英美文学作业 英文读书报告 book report

Book Report —The Scarlet Letter 1.Plot:The Scarlet Letter, the shocking masterpiece written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, mainly tells the destiny of three persons: Hester, Mr. Dimmesdale and Dr.Chillingworth. Hester, a beautiful young woman whose husband, old Dr.Chillingworth was working in another country, was forced to wear a scarlet letter ”A” on her chest, for she had a love affair with another man，that was, the eminent local clergy Mr.Dimmesdale. The letter”A”stood for ”Adultery” , that she must wear as a humiliating signal till her death. As she refused to tell the name of the other adulterer,her husband was seized by a strong sense of envy, hatred and anger . Before long, he found out that Mr.Dimmesdale was the very man who had an affair with his wife. He began to pay back by afflicting the clergy’s weak soul day after day and, as the clergy couldn’t endure the torment of his own anonymous crime, he finally acknowledged the fact in front of the public who had always trusted him; he died as soon as he finished his confession. However, because of the fire of revenge besieged Dr.Chillingworth, he became badly ill and died a year later. At the same time, Hester, who had already been forgiven by people, went on leading her impoverished life in obscurity.2.Personal feelings:After reading The Scarlet Letter written by Hawthorne, I was deeply impressed by the four main characters, namely, Hester,Mr.Dimmesdale, Dr.Chillingworth and Pearl.At the beginning of the story, Hester was portrayed as an immoral, frivolous woman, for she did such a bad thing as having a love affair with the other man and having an illegitimate child “Pearl”; however, people’s vie ws may well be changed as they continue reading. Although Hester’s disgrace and the mark----letter “A” had always been teased and derided, she turned out to be a really kind woman, for she always helped people as much as she could while she herself was leading a poor life with her daughter Pearl. As time went by, people came to accept her and forgave her. Her courage of admitting her own guilt finally won people’s respect. Maybe she was too kind, for she would rather die than corrupt her lover’s reputation, from which we can learn that Hester must be deeply in love with Dimmesdale. Love was the very reason that made both fidelity and betrayal coexist on Hester. It was pretty unfortunate that her husband was not the one she loved and her true love was not the one she should love. Next, let us come to the clergy Mr.Dimmesdale.From my personal persepective, he is indeed a hypocritical man. Though he is “suffering his own condemn of conscience” all the time, and “fluctuate in the dilemma of admitting or denying the guilt”, the 9-year-long progress of that fluctuation clearly shows us how snobbish and timid he is. Comparinghim with Hester, the woman he loves, he is not half as brave as her! 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. Nine years passed, when Hester had finally regained people’s respect and when the actual figure “A” on her chest seemed to evaporate in people’s eyes, the same scarlet letter that Mr.Dimmesdale avoided, was deeply engraved in his heart .Though the public was totally ignorant of the fact. He himself knew it, Hester knew, Dr.Chillingworth knew, and the god knew. He could never ever get rid of his inner guilty. The terrible affliction was so unbearable that he admitted the truth at last.Another man, Dr.chillingworth was even much worse. After Mr. Dimmesdale’s death, no one changes more in appearance than Roger Chilling worth. All his strength and energy has been used to harm his patient, that is, Mr.Dimmesdale. This unhappy man has made determination in his life to revenge by adding 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 really a curious subject to be noticed that either hatred or love may take a great deal of emotion and energy from one person and the two feelings seem basically the same, except that one is smiled upon by God, while the other is worshipped by the devil.W hat I really want to say is about the little child, Pearl. I’m also interested in this character. Her life was low, obscure, miserable, and for this, she should be sorrowful and resentful; but she did not feel like that. She expressed her feeling in her own way, in a child’s way. Things turned out that she seemed to be more than just a young, ignorant child. She didn’t say anything on purpose, but her words always shocked Hester a lot and made her face turn pale; she subconsciously refused her mother to take off the scarlet letter on her, refused her dad Dimmesdale to kiss her for he hadn’t accept ed her, refused even to talk with Dr.Chillingworth. She always expressed her anger for her mother who made great efforts to hide the truth. She could speak out the truth easily as she was an innocent child. For me, I think that Pearl was an angel, an angel sent by the god. Her pure spirit must be combined with the god’s great spirit, it made her know what was right and what was wrong. Especially when the clergy accepted her in front of the public, this little wild creature was unusually ta me, that she “kissed her father in tears…”.The scene touched my heart and also moved me to tears for this is the moment Mr.Dimmesdale had expected for nine years. Here I would like to quote a short paragraph from the book presenting you the scene. Here is the quote from the book:“He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixed them on the woman and the child.