小说《红字》的黑暗主题_英语论文

The Dark Theme in The Scarlet Letter

摘要

《红字》是浪漫主义时期美国著名作家纳撒尼尔.霍桑的经典小说，中外的不少学者就红字的主题、精神分析方法、女性主义意识、象征主义写作手法等方面进行了深入地研究。本文将着重分析小说主题中弥漫的浓郁清教主义色彩和原罪论，分析文中出现的各种罪和相应惩罚和赎罪的方式，以及清教本身黑暗的一面。本文共分三章。第一章分析了小说的背景，包括宗教背景和社会背景。通过了解小说的背景，读者能轻易地洞悉文章的基调和以罪为写作中心的小说主题。第二章详细分析了小说中的各种罪和罪人，读者可以通过这些分析更加熟悉小说的内容和线索。第三章就文中不同身份的罪人所受的不公正的惩罚和海斯特成功的赎罪之路给出了一些反思。

关键词：红字 霍桑 黑暗主题 罪与罚 

Abstract

The Scarlet Letter is a masterpiece of a famous American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Lots of scholars all over the world have studied on the subject of its theme, psychoanalysis method, feminist consciousness and symbolic writing techniques. This paper will focus on the theme of the novel from Puritanism, original sin, punishments and redemption committed by characters, especially the dark side of Puritanism in the novel. There are totally three chapters. In Chapter One, by analyzing background information of the novel which includes the religious background and the social background, readers can easily catch the tone and underlying thoughts of the novel which centered on sins. Then in Chapter Two, detailed analysis on sins and sinners reveals more darkness of the theme which helps readers to be more acquainted with both the content and the clue of the novel. Finally, in Chapter Three, some reflections which are based on unfair punishments between different characters in the novel and Hester's successful atonement pilgrimage are given.

Key words: The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne, dark theme, sin, punishment

Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter One Background Information of the novel. 2

1.1 An Analysis on the Religious Background. 3

1.2 An Analysis on the Social Background. 5

Chapter Two The Dark Theme in the Novel 7

2.1 Original Sin 7

2.2 Sinners 8

2.2.1 Hester Prynne 8

2.2.2 Arthur Dimmesdale 10

2.2.3 Roger Chillingworth 12

2.2.4 Ministers and Citizens 14

Chapter Three The Reflections on the Dark Theme in The Scarlet Letter 14

3.1 Unfair Punishments 14

3.2 Atonement Pilgrimage 16

Conclusion 18

Bibliography 19

Acknowledgements 20