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Introduction
• The Scarlet Letter told a story of a puritan woman Hester Prynne who was punished to wear a scarlet A which stood for the crime of adultery. The pretty young lady tried to settle down in Boston with her old and ugly husband Chillinggworth, a scholar. But the latter did not appear for years. During this time, Hester committed adultery with a local Minster Dimmesdale, and gave birth to a girl Pearl. Facing the terrible punishment, Hester refused to give her lover’s name away to protect him. Years later, the husband Chillinggworth came to the town and found out the whole truth, and he operated an horror revenge on Dimmesdale, with hiding his own true name. Yet, as the story going, Hester and Dimmesdale became sympathetic figures, while Chillinggworth was a devil at last.
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➢ Many of his works featuring moral allegories (寓 言）with a Puritan inspiration.
➢ A man of literary craftsmanship, extraordinary in the use of symbol: ★symbols serve as a weapon to attack reality. It can be found everywhere in his writing.
• Antinomian 唯信仰论者：主张基督徒可以废弃道德，依靠信仰 来拯救灵魂。
• Quaker 教友派：靠内心意识指引的教派
• Witch 巫女
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The Scarlet Letter: Background
The setting of The Scarlet Letter is Boston in the 1640s.Persecuted in England, the Puritans came to North America to form their own communities.
• Puritan 清教徒:Puritans believed God and Satan were present in everyone’s soul. They were constantly fighting against each other. They believed that the relationship of an individual to the community was an important concern.
➢ His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity.
➢ His works often have moral messages and deep psychological complortant Work
红字
the scarlet letter
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Nathaniel Hawthorne 纳撒尼尔·霍桑 (1804-1864)
➢ An American novelist and short story writer in the 19th century.
➢ His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism（黑色浪漫 主义).
Novels:
Fanshawe (1825，《范肖》） The Scarlet Letter(1850,《红字》） House of the Seven Gables (1851,《七个尖角阁的
房子》) The Blithedale Romance (1852,《福谷传奇》) The Marble Faun (1857,《玉石雕像》)
Short stories:
Twice-Told Tales （1837，《故事重述》） Mosses From an Old Manse (1846,《古屋青苔》)
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Background
• 17th Century • Boston, Massachusetts, New England colony
Life in the Colonies was harsh, but it gave the Puritans the opportunity to form a society based on their religious ideals. Puritans sought the freedom to live by their beliefs. However, the Puritan leaders did not tolerate religious beliefs that differed from their own.