美国文学简史常耀信版chapter5-7.ppt

Section III Late Romanticism
Nathniel Hawthorne (1804—1864)
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors, including John Hawthorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1804~1864)
His first novel, Fanshawe, was essful. However, his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, which was an immediate ess and allowed Hawthorne to devote himself to his writing.
Hawthorne passed away on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire after a long period of illness. Emerson described his life as painful solitude. His works remain notable for their treatment of guilt and plexities of moral choices.
The Marble Faun (1860)
Major Literary Works
Twice-Told Tales (1837)
Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)
The Scarlet Letter, (1850)
The House of Seven Gables (1851)
The Blithedale Romance(1852)
The Life of Franklin Pierce(1852)
Twice-Told Tales (1837)
----- a collection of short stories
The following is Poe’s reviews on this book.
Mr. Hawthorne's volumes appear to us misnamed in two respects. In the first place they should not have been called "Twice-Told Tales”, for this is a title which will not bear repetition.
If in the first collected edition they were twice-told, of course now they are thrice-told. May we live to hear them told a hundred times! In the second place, positions are by no means all "Tales." The most of them are essays properly so called.
This work is considered as his masterpiece.
The theme of the novel is that it is useless to hide guilt in order to avoid punishment. The novel asks the question of whether the act of Hester and her lover was really sinful. The author gives no clear answer.
Character List:
Arthur Dimmesdale:
Hester Prynne:
Pearl:
Roger Chillingworth:
2. Three sinner:
1) Hester Prynne—repentant sinner;
2) Dimmesdale—hidden sinner;
3) Chillingworth—unpardonable sinner.
Sins &
Three
Sinners
Sins:
1) original sin;
2) blackness