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The Scarlet Letter is one of the most representative works of Hawthorne. The story was set in New England and used adultery as the clue. It told the entanglement of three characters: Hester, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth and described the influence of Christianity on human’s body and spirit in details. The Christian religion is a very important belief in western world and a necessary element of western culture. It also runs through western literature, like Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, in which Christian doctrines have the profound influence on the characters’ personality, especially Sin and Redemption. The creation myth of Christianity indicated the temptation of Sin on people and people’s perception of Sin. Love is human nature, but according to the Christian doctrines, Adam and Eve did not know love until they ate the fruit of wisdom of the Garden of Eden. Then they could produce human by themselves rather than relying on the God. It was the “Sin” and the affair violated the seventh commandment of Christianity. Although Christianity thought that human was born to be guilty, it advocated redemption on the basis of sin, so did The Scarlet Letter. Hester, Roger Chillingworth, Mr. Dimmesdale were marked as “Sinner” without exception. However, the final intention of the novel was redemption, so the characters confessed more or less at the end of the novel.文献综述
2. Literature Review
At the beginning, Hawthorne was a common writer without any fame. But with the publication of The Scarlet Letter, he gains worldwide status. Since it was published, it attracted the attention of many scholars. They started to research on his novel from a variety of aspects. For example, Yang Xiangqi researched on the tragedy of conflicts. He thought the main characters suffered quite different stress that depended on their own moral value, social principles and environmental limitations (Yang 1). Liu Huijuan wrote a paper On the Symbolic Meaning in Hawthorne’s Works The Scarlet Letter. She researched the symbolic meaning from three aspects: the characters’ names, the character images and the letter “A” (Liu 34). Some critics analyzed the novel from the feminist perspective, such as Meng Xueqin. She commented in Does Hester Get Rebirth?-Reexamination of the Heroine in The Scarlet Letter that no matter how firmly Hester struggled, she had to face and accept the reality finally (Meng 80). Ji Xiaoyan whose paper was A Study of Hawthorne’s Religious Ideas Reflected in The Scarlet Letter, focused on conflicts caused by religious ideas (Ji 23).
My point of research was affected by Su Yuxiao who focused on the Christian ethics; my point is also about Christian. However, my emphasis is the relationship between Christian doctrines and the personality of the characters. I will research the reflection of Christian doctrines on the characters’ personality. It also means putting Christian doctrines and character into a whole to explain. Then we can learn more about Christian doctrines and experience Hawthorne’s thoughts more deeply and find more important contemporary significance.
3. The Reflection of Christian Doctrines on the Personality of Hester and Dimmesdale
3.1 Responsibility, revolt and kindness of Hester Prynne来!自~751论-文|网www.751com.cn
In the Christian doctrine of redemption, we were born with sin, and God has rescued human beings by Christ Jesus. Jesus was crucified on the cross. He rescued the original sin of human with his life. However, when people commit the sin again by themselves, they should fully trust Jesus and keep their mind clean and do something to rescue them. Redemption is the opposite idea of Original Sin. “Save” means that soul can reborn on the day of the last judgment; “redeem” means that human can save their souls only by paying the price by themselves. Only by improving their virtue can they return to the Garden of Eden when they die. Hester’s character is exactly influenced by the redemption of Christian doctrines. She must keep purity of her heart and soul. So she becomes responsible for her sin. She is brave enough to face the suffering of the life and never gives in. In addition, she is kind to help others. All of her character embodies the concept of redemption. She began her self-redemption in the driven of her character.