The Christian Influence on the Creation of The Scarlet Letter【毕业论文】.doc

1、毕业论文 文客久久 本科 毕业论文 (设计 ) 题 目： The Christian Influence on the Creation of The Scarlet Letter 学 院： 学生姓名： 专 业： 英语 班 级： 指导教师： 起 止 日期： Contents Abstract 1 Introduction 3 1. Puritan and Christianity 4 1.1 Basic Doctrine of Christianity 4 1.2 Main Factions of Christianity Puritan 4 1.3 Theory System of Puri

2、tan 5 2. Puritan Influence on 19th Centurys American Literature 6 2.1 Influence on the Formation of Americanism 6 2.2 “New Adam” in American Literature 6 3. Reflection and Criticism on Puritan in The Scarlet Letter 7 3.1 Hawthorne and Puritanism 7 3.1.1 Relationship Between Hawthorne and Puritan 8 3

3、.1.2 Hawthornes Inheritance and Inflection of Puritanism 8 3.2 Influence of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter from Characterization 9 3.2.1 Characterization of Major Characters 9 3.2.1.1 A Suffering Woman Hester Prynne 9 3.2.1.2 A Typical Puritan Arthur Dimmesdale 10 3.2.1.3 Rogge Chillingworth 11 3.

4、2.1.4 Little Pearl 12 3.2.2 Characterization of Supporting Characters 13 Conclusion 14 Reference 15 1 摘要 红字是 19 世纪美国文学的代表作家纳撒尼尔霍桑的代表作之一。它以 17 世纪北美殖民地新英格兰为背景讲述了清教对海斯特白兰等人的情感，生活和人性的压迫。整个故事以海斯特与牧师丁梅斯代尔的通奸为导火线，讲述了事发之后，新英格兰殖民地清教徒对其行为的道德谴责和精神压迫。 在 19 世纪的美国，清教对社会的影响虽然已经非常薄弱，但是美国作为一个由宗教而建立的国家，清教的道德伦理和传统观念依然

5、深入人心。它在推动美国社会、文化和文学的发展的同时，与资本主义经济发展之间的矛盾也越来越明显。霍桑作为 19 世纪文坛的代表人物，他的作品深刻地反应了当时文学家们对清教的批判和反思。 本文着力于通过分析霍桑对红字中人物的性格、行为表现及其命运 方面的刻画来探讨研究清教对霍桑的文学创作和对 19 世纪美国文学的影响。通过对霍桑的清教观的分析，我们可以发现霍桑本人非常认同清教本身的一些基本真理。但同时，由于受到 19 世纪不断萌生的新思想的影响，他认为清教的传统统治亟待改革。清教的政治统治对人性的压迫和思想的束缚不利于民主的发展和文化的创新，阻碍了社会的转型。美国文学和美国社会在往后的发展中应当对

6、清教批判性的继承。 关键词 清教；基督教；美国文学；新亚当；红字 2 Abstract The Scarlet Letter is a masterpiece of 19th centurys American writer Nathanael Hawthorne. It described a story happening in the colonial period in New England. Based on such a background, Hawthorne took Hesters adultery as a major cause for criticizing the

7、 puritans persecution towards humanity and peoples thoughts. This paper starts with the introduction of Puritanism, its history, development and the influence on 19th centurys American literature. The Scarlet Letter was based on the puritan background in 17th century. The story happened in New Engla

8、nd, which was one of the biggest colonies that time in America. The puritan environment pushed Hester and pastor Dimmesdale to accept the punishment of puritan government, both on morality and politics. Hesters husband Chillingworth tried his best to take revenge on Dimmesdale that made the pastor s

9、uffered both on spirit and physiology. The daughter of the lovers, little Pearl who was innocent in this incident, had to grow up away from the society. In 19th century, the puritan impact on American society was quite weak. But as a puritan country, the morality and traditional principles of value

10、had been deeply rooted in peoples mind. Though Puritanism had once helped the development of the society, its conflict with capitalism became more and more obvious. As the representative figure of 19th centurys American literature, Hawthornes works reflected the critique and profound consideration t

11、o Puritanism. Based on those, this paper mainly focuses the puritan influence on Hawthornes creation and on 19th centurys American literature from the description of characters personality, action and fate. By analyzing Hawthornes perspective on Puritanism, we conclude that in Hawthornes viewpoint,