‘My little Pearl,’ said he, feebly and there was a sweet and gentlesmile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now that the burden was removed, it seemed almost as if he would be sportive with the child—‘dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? Thou wouldst not, yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?’Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken.The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father’s cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Towards her other, too, Pearl’s errand as a messenger of anguish was fulfilled.”(Chapter 24)So far as I know from the book, Hester is publicly ashamed and forced by the people to wear a badge of humiliation.She was truly brave and loyalty in pursuing her true love of the priest even under the harsh realities. She strives for her true love. She is a soldier struggling against the established social norms. The Scarlet Letter "A", in the heroine’s heart, stood for pain and hope. She made a choice which produced her hope, satisfying her love, and also gave her years of pain. The book said the scarlet letter "A" at last stands for angel, if that was true, how painful angel she is, and how little hope that average human could become angel.On the other hand, Hester is really a kind-hearted woman. Despite her love affair, which in other’s opinions, is an inexcusable sin, she still manages to do good to the society and help others through her seamstresswork .Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. Over the next seven years people think of her affectionately and they no longer view the letter as a punishment, but rather as representing her great strength and bravery and thy say it means “Able”, representing her work on earth, always helping others, without expecting any thanks. Though she still wears the "A",she have made it her own. It becomes a symbol of her free thinking, not merely her adultery. That's why she refuses to take it off when the townspeople finally approve of its removal. Surprisingly, Hester reacts with dismay when Chillingworth tells her that the town fathers are considering letting her remove the letter. Hester’s behavior may puzzle some readers for she refused instead of taking it off as most of us expect. But if contemplate it further, you will find that her behavior is premised on her desire to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her. To her, running away or removing the letter would be an ac knowledgment of society’s power over her and also mean that she would be admitting the letter as a mark of shame and something from which she desires to escape.Instead, Hester stays the same, refiguring the scarlet letter as a symbol of her own experiences and character. Her past experience is a part of who she is. To pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of herself.When Hester died, she was buried next to Dimmesdale. The two shared a single tombstone, with a deep colored letter A shining brightly. I naturally visualized their tomb in my mind when I was reading the novel, which also stayed for quite a long time.What makes me think the book is worth reading is that, the bittersweet revelations that Hawthorne brings to light leaves me a thought-provoking question. What could average people do when your personal willingness comes into conflicts with the reality, or more precisely, the social conventions? How many of us can hold our own opinions steadfast even when the rest of the world stands on the opposite side? I think the answer is more likely to be negative. People nowadays do lack courage. We seldom doubt the established conventions and prefer to be in conformity with the majority. In some respects, we should learn from Hester, who struggles to be free from the social limits and sticks to what she thinks is right. She does not care other’s opinions towards her and her behaviors, living a life following her heart.If we always feel limited by society, then it will be extremely difficult for us to free our thinking, and which may very likely become an obstacle on our way pursuing success. Thus, sometimes, we would better just leave other people’s attitudes behind and forge ahead by defining our own identities, having our true nature in accordance with our actions.3. Notes:Besides the note I quote from the book previously. Here are some more followed by the analysis.1)“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. Itruns away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. Now, see! