英语本科毕业论文-The Psychoanalysis of Hester in The Scarlet Letter.doc

The Psychoanalysis of Hester
in The Scarlet Letter
ⅠThe Hawthorne Nathaniel and Hester Prynne
Hester’s Pains and Hawthorne’s Views on Sufferings
Hawthorne is aware that society can be changed gradually, and his also aware that the progress of society is panied with heavy cost. Hawthorne has long had a sad, tragic recognition that a break with the past and its values too often can not be achieved at all or can not be made without “such suffering that the cost may to too high”.① Constance Rourke once said that “Hawthorne was deeply engaged by the consideration of lost or submerged emotion.” The Scarlet Letter, like his other works. Describes the loss or submergence of emotion involved in the abandonment of the cultural heritage of the Old World. In Hawthorne’s eyes, if a certain beauty disappears on our essay from the Old World to the New World, that is the price we should pay②. In this passage, attention is paid to the sufferings of Hester Prynne in the process of striving for a new order of life. In her long years’ struggling, Hester turns herself from an adulteress punished by the colony to the self-ordained “Sister of Mercy,” but her victory is gained at great cost—the loneliness over love, lofty and laughter. Hawthorne in his lifetime suffers the pain of being separated from the outside world, partly because of his lonely family, and partly because of his disagreement with his contemporaries in light of social reform. Then it depicts Hester’s gloomy life with no love and laughter. Hester is surrounded by a mood of harried dejection. Hester’s gloom is illustrated from two aspects: one is from the grey environment surrounded Hester; the other is that Hester is the victim of the Puritan society that treats her with hard severity at best. Hester’s tragedy is also indicated by alienation from munity—both physical and spiritual.
Hawthorne’s Alienation in His Personal Life
Coming back from Hawthorne’s funeral, Enderson wrote in his journal:
Clarke in the