The Scarlet Letter

《The Scarlet Letter》written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel concerns souls.Everyone has his own soul.Someone defends his soul,someone does damage to it,even there are people who lose their own souls.In consequence,this world is filled with human stories in thousands of postures.

“A” is the first letter of the alphabetic which means the beginning of one thing.However,inn Christians’ tradition, the beginning indicates deprivation and original sin that no one can get rid of.According to the Bible,we are all the seed of Adam.Nevertheless,Adam and Eve were punished by Jehovah for their stealing to eat love forbidden fruit.Owing to this,we,who are the descendants of Adam and Eve,are born guilty.In Puritans’ eyes,Hester Prynne is a dissolute and immoral woman.They take Hester into custody just to show the dignity of God. So foolish people they are!An ugly woman cries:“This woman has brought shame upon us all,and ought to die.Is there not law for it? Truly there is,both in the Scripture and the statute book.”(2009:56)From this description,we can easily find that people there are so indifferent that they seem to be captivate by the church. We see,Hester is so common a woman who is dying for love and does not want to be forced to compromise to reality.“She had dark and abundant hair,so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam,and a face which,besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion,had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes”.(57)Hester is such a good woman that she shows great love to her beloved--Mr Dimmesdale.This religious entanglement of emotions is difficult for people who have no religion belief to understand.I am such a person who can not understand.Religion has been part of the Westerners’s life and it must be very painful to leave the religious life.But I do not have a religious experience, so it is hard for me to understand the hero's psychology. These are the obstacles for me to understand the novel and I find it hard to overcome it.

…… …… 余下全文

作者：纳撒尼尔·霍桑

                  2013年6月4日

                                             外语系10-2班李雪

…… …… 余下全文

《红字》英文读后感

The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century if 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 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

…… …… 余下全文

The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century if 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 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 Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the scarlet letters to symbolize the harshness of Puritan society, showing how they brand sinners for life.

…… …… 余下全文

字母“A”

——《红字》读后感

本想好好读完小说《红字》的英文版，可是作者霍桑在书中运用了大量的象征意，不免有些晦涩难懂。再者，我英语词汇本来就有所哦欠缺，所以这本小说读来可谓是异常艰辛。所以在读了一部分英文之后，我果断放弃了英文版著作，找来中文版小说，一睹为快。

刚看到这本书书名的英文注释，我就觉得有一丝疑惑，为什么“红字”不直接译为“the red letter”，反而取了“the scarlet letter”? 翻开书来，浅浅读来，就会知道到：红字，即“A”字。通奸罪（Adultery）、能干的（Able）、可敬佩的(Admirable)、爱情(Amorous)、天使(Angel)艺术(Art)、前进(Advance)、美国(America)。红字“A”在这个故事里有着如此不同的意思，他在霍桑的笔下蠢蠢欲动。这就是象征性小说的魅力。每个人能看到自己想看的。

小说的最开始，字母“A”是女主人公海丝特罪恶的象征。随着故事的发展，字母“A”最终成为了“能干”、“受钦佩”、“天使”等多重涵义的代名词。首先，“A”是字母表中的第一字母，也就意味着开始，基督教的观点认为开始是无人幸免的原罪，或是世界之初的堕落。海丝特是一个感情丰富、渴望幸福的女人。海丝特能做一手好活，凭借这种活计，海丝特拿出一点钱打扮自己的孩子。而其余的则捐献给慈善事业，施舍给穷苦百姓。海丝特天性善良，在人们遇到困难时，她都尽可能地给以帮助。这时“A”就成了能干(able)和天使(angle)的象征。再次，尽管海丝特对别人和社会奉献了很多，但在离去时，“决不回眸收受那份应得的感激之情”；甚至有时在街上遇到曾经帮助过的人，“她从不抬头来接受他们的致意，如果他们执意要搭汕。她便把手指放在红十字上，侧身而过”。久而久之，海丝特胸前的红字“A”就具有了与修女胸前十字架同样的作用。她的道德品质与行为方式也获得了人们的尊重。因此，红字“A”又被斌予了值得敬佩(admirable)的象征意义。红字“A”象征意义的演化足以证明海丝特的爱心，正是因为她内心充满了爱和同情，在她自己真实的爱的原则下，她付出了大量的充满人性之爱的行为以后．她不仅得到了社会的认同，也使得其胸前的红字“A”的含义在历经漫长的“痛苦”和“孤独”以后，从“通奸”变成了“自豪”、“能干”和“女强者”。小说中，海丝特是美好爱情的象征，同时她的欲望代表她人性中霍桑认

…… …… 余下全文

The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century if 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 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 Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the scarlet letters to symbolize the harshness of Puritan society, showing how they brand sinners for life.

…… …… 余下全文

Review of The Scarlet Letter (1)

Mengyan Li, Oct 13

The story is based on the colony times of America. It shows the cruelty of the law and the deceit of religion. It happens in Boston about 200 years ago.

The author narrates love affairs between a woman and two men. The beautiful and intelligent young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant baby in her arms, and on her chest is a rag of cloth which has a scarlet letter “A” on it. The scarlet letter “A” represents a symbol of her sin and for all people to see. The husband of the punished woman, who called himself Roger Chilling worth, is an old misshapen man and a doctor. He is elder than Hester and no one knows his real name. Hester doesn’t love him at all.

…… …… 余下全文

《红字》英文读后感

The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century if 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 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 Letter by

…… …… 余下全文