The Contrast Analysis of Morality and Spectators' Psychology in The Scarlet Letter Abstract The Scarlet Letter is the masterpiece of Hawthorne. The leading characters are deeply rooted in people’s mind, while the analysis of spectators is of great importance. This thesis focuses on analyzing spectators’ psychology and Hester’s characteristics, which in order to expose the dehumanizing living conditions under the control of religion. Make Hester’s kindness and humanity stand out by analyzing the inhospitality and ignorance of spectators. In the meanwhile, Hester’ moral vacillation, Dimmesdale’s moral rebirth and Pearl’s moral purification to vacillate the religion barrier, which also bring hope for people in that ages. Analyzing from this aspect is beneficial for readers to grasp the theme of this novel and improve their literature appreciation.58278

Key words: Spectators’ psychology; morality; humanity

 《红字》中道德张力和看客心理的反衬分析

摘  要《红字》中主人公性格和形象已经深入人心，但作品中看客心理探究仍有很大的研究意义。本文通过对小说中看客心理，凯斯特性格特点，以及两者的对比分析，揭露在宗教思想统治下人们非人性化的生活状态，以看客们的冷漠和无知来反衬凯斯特的善良。同时，通过分析凯斯特的道德救赎，丁梅斯代尔的道德重生，珠儿的道德净化作用，来动摇着看客们内心的宗教壁垒，散发出的微弱的人性之光给当时社会带来希望。从这个角度进行分析，有助于读者把握文章主题，和提高文学鉴赏的能力。

　毕业论文关键词：看客心理；道德张力；人性

 Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter 1

1.2 Literature review 1

1.3 Thesis structure 2

2. Spectators' psychology 2

2.1 Collective spectators——apathy, ignorance 2

2.2 Male spectators——male chauvinism, defeminnization 3

2.3 Female spectators——inhospitality, darkness of inner world 3

2.4 Children spectators——ignorance, hereditability 4

3. The causes of spectators’ psychology 5

3.1 Religion backgrounds 5

3.2 Humanity weaknesses 5

4.　Hester’s characteristics and spectators' psychology 6

4.1 The honesty 6

4.2 The religion introspectiveness and pureness 6

4.3 Tolerance of spectators’ inhospitality by self-kindness 6

5. Morality impacts on the spectators' psychology 7

5.1 Hester’s moral vacillation 7

5.2 Dimmesdale’s moral rebirth 8

5.3 Pearl ' s moral purification 8

6. Conclusion 9

Bibliography 9

1. Introduction

1.1 Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter

    Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804, is the most influential romantic novelist and psychological novelist in the 19th century. Hawthorne is an ideologically contradictory writer. He criticizes the hypocrisy of religious fanaticism and the church, while he takes the Calvinist creeds as the standards to understand community; his narratives the New England Anti-British struggle of the colonial peoples, while he is skeptical on social reform, technological progress and the abolitionist movement. Artistically, he is good at revealing the characters' inner conflicts and psychological description and symbolism, but his works are often with a strong religious atmosphere and mystery. He said his work is people's psychological romance, so literary historians often regard him as romantic writers. 《红字》中道德张力和看客心理的反衬分析:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_50698.html