My_Thought_on_the_Scralet_Letter

Tragic Lovers, Tragic Love --Book Report of The Scarlet Letter It seems to be generally agreed that girls’ preferences are different from boys’. Or at least, it applies to most boys and girls. So the book I choose for the second book report is still a little bit girlish to some extent – The Scarlet Letter. It’s about a tragic love story of a woman in New England in the 17th century. The author of the book, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was an American novelist who had made a great contribution to the Romantic Movement and, more specifically, Dark Romanticism. In addition, he was also an elite psychologist. These two identities made his novels and tales a kind of penetrating explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity. Nathaniel Hawthorne was greatly influenced by Puritanism, Transcendentalism and Mysticism, which could be traced in his works, especially in The Scarlet Letter. Before getting married, he worked at a Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community. (He introduced his experience during this period of time at length in the preface of the book.) After getting married, in order to earn a livelihood, Hawthorne served as surveyor of the port at Salem. It is in that place that he began writing his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. While not recognized by Hawthorne himself as his most important work, the novel was regarded not only as his greatest accomplishment, but also frequently as the greatest novel in American literary history. After published in 1850, the novel quickly became a best seller, and it was called “a treatment of the effects of sin on the human spirit” by the public. Since I was very curious about the novel related to psychology, and I also hoped to draw some clues about what made this novel so successful. So I read it chapter by chapter for several weeks. And the answer is that, the book didn’t let me done. The story took place in 17th century Boston, Massachusetts during the summer. The heroine of the novel, Hester Prynne, was condemned to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her breast for life. The letter “A” symbolized the sin and the act of adultery that she had committed. Because of the badge of shame, she was scorned as a transgressor of religion and a culprit of sanctity. She lived a life fighting with hardship and distain. She supported herself by working as a seamstress and brought up the child who was considered to be the production of the evil adultery on her own. However, from the beginning to the end, she refused to identify her child’s father. Compared to the anguish Hester Prynne experienced, the young minister named Arthur Dimmesdale suffered even more. Because he was exactly the other part of the adultery. Although he hadn’t been punished by the code yet, the ugly secret tortured him everyday, and he felt hell-fired painful and shameful deep in his heart. Faced to the public, he should act as a saint. But in fact, he knew himself was totally a devil. So he took penance in private, tormenting himself physically and psychologically. Hester’s husband was furious about his wife’s betray, so he determined take revenge. The old man got suspicious of the young minister, and he got closed to him on purpose as a physician who could take care of the young minister round the clock. Finally, he found the hidden mystery. Hester was aware that now that her despicable husband had discovered the truth, he would reveal his identity to the worshipful magistrate and the governor. She arranged an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest, and there they made a plan of fleeing to Europe and living there as a family. The day before the ship was to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preached his most eloquent sermon ever. The unexpected thing was that after his sermon, he approached to his lover and his daughter on the scaffold and confessed the scandal publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. After that, he died in front of the multitude, with a flush of triumph. Frustrated in his revenge, Hester’s husband died a year latter. Hester and pearl went out of people’s sight for dozens of years. Many years latter, Hester came back alone, still wearing the scarlet letter. The two dead bodies of Hester and her lover were buried closely after Hester’s death, with a tombstone served for both. In fact, the novel excluded even the representation of the passionate moment which enabled the entire novel. This kind of literary form made readers to draw clues from dozens of conversions listed in the novel and reconstruct the scene which happened seven years ago before the main body of the book by readers themselves. The author focused his writing on the mental activities of the characters and gave vivid descriptions about the conflicts deep in their hearts. Their tension, their uneasiness and their struggle displayed clearly between the lines. Like most novels related to the contradiction between the rigid society and true love, the story had a tragic ending. True love was suppressed or even stifled in the cradle, and the cruel social reality got the upper hand. Ethic, morality and the old perceptions of people composed an invisible line which set back all the things they considered to be irrational. However, from another perspective, the novel was not that tragic, because people in town, especially women in town, forgave Hester for her generosity and the good deeds she had done finally. Even though, all the things could not be retrieved. The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalled me the story of Adam and Eve, because in both cases, sin resulted in expulsion and suffering.. Adam and Even were expelled from the Garden of Eden for eating the apple of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of their knowledge, Adam and Eve were made aware of their disobedience. Once expelled from the Garden of Eden, they were forced to toil and procreate, and their labors seemed to define the human condition. As for Hester, the scarlet letter functioned as her passport into regions where other women dared not tread, leading her to speculate about her society and herself more boldly than anyone. It also reminded me of the classic story in Chinese history—Butterfly Lovers. The two lovers who both had strong affection to each other were forced to set apart by the parents of the heroine, according to the so-called old tradition that the bride and the bridegroom should be well-marched in social and economic status. They revolted and struggled, but in vain. The regime and stereotypes in people’s minds claimed the lives the two young lovers. At all times and in all countries, tragedies like these are not uncommon. We add too much limitation to personal relationships, and we try to judge a certain match is right or wrong before we know anything about it. We curse adulteries and we damned elopements, but we never ask ourselves why these extreme situations happen again and again. I am not saying that all the love should be accepted by the public. And I should stress that I do not agree with the “All the things existing in the world are reasonable” theory. Of course, having affairs randomly or living a dissolute life can not be allowed, and people who condemned them should be punished for their irresponsibility. However, in spite of that, let’s think about those rational ones. Let’s think about those innocent couples set apart by the so-called rules of society. Let’s think about those beloved lovers torn by the ridiculous thoughts rooted in people’s mind. Let’s think about those miserable women who are tortured by their husbands they forced to marry to who are not able to pursue their true love in the rest of their life. Because if they do so, they will be bankrupt in reputation. Branding a scarlet on the bosom is not a way once and for all. There are more things waiting as to understand, to respect and to solve. Name |Structure and content (40%) |Word choice and sentence variety(30%) |Mechanics (grammar, spelling, and punctuation) (25%) | Unity and Coherence (5% ) | Total Score |Note | |Written by | | | | | |First Draft | |Checked by | | | | | |Second Draft | |Graded by Teacher | | | | | |Final Draft | |