Rose Blossom in the Dark玫瑰在黑暗中怒放

Rose Blossoms in the Dark

The Scarlet Letter is a great novel written by the distinguished writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Visitors to his hometown can see a fascinating old house with all the characteristics of early Puritan architecture, inside and outside. Hawthorn named it “T he House of the Seven G ables”in his novel; it is a cursed house by a husband of one of the convicted witches at the notorious Salem.

When Hawthorne was twenty-one, he inserted the …w? in his name to show his attitude to his ancestors. He said of his ancestors, esp. Judge Hawthorne, “I hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any cure insured by them…maybe now and henceforth removed.” and believed that “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones.” and that evil will come out of evil though it may take many generations to happen—the theme of “The House of the Seven G ables”, and the author?s spiritual and religious belief. He used symbolic stories which touch t he deepest roof of man?s moral nature; The Scarlet Letter is the most successful work.

The story began in the 17th century, Boston. It told a story of a puritan woman Hester Prynne who was punished to wear a scarlet A, which stood for the crime of adultery. The pretty young lady tried to settle down in Boston with her old and ugly husband Chillinggworth, a scholar. But the

latter did not appear for years. During this time, Hester committed adultery with a local Minister Dimmesdale, and gave birth to a girl Pearl. Facing the terrible punishment, Hester refused to give her lover?s name away to protect him. Years later, the husband Chilinggworth came to the town and found out the whole truth, and he operated a horror revenge on Dimmesdale, with hiding his own true name. Yet, as the story going, Hester and Dimmesdale became sympathetic figures, while Chilinggworth was a devil at last. Hester and Dimmesdale love each other. But their love is forbidden at that time. It is sinful. Due to this, Hester is punished by society with a letter A on her chest, which is considered an evil, a shame.

This novel is about adultery, or even really about sin. It is about the effects of the sin on those whom it touches. It tells more about men?s soul than about their actions. The best way to appreciate these characters and their functions in the novel is to study their relationships to central sin and the manners in which that sin lays barely their souls. And through the study we can also know that Hawthorne?s contradictory attitudes to Puritanism----hatred and respect.

The characters in the novel frequently debate the identity of the “Black Man”, the embodiment of evil. Over the course of the novel, the “Black Man” is associated with Dimmesdale, Chilingworth, and Mistress Hibbins, an d little Pearl is thought by some to be the Devil?s child. They

also try to root out the causes of evil. Evil, in its most poisonous form, is found in the carefully plotted and precisely aimed revenge of Chillingworth, whose love has been perverted. Dimmesdale, who should love Pearl, will not even publicly acknowledge her. His cruel denial of love to his own child may be seen as further perpetrating evil.

Also, the novel is full of the skill of symbolism. The Scarlet Letter is usually regarded as the first symbolic novel to be written in the United States.

First is the “rosebush”. The narrator chooses to begin his story with the image of the rosebush beside the prison door. The “rosebush”symbolized the ability of nature to endure and outlast man?s activities. Yet, paradoxically, it also symbolizes the futility of symbolic interpretation: the narrator mentions various significances that the rosebush might have, never affirming or denying them, never privileging one over the others.

Moreover, the “sun” is a sy mbol of untroubled, guiltless, or the approval of God and Nature. It shines on Pearl, but flees away from Hester and from Dimmesdale, even in the forest.

In this novel, the mainline seems to be around the letter A. Hester is brave enough to face the cruel reality, and is portrayed as an intelligent, capable woman. She speculates on human nature, social organization, and lager moral questions. Hester?s tribulation also leads her to be stoic and a freethinker. Shame, hopeless, loneliness, Hester has to wear the letter A

all the time, seven years as for punishment and ill fame.

Once a woman has lived through a hard time, she?d change into a tough man. Hester?s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her reprieve from the scorn of the community. The lett er “A”on her chest represents her work on earth, always helping others, without expecting any thanks. The townspeople no longer view the letter as a punishment, but rather as representing her great strength and bravery and they 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. The personal guilt drives Dimmesdale to further internalize his guilt and self-punishment and leads to still more deterioration in his physical and spiritual condition.

The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the Puritan society. The basic conflicts and problems of its main characters, however, are familiar to readers in the present. 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

main character Hester Prynne is just like a rose, blossoming in the dark but giving out beautiful flavor around.