时间：2022-08-07 08:03:58
【摘 要】每一部文学作品都是现实社会的一面镜子，反映了现实社会的背景和作者对社会的认识。美国著名小说家纳撒尼尔?霍桑的代表作《红字》是美国浪漫主义文学时期的经典之作。作者细腻而深刻的语言，作品中丰富而复杂的人物形象与心理描写使该作品充满魅力，至今人们还从不同的角度讨论和评价着《红字》。《红字》讲的是两百多年前，北美洲殖民地深受清教政权的严酷统治，女主人公海丝特?白兰因与神职人员亚瑟?丁梅斯代尔相爱并生下了女儿――珠儿而被判通奸罪，并处以终身佩戴象征羞辱的红色A字的刑罚。而丁梅斯代尔却由于内心的懦弱，不敢向世人袒露真实的自己，逃避责任，走向了虚伪。亚瑟?丁梅斯代尔是纳撒尼尔?霍桑笔下最为丰满的一个人物形象。他有着神圣的外表与虚伪的内心；他有着献身宗教的理想与渴求爱情的梦想；这些形成了鲜明的对比。真实与虚伪的激烈碰撞使得丁梅斯代尔的灵魂与肉体都饱受煎熬。一直以来，他的内心深受清教教义的束缚。他所受的教育与社会的大环境都在逼迫着他压抑自己的情感，用内心虚伪的一面逃避着本该由他勇敢承担的责任。
【关键词】红字 纳撒尼尔?霍桑 亚瑟?丁梅斯代尔 性格剖析 宗教束缚 虚伪的内心
【中图分类号】I106.4 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1674－4810（2013）05－0078－02
I Introduction
The Scarlet Letter，with every character portrayed in a distinguished way by Nathaniel Hawthorne，became one of the most excellent literature works in the 19th century in America and since its publication in 1850，it has received a wide range of consideration from many readers and critics all around the world. The novel was written in the background of colony times of America over 200 years ago. It is a tale of adultery that narrates a love tragedy in the colony of New England and it revealed the cruelty of social code，deception of religion and pretence of morality during the development of capitalism in American. Hester Prynne，Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth，the three main characters in the novel，give readers deep impressions，among which Dimmesdale is the one whose personality was most abundant and complicated. His inner world conflicted with his appearance; his belief conflicted with his behavior. The religious doctrine that Dimmesdale preached could not integrate with his real life; he always twisted in contradictions. Therefore，in my opinion，it is the most valuable to analyze Dimmesdale’s mental characteristics and its causes.
II General description of Dimmesdale’s character
Author Dimmesdale was a good Puritan clergyman，but he fell in love with Hester Pyrnne and lived in a contradictory life since the moment when he met her. As a common person，Dimmesdale had all the feelings that other young people had. “He was a person of very striking aspect，with a white，lofty， and impendending brow，large，brown，melancholy eyes，and mouth which，unless when he forcibly compressed it，was apt to be tremulous，expressing both nervous sensibility and a vast power of self－restraint.”It was obviously that Dimmesdale was an emotional，hypocritical and cowardly person who had many antitheses. Dimmesdale suffered greatly from his regret of the guilt of adultery. He loved Hester Prynne; but as a clergyman，he also wanted to be honest to his belief. When standing on the pulpit，he made wonderful speech to encourage people; however，he didn’t dare to tell the truth; he didn’t dare to express the real personality of himself; he even didn’t dare to face the real himself. When staying in his room，Dimmesdale endured his inner torment. Just as the words in The Scarlet Letter:“No man，for any considerable period，can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
III The causes for the formation of Dimmesdale’s character
The whole colony of North America was fulfilled with stifling atmosphere over two hundred years ago when the government was united with the religion，ruling the whole region with the strong power of religion. We all knew that it was the Puritans and the native Indians who set up colonies and then governed colonies with the Puritan doctrines and made the religious doctrines and laws greatly developed to an extent of much more cruel than ever before.
1．General introduction of Puritanism and shackles of religion inside Dimmesdale
Puritanism，which originated from Britain and developed in the colony of North－America，aimed at eliminating the rest reformer of Catholicism in Anglicanism and its doctrine was affected by Calvinists. Puritans took Bible as their only belief and stubbornly believed in the theory of original sin and salvation，and they completely prohibited aspiration and highly praised scared ideal. Gradually，Puritans had become more and more callous and even brutal and had made great impact on America’s politics，economy and culture and even people’s mind with its rule. In the Scarlet Letter，Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote，“…and its present state of development，not to the impulses of youth，but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much，precisely because it imagined and hoped so little”. you can see how seiously the people’s mind be fettered and how cruel the Puritanism was.
2．Dimmesdale’s education status and the social environment
Although there were not many details about Dimmesdale’s education status in the novel，a few words written by Hawthorne still told the readers something about that，“…Mr. Dimmesdale－a young clergyman，who had come from one of the great English universities，bringing all the learning of the age into our wild forest－land. His eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession”. From these words and Dimmesdale’s behavior，we can also feel that there must have been some closed relationship connected his life and education status with Religion. As a good Puritan clergyman，the education Dimmesdale had received and his experience guided him how to win the reputation which seemed resplendent but actually utterly worthless. No one told him what the real life was and what the real happiness was. At that time，because Puritanism was popularized in the colony he lived，his love for God and his enthusiasm for Puritanism made him success in his career.
3．Nathaniel Hawthorne’s living background and experiences
After reading the Scarlet Letter，the author found that despite the reasons stated in the novel for the shape of Arthur Dimmesdale’s personality，there also existed quite some other reasons why Nathaniel Hawthorne portrayed Arthur Dimmesdale as a hypocritical，selfish and timid man who was double tortured by his belief and conscience. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in a prominent Puritan family and his family members were all Puritans. Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in a period of time when the capitalism developed fast and the culture flourished. In fact，Hawthorne’s unexcited life and experiences became the great sources for his writing. On one hand，Hawthorne dissatisfied with moral degradation and hypocritical phenomenon in American，so he sharply criticized these and Puritanism in his works; on the other hand，since his mind was greatly affected by Puritanism，he could not extricate himself from the religious bondage. Therefore，Hawthorne’s attitude toward the Puritanism was ambiguous. This can be verified in the Scarlet Letter. Arthur Dimmesdale was a character that Hawthorne expressed his contrast. For one thing， Hawthorne described Dimmesdale as a man who can use beautiful words to express his love and joy with Hester; for another，Hawthorne made Dimmesdale live in torment for his belief in religion. It can be concluded that Dimmesdale’s anxiety and contrast were the right one existed in Hawthorne’s mind.
Ⅳ Conclusion
The Scarlet Letter is the author’s favorite works in American literature and Arthur Dimmesdale is the character who impresses me. When the author read the story for the first time，the author was annoyed with Dimmesdale because when he faced the public，especially Hester，his words expressed hypocrisy and timidity；he wanted to love but dared not to love; he wanted to admit his guilt but dared not to admit. When the author read the story for the second time，the author sympathized Dimmesdale because of his contrast and torment. Hawthorne described all of these incisively and vividly. Sometimes，Dimmesdale was sincere and moving，but sometimes he became hypocritical and annoying. In my opinion，the root causes for Dimmesdale’s tragedy were Puritanism. Dimmesdale was fettered by Puritanism in his growth and education while Hawthorne was also deeply fettered by Puritanism. They two and Hester resisted Puritanism but could not extricate from it. Just because of this， there created a charming character－Arthur Dimmesdale.
参考文献
［1］Nathaniel Hawthorne，“The Scarlet Letter”，Wordsworth Classic，1992：48、49、161
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