Abstract
This paper attempts to analyze the conflict of Transcendentalism and Puritanism reflected in the different interpretations of redemption in “The Celestial Railroad” (1852) authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a famous American writer in the 19th century. In Hawthorne’s works, the notion of Transcendentalism and the creed of Puritanism are often interwoven. In “The Celestial Railroad”, Hawthorne puts the plot in the setting of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress and strings Puritanism and Transcendentalism in the story. This paper endeavors to present the concrete examples in “The Celestial Railroad” in order to bring in the different interpretations of redemption reflected in the major characters and the conflict reflected in the irony. The explicit comparison of the two ideologies reveals that Nathaniel Hawthorne opposes and criticizes the transcendentalists’ interpretation of redemption in this novel. As there is limited research on the conflict of Transcendentalism and Puritanism reflected in redemption in “The Celestial Railroad”, this paper offers a deeper understanding of the novella.
Keywords Transcendentalism Puritanism redemption conflict criticism
本论文通过研读纳撒尼尔•霍桑的短篇小说《通天铁路》（1852），引入超验主义与清教思想这两种在一定程度上作用霍桑文学创作的思想在这一小说中的具体体现。霍桑在《通天铁路》中采用班扬长篇小说《天路历程》的故事背景，英语论文，巧妙的将超验主义与清教思想置于同一情境之中。结合该小说，以超验主义与清教思想关于救赎观的两种解读为基础，略论作者对受到这两种思想作用的主要人物形象的刻画及其思想行为上的对立及冲突，最终从这一方面得出结论，即霍桑在《通天铁路》中对超验主义救赎观的批判。
关键词 超验主义 清教思想 救赎观 冲突 批判
1 Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne for long has been considered to be the first great American writer of fiction to work in the moralistic tradition. His concern with moral problems and ambition to explore the human conscience of guilt in the form of novel attained him success along with a momentous position in the history of American literature. “The Celestial Railroad”, one of Hawthorne’s little-known short novels included in his book entitled The Snow Image and Uncollected Tales, adopts the setting of a dream in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. In “The Celestial Railroad”, Puritanism and Transcendentalism can both find expression and they stand in opposition to each other. In order to reach the conclusion that Nathaniel Hawthorne bears a critical attitude towards transcendentalists’ interpretation of redemption, this paper endeavors to analyze the conflict of Puritanism and Transcendentalism reflected in redemption which is implied in the arrangement of the plot and the portraits of the protagonists in “The Celestial Railroad”.
，英语毕业论文 |
