Yunnan Minzu University Han Xue & Shao Shi-neng 650504
Abstract: This essay aims at discussing the biggest harm for a man by analyzing the alienation among the main characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. According to explore the enormous influence of human race on men’s life, we know that it was that alienation even the age Hester lived in that lead to her tragedy.
Key words: Alienation; Human Race; Tragedy;
Chapter One Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter is one of his representative novels and it is also regarded the first great American Symbolic novel．Hester Prynne is the heroine of this hovel and the whole story is centered round her．As well as we know, the scarlet letter A belongs to her Hester is a symbolic mark that goes through the whole story Characters, as the indispensable elements of novel, are essential to the plot．So, it is significance to explore the truth of the developing of characters for a work.
In this essay, there are three parts mainly talking about the alienation among the main characters in this novel. Firstly, analysis on the alienation between Hester and Chillingworth; then Hester and Dimmesdale; the last is Hester and her daughter.
Chapter Two Analysis
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, there are four main characters: Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester’s daughter—Pearl. The complex relationships among them are: Hester is Chillingworth’s wife, and Dimmesdale is Hester’s lover, and Pearl is the daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale.
1.Alienation between Hester and Roger
Roger Chillingworth is a man deficient in human warmth. His twisted, stooped, deformed shoulders mirror his distorted soul. From what the reader is told of his early years with Hester, he was a difficult husband. He ignored his wife for much of the time, yet expected her to nourish his soul with affection when he did condescend to spend time with her. Chillingworth’s decision to assume the identity of a “leech,” or doctor, is fitting. Unable to engage in equitable relationships with those around him, he feeds on the vitality of others as a way of energizing his own projects. Chillingworth’s death is a result of the nature of his character. After Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth no longer has a victim. Similarly, Dimmesdale’s revelation that he is Pearl’s father removes Hester from the old man’s clutches. Having lost the objects of his revenge, the leech has no choice but to die.
Hester Prynne was a woman who committed adultery，which is representation of the evil of human nature，and cannot be accepted by the society at that time and Puritans．Hester betrayed her husband and went against the principle of honesty on Puritan，so she must accept the severe penalty in the Puritan society at that time．In the whole story，Hester generally kept silent，accepted the insult from adults to children in the Puritan soeiety，and wasn’t hesitate to adopt deceitful measure to refuse to tell the name of her child’s father for love and preventing Dimmesdale and was unwilling to reveal Chillingworth’s real status (Li, 2005).
Ultimately, Chillingworth represents true evil. He is associated with secular and sometimes illicit forms of knowledge, as his chemical experiments and medical practices occasionally verge on witchcraft and murder. He is interested in revenge, not justice, and he seeks the deliberate destruction of others rather than a redress of wrongs. His desire to hurt others stands in contrast to Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin, which had love, not hate, as its intent. Any harm that may have come from the young lovers’ deed was unanticipated and inadvertent, whereas Chillingworth reaps deliberate harm.
Just as Chillingworth frankly said to Hester．“We have wronged each other，mine was the first wrong，when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay．”(P61) Though they are couples they do not love each other. Hester listens to her parents to marry with that old man without love. While Chillingworth was absorbed in his studies about science and other things. He has little time to company his young wife. There is lacking of communications between them. So they definitely did not know what is thing they really need. Actually, they are not happy in their marriage. This is also as one of the reasons that lead to tragic.
2.Alienation between Hester and Dimmesdale
In the novel, Hester and Dimmesdale were in love with each other. They have a little girl of love. Reader often thinks Pearl is the best embodiment of their love. Hester had sexual relations with Dirmnesdale，on one hand，because she had never gained love from old，abnormal and hypocritical Chillingworth；one other hand．because she had never heard from Chiningworth and thought that he had died by mistake．Because of being alone and helpless，Hester accepted the love of the young priest，Dimmesdale，which is seemingly natural and conforms to human character．
When they met the difficulties, they did not choose to face it together or discuss it together. On contrast to, they used their own ways to solve them, Hester chose to face the people bravely and tried to protect he lover. however, Dimmesdale chose to face it secretly. That shows there are alienation exist between them.
