Bedside Lamp English Learning Reader IV: The Scarlet Letter (English-Chinese Contrast)

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: The Scarlet Letter is a long novel by the 19th-century American Romantic writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Written in 1851, the novel depicts the protagonist Hester Prynne and her husband who move from England to Boston, then still a British colony in America. On the journey, her husband is captured by Native Americans. After arriving in America alone, Hester is forced into poverty and becomes pregnant after being seduced by a young minister. This act is deemed scandalous by the hypocritical Puritan society of the time. Authorities arrest Hester, put her in prison, parade her through the streets, and force her to wear a red A (for Adultery: Adultery) for life and stand on a scaffold for trial. The governor personally presides over Hester's trial, and her minister, Arthur Dimmesdale—a man publicly regarded as a paragon of high moral standards who seduced Hester—hypocritically urges her to reveal the name of her lover. However, Hester chooses to endure the humiliation alone and refuses to confess. In her isolated and humiliated circumstances, Hester lives with resilience, relying solely on needlework for a living. Her only pillar in life is raising her beloved daughter, Pearl. Hester's spirit of enduring humiliation, taking the blame for others, and unwavering resilience deeply moves and torments Dimmesdale, who soon falls ill from exhaustion. Meanwhile, Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, who has been secretly investigating the truth since his release, has gained a clear understanding of the situation while treating Dimmesdale and seeks to destroy him. To escape, Hester and Dimmesdale agree to take Pearl and flee to a place "where no white man's footsteps are seen" on the day the new mayor takes office. However, Chillingworth discovers their plan, and their escape fails. As a result, on the day the new mayor takes office, Dimmesdale, along with Hester and Pearl, ascends the scaffold, confesses his seduction of Hester, and dies in Hester's arms. Hester is thus freed and takes Pearl to live elsewhere. Years later, Pearl grows up, establishes herself, while Hester returns to Boston alone, still bearing the red A. Through her "noble morality and spirit of helping others," she transforms the scarlet letter into a symbol of virtue and glory until her death. The novel is set in the colonial America of over two hundred years ago, but it exposes the cruelty of the legal codes, the deception of religion, and the hypocrisy of morality in 19th-century capitalist America. The protagonist, Hester, is portrayed as an embodiment of noble morality. She not only moves Dimmesdale, who is two-faced, but also influences a society filled with sin. As for her husband, Chillingworth, the novel portrays him as a shadowy figure obsessed with uncovering secrets and revenge. He serves only as a plot device in the story. The novel frequently employs symbolism, with its characters, plot, and language rich in subjective imagination. It often prioritizes psychological and intuitive descriptions, making it not only a masterpiece of American Romanticism but also considered the pioneering work of American psychological fiction.