Fireside Poets"
Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell and Whittier
first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy
poet and educator; "Paul Revere's Ride“; The Song of Hiawatha ; Evangeline.
Longfellow holds the distinction of being the first American poet
Poetry : Voices of the Night (1839) Evangeline (1847) The Song of Hiawatha (1855)
A Psalm of Life My Lost Youth the Slave’s Dream Hiawatha’s Fasting