Just as Dimmesdale said to Hester，“May God forgive us both! We are not，Hester，the worst sinners in the world．There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin．He has violated，in cold blood，the sanctity of a human heart．Thou and I，Hester，never did so!”(P152)
In fact，their love is not true. After Hester was caught, Dimmesdale did not have the courage to encounter difficulties between them. Instead, he let Hester face that alone. Dimmesdale was selfish and false，and lived in the contradictory and misery state accompanying by the criminal psychology．He was struggling on the edge of the spirit and the flesh coming breakdown，and he was beat and lashed by the, so called articles of religion “the gory whip” at every moment，which caused him not to get serenity even for a moment．It must be considered that he continued to be engaged in the pure mission of a priest with the criminal body should be a great affront to God and a deception to god people．
Ironically, the people in town do not believe Dimmesdale’s protestations of sinfulness. Given his background and his penchant for rhetorical speech, Dimmesdale’s congregation generally interprets his sermons allegorically rather than as expressions of any personal guilt. This drives Dimmesdale to further internalize his guilt and self-punishment and leads to still more deterioration in his physical and spiritual condition. The town’s idolization of him reaches new heights after his Election Day sermon, which is his last. In his death, Dimmesdale becomes even more of an icon than he was in life. Many believe his confession was a symbolic act, while others believe Dimmesdale’s fate was an example of divine judgment.
3.Alienation between Hester and Pearl
Hester’s daughter—Pearl, as a symbol that is quite young during most of the events in this novel—when Dimmesdale dies, she is only seven years old; and her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them pointed questions and draws their attention, and the reader’s, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. In general, children in The Scarlet Letter are portrayed as more perceptive and more honest than adults, and Pearl is the most perceptive of them all.
Pearl makes us constantly aware of her mother’s scarlet letter and of the society that produced it. From an early age, she fixates on the emblem. Pearl’s innocent, or perhaps intuitive, comments about the letter raise crucial questions about its meaning. Similarly, she inquiries about the relationships between those around her—most important, the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale—and offers perceptive critiques of them. Pearl provides the text’s harshest, and most penetrating, judgment of Dimmesdale’s failure to admit to his adultery. Once her father’s identity is revealed, Pearl is no longer needed in this symbolic capacity; at Dimmesdale’s death she becomes fully “human,” leaving behind her otherworldliness and her preternatural vision. Here, Pearl becomes nothing more than the face of Hester's guilt. The problem that recurs in analyses such as these is that critics are too quick to dismiss Pearl's integral role in the text, and furthermore, many are in disagreement over what, exactly, the scarlet letter represents.
Chapter Three Conclusion
Above all, it is the alienation that leads to Hester’s tragedy indirectly. Maybe she could not avoid the surroundings she lives for she born in that age, growing from that. As a woman, it is difficult for her to find a way to be a stronger. From the moment she met Roger and Dimmesdale she was doomed. But living in such a society, either he or another he, she might have the same fate. Each of the people around her pushed her into the abyss of fate. None of them tried to rescue her. Therefore, people may realize that the terrible aspect of human race. Hester’s tragedy resulted from people’s heartlessness and indifference, which made her feel disappointed with her life and the world she existed.
References:
[1] Nathaniel Hawthorne. Scarlet Letter[M].
[2] Feng, Liu. A Pietist，or A Sceptic--on Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Puritanism Thought [J]. Changchun: Changchun University of Science and Technology(Social Sciences). 2005 (1) 18.
[3] Feng, Du & Qingping, Wang. An Approach to the Humanity of the ScarIet Letter [J]. Anhui: Anhui University of Science and Technology. 2009 (1).
[4].李儒寿.《红字》女主人公海丝特·白兰性格特征探析[J].武汉：武汉大学学报（人文科学版）. 2005（4）58.
作者简介：
韩雪（1987-），女，汉族，主要研究英语语言文学方向，职称研究员，工作单位云南民族大学。
邵石能（1986-），男，汉族，主要研究英语语言文学方向，工作单位云南民族大学，职称助教。