12、he quite appreciated some puritan principles, while as influenced by the new flourished thoughts, he agree that it was time for reformation and that Puritanism should be inherited in a critical way by America and American literature. Key words Puritanism; Christianity; American literature; New Adam;

13、 The Scarlet Letter; 3 The Christian Influence on the Creation of The Scarlet Letter Introduction In recent years, more and more people began to pay attention to the literature value of The Scarlet Letter, which was written by 19th centurys American writer Nathanael Hawthorne. Many people viewed The

14、 Scarlet Letter from the symbolic meaning of characters and things in the story; others may focus on the critique of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter. However, few investigation are convincing about both the side of Hawthornes inheritance and critique of Puritanism. In my perspective, Hawthorne was

15、neither the writer of new period nor of the religion literature. He was a novelist impacted by both the Puritanism and the new ideas. In his works often appeared a contradicted thing of both side. As professor Gao stated in his book: “religion is a kind of world vied which helps human being to have

16、a clear understanding of the relationship between human and nature.”(Gao, 2002: 5-10) Religion, whatever the kind, is not only a kind of theoretical system, but the reflection of the world, of the humanity. So as we talk about Puritanism. Perry Miller stated that Puritanism is suitable to be discuss

17、ed from the aspects of “living philosophy” and “value criterion”. (Miller and Johnson., 1963: 12) In the theoretical system of puritan, the doctrine of “Election, Vocation, Justification, Sanctification and Glorification” was the most important one. (Chai, 1993:93-94) These doctrines were the living

18、 principles and value of puritans. In Hawthornes works, we can find many main characters reflected such a feature. The purpose of this paper is to discuss both Hawthornes inheritance and critique of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter. The paper consists of three parts. The first chapter is the introdu

19、ction and understanding of the Christianity and the theoretical system and development of the Puritanism from Christianity. The second chapter deals with the religion influence to the 19th centurys American literature. The third chapter focuses on the puritan influence on Hawthorne himself and his m

20、asterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. Finally, a conclusion is provided. 1. Puritan and Christianity Christianity is one of the most famous religions all over the world. It was founded two thousand years ago in Palestine. During these two thousand years, it now has turned out to be the most popular, the m

21、ost important religion all over the world. The influence of Christianity in western countries is nonnegligible. Christianity today has played an important role in western culture. We can easily know about this as we found The Bible to be the most popular book in western countries. This part of the t

22、hesis will give some introduction of the Christian history and give a detailed view on one of its important factions Puritanism. 4 1.1 Basic Doctrines of Christianity During several thousand years of development, Christianism has built a complex and complete system of religious doctrines. The basic

23、ones mainly contain “the doctrine of God”, “Trinitarianism”, and “the doctrine of Christ”. The Doctrine of God: The Apostles Creed says: “I believe in God, Father Almighty, Creator of heavens and the earth.” This declares that Christians believe in a personal God. When describing God, The Bible uses

24、 words like “faithful”, “loving”. This implies that we all come from God. God blesses us as father does his child. God creates us just as our fathers give birth to our bodies. In Christian doctrines “God creates the world” is an important part of the doctrine of God. Christians believe that God is t

25、he creator of the world. He owns the sovereign and proprietary rights of his world. Human being is part of Gods creation and human is regarded as the keeper of the world. That God is the creator means that things created by God are good. Tho ugh the world fell into guilt somehow, it is still good an

26、d worth saving. Christians doctrine of salvation leads people to recovering the world back to its original visage to some extent. Trinitarianism: It is one of the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. Christianism believes that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are an organic whole, thus the Father, th

27、e son of God, the Holy Ghost rolled into one. The Father is the only origin of Gods divinity. Jesus and the Holy Ghost are from the Father: Jesus begotten from the Father, the Holy Ghost proceeded by the Father. The Doctrine of Christ: Jesus Christ who is the son of the Father is the founder of Chri

28、stianity. He is the one to save the world and human beings. God makes himself truly appear through the Jesus and let Jesus exert His right and duty. 1.2 Main Factions of ChristianityPuritan There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand peoples eyes. In the river of the history, Christianity and its doc

29、trines have been explained by a great number of people and each had his own understanding. Viewing from the history of Christianity, we went through from the very beginning of Judaism to the modern Christianity. We once have the Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Church, Protestant and so on. As an Eng

30、lish major, and a girl who has great interest in western religion, 16th century is a period that can never be ignored. Talking about 16th century and religion, undoubtedly, what impressed us most is The Reformation. The 16th centurys Religion Reformation impacted most European countries, whatever so

