Abstract:The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American romantic writer in 19th century. Born in a Puritan family, Hawthorne was affected by Puritan ideology deeply when he was young. However, as he grew older, he began to recognize the irrationality and strictness of the religion. So in his novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reflected his ambivalent attitudes towards Puritanism. On one hand, he still supported the main ideas of Puritanism, such as "original sin", "remorse", "salvation", "predestinarianism". For example, when contriving the three major characters in The Scarlet Letter, namely Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, he dwelt on their sins and salvation roads respectively, which reflected Hawthorne's inheritance to Puritanism to some degree. What's more, although Hawthorne was in favor of the love between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, he still had no courage to overthrow the Puritanism totally and legalize their love. However, on the other hand, due to his living background, he began to realize the irrationality and strictness of the Puritanism gradually. Firstly, the author narrated the irrational and illegal love between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in details in order to criticize the asceticism of Puritanism. Secondly, in The Scarlet Letter, we could easily find that compared with other puritans in the small town, the life styles of Hester and the little Pearl were totally different, such as the way of dressing. From the two aspects, Hawthorne criticised the Puritanism’s constraints to human nature and wished to establish a more tolerant and humanistic society.

Keywords: Hawthorne, contradiction, attitudes towards religion, inheritance and criticism

Contents

摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 A Brief Introduction to Puritanism and Nathaniel Hawthorne-3

2.1 A Brief Introduction to Puritanism-3

2.2 A Brief Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne-3

Chapter 3 Hawthorne's Supports to Puritanism-5

3.1 Hester Prynne's Sin and Redemption-5

3.2 Arthur Dimmesdale's Sin and Redemption-6

3.3 Roger Chillingworth's Sin and Redemption-7

3.4 The Destiny of The Three Characters-8

Chapter 4 Hawthorne's Criticism of Puritanism-9

4.1 Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale's Betrayal to Puritan Principles-9

4.2 Hester Prynne's Beautiful Image and Different Life Style-9

Chapter 5 Conclusion-11

References-13

Acknowledgements-15