sin

姜尚 西北政法大學

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said： ”Compared with civilized but antiquated Europe, USA "does not have a shadow , does not have ancient custom , does not have secret legends, does not have florid and confused as well silent bad luck evil , it only has boring and tasteless prosper”. So, he looked back,wishing to dig out something that is related to modern life.

I was oppressive when I read this novel. This is a sad story happened in a puritan village. The female character, Hester Prynne was forced to wear scarlet A in her cloth all the time for adultery.She went through a tragic marriage so after she thought her husband died of marine peril, she fell in love with a handsome priest, Arthur Dimmesdale.Soon after, Hester got pregnant which leaded her to jail. In the prison, she gave birth to her lovely daughter, pearl. She wouldn’t tell who pearl’s father is so judge said she had to wear scarlet A for life.

In the same day, Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth came back and claimed that he wanted to take revenge on her and her lover. But Hester wasn’t afraid and lived very tough and strong while Arthur was tortured by sense of guilty. He became increasingly weak under Roger’s scheme. Finally, he announced his crime to the public. People saw his scarlet A in his chest. The story ends beautifully,Hester and Arthur were buried together and pearl had a happy life then.

The scarlet letter that throughout the book has multiple meanings as well： it stands for Adultery,but at the same time, it stands for Arthur. Hester survived because love remained in her heart. The power of love is so strong that it made her sin and loneliness invisible. But for Arthur, ‘A’ was just a mark of sin which made him miserable. I read some remarks, some people think that ‘A’ also stands for ‘able’, ‘angle’ , ‘Amazon’ and ‘American’. It makes sense too.

Pearl is a lovely little girl who always wear red. She is so passionate for life that sometimes even terrified Hester. This little girl made Hester stronger. She was a angel who is Hester’s hope and faith. But on the other hand, pearl is the symbol of Hester’s sin who always remained Hester her miserable past.

Arthur was a famous and devout priest. After the trial, he was tormented. He wanted to take the responsibility but he was so afraid of people’s judgment. The sense of guilty almost crashed him. He hurt himself, prayed all nights but deep down, he knew that he had been forgiven. I think, after he stated his sin, he was truly relieved.

This is a story of sin, all characters were punished by their sin. Some people died of it,some people lived stronger because of it. There are so many symbolism in this novel that I haven’t completely discovered. This is a masterpiece of symbolism that is worth studying and researching.