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me—for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!”“Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said Hester.“And why not, mother?” asked Pearl, stopping short, just at the beginning of her race. “Will not it come of its own accord when Iam a woman grown?”“Run away, child,” answered her mother, “and catch the sunshine. It will soon be gone”(Chapter 16)This quote, taken from Chapter 16, presents us the role Pearl plays in the text. She is frequently aware of things that others do not see, and here she y identifies the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom with the lack of sunshine in her mother’s life. Because she is just a ch ild, she defies any authority placed above her, relying instead on her own perceptions as her guide and she talks about truth indirectly by asking pointed questions, which make her mother uncomfortable and strained. Here Pearl isassuming, as children often do, that her mother is representative of all adults. Her question suggests that she thinks that all grown women wear a scarlet letter or its equivalent. Surely, Pearl has noticed that the other women in town don’t wear scarlet letters. Thinking further, we may find that her question suggests that sin—that which the scarlet letter is intended to represent—is an inevitable part of Hester’s life.2).Pearl,the little pure girl portrayed by Hawthorne,possesses the nature of unsoiled innocence. Her nature allows her to be happy despite that her mother and many other people around her are false and unhappy. She knows that nature loves her, and that is what nature tells her. Conversely, Pearl sees society and its members, who have done nothing but despise her. Hester is perceived as an affront against nature for her sins, even causing some townsfolk to ponder whether she should be put to death.Without social bonds, rules or guidance, Hester was able to roam freely mentally .However, she was still not completely isolated from the society and her awareness of her social position prevents her from shunning all popular conventions, and her relationship with nature betrays her sorrows. Her variance with nature is evidenced by the quiet brook that mumbles to her of her sorrows. When she finally casts aside that scarlet A, the letter that symbolized the right society reserved to judge her, she is transformed to her true nature. Simultaneously, she is at peace with nature: "All at once, as with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst thesunshine, pouring a very flood into the obscure forest, gladdening each green leaf, transmuting the yellow fallen ones to gold, and gleaming adown the grey trunks of the solemn trees". Her freedom is transient, because it is beyond her ability to casts off society's deep-rooted conventions and norms. Her acceptance of her societal position forged the character ,being the one who she was to whom she cared for. 3).When Hester told Mr. Dimmesdale: that the doctor in his house, Roger Chillingworth ,was her husband and so was a terrible enemy aiming to revenge. Though at first Roger Chillingworth was extremely shocked and furious. What he just could not excuse is not simply the truth that the doctor in his house was Hester’s husband and intended to kill him but the fact that Hester, the woman he loved, did not tell him the important truth earlier .He was really sad and disheartened and even claimed that he would not forgive Hester. Fllowed is about how Hester reacts to hisclaim:“Thou shalt forgive me!” cried Hester, flinging herself on the fallen leaves beside him. “Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive!” With sudden and desperate tenderness she threw her arms around him, and pressed his head against her bosom, little caring though his cheek rested on the scarlet letter. He would have released himself, but strove in vain to do so. Hester would not set him free, lest he should look her sternly in the face. All the world had frowned on her—for seven long years had itfrowned upon this lonely woman—and still she bore it all, nor ever once turned away her firm, sad eyes. Heaven, likewise, had frowned upon her, and she had not died. But the frown of this pale, weak, sinful, and sorrow-stricken man was what Hester could not bear, and live! “Wilt thou yet forgive me?” she repeated, over and over again.“Wilt thou not frown? Wilt thou forgive?”“I do forgive you, Hester,” replied the minister at length, with a deep utterance, out of an abyss of sadnes s, but no anger. “I freely forgive you now. May God forgive us both. We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the pollutedpriest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!”From the above quote, we can learn how deep Hester’s love is. She could bear all people’s scornful eyes and harsh remarks, but just could hardly withstand her lover looking at her sternly in the face. So she exerted all her efforts to ask for his forgiveness, throwing her arms around him as if it was the last hope she could grasp.11。