浅析《红字》中海斯特的性格

She falls in love with Dimmesdale who is her true lover. It should be a good matter, so to speak, if she could divorce from the oldest Chillingworth and then marry Dimmesdale it would be a romantic love story. Unfortunately, it is disgraceful of a married woman to love another man even if that is her beloved one in that abnormal time. So, what a disgraced thing it is that she has to be set up to public shame and wore a mark of shame upon her bosom letter A stands for adultery that makes her bring sermon against sin, until the ignominious scarlet letter be engraved upon her tombstone .But that does not impact on her life even if all dwells give a wide berth to her and use the most incautious words to aggress her later. Because of her benevolence, the inhabitants accept her gradually though they insult her sometimes. Hester does not mind it, because what she concerns is Whether Dimmesdale’s life is good or not.

3.2.2 Personality of Compromising Being A Mother

Hester is deeply influenced by the society. Although she is rejected by the society, she tries to return to it. She has distinctive characters of contemporary feminist. “They have strength and virtue, but there are also shortcomings and evil. On the one hand they learn to obey and do something good; on the other hand, their minds remain independent and keep fighting. For Hester, she has to get close to Puritanism’s idea about human nature and its values. On the other hand, she refuses to repent and insists on true love. Maternal love plays an important role in Hester’s psychological process. In the society where religious theocracy dominates, although Hester knows she has the right to pursue love, she is still conscious that her betrayal of marriage offends the law. As a woman, she can alone bear all punishments and misfortunes. But as a mother, she worries about the cruel punishments will fall into Pearl. “Everyday she observes the child’s personality closely, for the fear that it may develop some gloomy or wired manners. She has suffered so much pain and loneliness, so she hopes her child not to recommit the same error, but to integrate into the society and live a happy life. Therefore, she silently endures the pain and maintains contact with the society through the needlework to gain comfort. As Pearl’s name suggests, she comes from sin, but she is pure. She is also a constant reminder to Hester and to

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townspeople of Hester’s sin. Hester dresses her with bright color and named her pearl, and that shows her love to her baby. Though Pearl is regarded as the result of Hester and Dimmesdale’s adultery, she is still a pearl to Hester. Hester give all hope to Pearl. She is still a brave mother.

The compromise of Hester Prynne is related to Hawthorne's ideology. Hawthorne was born in New England dilapidated aristocratic family. There are two generations of his ancestors were in colonial politics and religion and authority figures, who persecuted by fanatical Puritan heresy. When Hawthorne was a child he lived in Salem town which was a famous place in American history. He deeply influenced by Calvinism, a region suffering from the infiltration of religious and cultural. Then in Hawthorne's later year he face the American capitalist economy of rapid development, social structure, the scene of major changes, it shows a very complicated ambivalence of his mind. On the one hand he dared to criticize Calvinism poisoning people's religious fanaticism and stifle the religious dogma in the pursuit of an abstract thought in the United States. In The Scarlet Letter, on the one hand, he criticized religious bigotry destroy people's position. He focus on the performance of the bravely and rebellion of Hester Prynne. On the other hand, and most importantly, he concept of original sin and Calvinism affirmed the seriousness of early Puritan, digestion of the Hester's courage and sense of resistance, so that to search for compromise in the Hester's life from the original sin in access to spiritual self-rescue. Hester Prynne of The scarlet letter, consciously or unconsciously reinforce compromise, this is the result of Hawthorne's religious contemplation. Compromise of Hester Prynne is began with the crimes. She gradually forced to compromise on the way to redemption. She and Dimmesdale's love sown the seeds of evil, therefore, she spent seven years to living shame. 3.2.3 Personality of Brave And Strong

Hester is the only person who wears the “A” in the whole article. Puritan authority’s power forces her to wear it all day long after the punishment of three hours standing on the scaffold. Hester can leave the Massachusetts colony, but she does not flee. She regards the place as her home living as the type of shame.

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It is love, which is the only reason for her to live in that place. The kind of love is declared guilty according to the puritan religion, which takes the asceticism as the local law at that time. “There trod the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make that their marriage-alter, for a joint futurity of endless retribution (Hawthorne, 2009,489 ). Maybe at that time, Hester’s choice seems a little innocent. Just for the faith for love, which can also be regarded as the passion in a short while though wild nature as she has, she restrains her be behavior from then on for she thinks herself commit an offence. She swears of keeping the secret of the relationship between her and her husband Chillingworth shows that she is in blame at that time and puzzled with her love.

When being put into prison, Hester refuses to confess who the father of the baby is, she protect Dimmesdale though Dimmesdale is too recreant to admit the sin. After Hester commits the sin, the Puritan society immediately enforces its law against her. “Hester betrayed her husband and went against the principle of honesty on Puritan, so she must accept the severe penalty in the Puritan society at that time.” Apart from wearing the red letter “A”, she has to suffer public shame on the scaffold.

Though the love between Hester and Dimmesdale is true, Hester is a woman who is married. Both of them sin, they have to be punished and get salvation through their acts.

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS OF THE LETTER “A”-ADULTERY

In puritan’s doctrine, one should get salvation by hard working, Hester must be tortured until she receives forgiveness from God, and all that she can do is to bear until she gets salvation.

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4.1 Being Shamed For “Adultery”

The authorities of puritan put an “A” on her dress to shame her, to let her remember her sin and to alien her from the mental and physical. Originally, “A” stands for adultery, that’s the sin Hester violate. Because of this letter, she is looked down upon by the villagers and is isolated.

Hester Prynne suffers not only because of mankind’s original sin, but also, and more decided by her adultery with Dimmesdale. Adultery is an offense towards God so she must be punished severely. In fact, Hester’s life is full of misery after the exposure of her crime. The first time Hester Prynne walks out of the prison with her baby, she is punished to be set in the market-place where “stern-browed men” and “unkindly-visaged women” and “a crowd of eager and curious schoolboys” may “have a fair sight of her brave apparel.” This kind of public exposure is not considered sympathetic in local people’s eyes. Instead, it is “a blessing on the righteous colony of the Massachusetts, where iniquity is dragged out into the sunshine!”(Maibor, 2004, 6) Although it is no great distance from the prison-door to the market-place, to Hester Prynne, a prisoner, it is reckoned a journey of some length. However haughty she is, “she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart has been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon.”

When Hester Prynne finally stands on the scaffolds, she is crowded by people who are somber and grave. She does her best to support herself under the heavy weight of a thousand relenting eyes, all fastened upon her, and concentrate upon her bosom. People do not insult her with terrible words; however, Hester feels much more suffocating in “the solemn mood of the popular mind”. She is so uneasy that she even wants to be insulted by venomous words rather than to bear all those rigid countenances. She can repay with a bitter and disdainful smile at the multitude’s scornful laugh. But encountered with such “leaden infliction”, she feels that unless “shrieking out with the full power of her lungs, and cast herself from the scaffolds down upon the ground, or else go mad at once.”(Maibor, 2004, 10)

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