31、ciety, culture, economy or anything else. The English reformation is a typical one. In that reformation, the Puritanism came to our eyes. In 16th century England has come to the era of the first industrial revolution. The bourgeoisie finally came to the stage of the history. 5 With the development o

32、f capitalism, the unprecedented strong national consciousness and the necessity of the development of the economy, the British urge to have a free and democratic atmosphere. The society needed to get rid of the religion control of Roman Catholicism, and the King wanted to recapture the power and put

33、 the church under his control. Finally in 1534, Henry VIII announced the Anglicanism to be the Church of England and he himself would be the highest chief of the Church. England finally separated from the control of Roman Empire. After Henry VIII died, the English religion came to a period of restor

34、ation and anti-restoration. At the end of 16th century, since the Church of England maintained much of the tradition of Roman Empire, the protestant required to purge the old ritual of Roman Catholicism. This is what we later called Puritanism. Puritanism was initiated by Oxford and Cambridge Univer

35、sity. At the beginning, they lashed out at the hierarchy and Holy Communion in Anglicanism but were turned down by Queen Elizabeth I. What is more, all the puritans who refused to wear the required clothes were all dismissed from their posts. Under Queen Elizabeths fierce repression and persecution,

36、 most puritans had to flee to other countries. Among them, the famous ship Mayflower brought part of the puritans and their religion to the New Land America. Since then, Puritanism started to create its new history on this free land. 1.3 Theological Ideology of Puritan During the religion reformatio

37、n in Europe, there formed a number of puritan factions, such as Martin Luthers Lutheran, John Calvins Calvinism, the radical Anabaptism and so on. The one that set foot on North America was a branch under the influence of Calvinism. Calvin believed that when Adam was expulsed from the Garden of Eden

38、, human nature had already fallen into the pool of evilness. The God only chose to save the elected people who believed in Him. (Ma, 2003:293) The theoretical system of Calvin was mainly a process of Puritan self-salvation. It contained “Election”, “Vocation”, “Justification”, “Sanctification” and “

39、Glorification”. The idea of Election is based on the predestination. The elected people were chosen by God in the previous life. Their soul would be reborn after they received the vocation from the Holy Spirit. The chosen people who were justified need to be pious, humble and thrifty. They should re

40、sist all the temptation in this life in order to be recognized by God. Glorification is the sign of the final judgment to puritans actions. This would make him surpass others in the world. The puritan theory of Justification plays an important part in separating itself from the Roman Catholic Church

41、. The idea of self-saving was the promoting power of the accumulation of capitalist wealth and offered material base for the development of 6 North American colonies which finally lead to the independence of America. 2. Puritan Influence on 19th Centurys American Literature The American history bega

42、n with the English colonial expansion. Large-scale immigration to America first started in 16th century. Because of the English religion reformation, a great number of puritans had to leave England. At that time, the whole Europe was under the influence of The Reformation. In order to get the religi

43、ous freedom, they went to the New Continent to get their own way in their own churches. The early American literature, whatever the themes, objects or matters, was deeply rooted in Puritanism. We can say if one does not have a detailed understanding of puritan and its literature, he can never boast

44、that he has a good study on American literature. 2.1 Influence on the Formation of Americanism When it comes to Americanism, we usually mean individualism, liberalism, democracy, equality and so on. Actually it is hard to define what Americanism really is. As professor Tang had announced in his Amer

45、icanism that Americanism is a kind of elusive thing. (Nan, 1988: 247-248) For me, the two most impressive characters are liberalism and the fanatic pursuing of wealth. According to the history, it is not hard to find out that Puritanism had great influence on the formation of Americanism. In German

46、reformation, Martin Luther put faith “Justification by faith”. That is, puritans can be righteous by believing. The God, which made it unnecessary to depend on priest or the church to transmit Gods will. Each believer himself can communicate with God by reading The Bible. This saved the believers fr

47、om the control of the Pop and freed their minds. What is more, the primal reason of puritans immigrations is to find a free place for their religious development. During next few centuries, puritans dream of freedom and democracy which they eagerly pursued under the constriction of Queen Elizabeth f

48、inally rolled into their aspiration of liberalism. Liberalism was the original dream of the first American and it was basically rooted in every generation of American people, not only by doctrines, but also morality. The pursuing of wealth is another impressive character of American. Americans fanatical aspiration of treasure even finally h