析《红字》中海斯特的反抗精神-英文论文-Analysis-of-the-Hester’s-Spirit-of-Resistance.doc

Analysis of the Hester’s Spirit of Resistance in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is regarded as the representative work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. As the first symbolism novel in America, It plays a very important role in American literary history. In this outstanding novel, Hawthorne presented us a beautiful and sad love story in the 17th century of puritan England. The author successfully created a rebellious image ---- the heroine Hester Prynne. There are various analyses of Hester’s character after the population of the great novel around the world. The Scarlet Letter is about a rebellious female-heist novel. It revealed the heroine Hester’s spirit of resistance to the cruel society and the unfair fate by the description of tragic life of the heroine and the reproduction of the situation of women in Puritan society (Li yexia, 198 ). The heroine’s behavior infuriated the whole society, but the punishment which was given to Hester brought positive effect. Our brave heroine firmly believed that she was innocent and her love with the hero--Arthur was holy and pure. Nothing can prevent they from falling in love and nobody had right to punish them. During the time she was isolated by the citizens, she never changed his mind. That was a kind of rebelling which was expressed by silence (Xie lanwei, 3). In my point of view, the Hester’s rebellious spirit mainly embodied in three respects. Firstly, she has the courage to pursue true love in the conservative society. This is a kind of rebelling to loveless marriage. Even her husband who was regarded killed by Indian came back. Hester was still insisted on her love. She believed that woman has the right to seek her love and happiness. The people who fell in love with their faithful hearts were innocent. When the fate arranged her a kind of loveless marriage, she could shouted‘No’and rebel to the unfair destiny. When she was brought to trail even was threatened by death, Hester insisted in her mind. She refused to speak out the man’s name, the child’s father. She used her own way to protect her lover at all cost. Because she knew that if she spoke out the name of that man, their love would be completely destroyed by the terrible society, his lover’s reputation status and dignity would collapse. So she made the choice of bearing all the pain and taking all the responsibility by herself. That’s her way to seek freedom and happiness and defend this priceless true love. Secondly, Hester’s bold behavior was a declaration of war to the puritan society. As we know, the Puritan authoritarian applied by the New England comes from the authoritarianism of the old European mainland. The Puritans moved all the harsh measures which were used to sanction guilty people to the new continent. They created so many creeds to bind their believers. Puritanism advocated the whole world including human were entirely dominated in God's supreme authority, although the chance of rescue is uncertain, but the God was still the home to return to. The puritan society not only insisted that people should live plain lives but also suppressed the desire of the citizens. When Hester was accused of adultery, at the beginning of the trial, the church gaoler brought her to the cross, she pushed away him, and this behavior displayed her natural modesty and stubborn personality. She never thought she was the person who was guilty in her deepest heart. On the other hand, Hester’s clothes were far beyond the simple standards of the Puritanism, especially she ornamented the letter A which was represented adultery before her chest with gold lace, this behavior undoubtedly led to the anger of other puritans. When the people of the town saw The Scarlet Letter ‘A’ which was embellished by Hester in the first time, they were extremely surprised and angry. They couldn’t imagine how the woman can do such a shameful thing. In fact, Hester just wanted to prove her innocence by this way. At the same time, she expressed a great contempt for the obsolete rules which has suppressed large numbers of people for hundreds of years. Thirdly, Hester was a brave fighter who struggled against male-dominated society. At that time, the Puritan rulers developed harsh laws and religious principles in order to anaesthetize, deceive and imprisoned women. They followed the male-dominated system in ancient Greek mythology which was used to make sure the social and economic status of male. They preached the status of men and women were decided by their physical characteristics and functions. The most ridiculous opinion was: woman’s body was just like the land which needed the reclaiming and planting by man, so female can breed the next generation. They regarded female as the appendage of male and in that condition, women couldn’t make choice for themselves no matter how unfair the fate was. But Hester was the rebel to the patriarchy even though she has become a heathen in other people’s eyes. Hester considered