关于霍桑作品的基本主题

　　Abstract：Nathaniel Hawthorne’s whole life is perplexed by human beings’ sin and evil. His deep-rooted consciousness of Puritanism is shown in his works, and these extraordinary works have a similar theme, namely, the process from the original sin to redemption. In the first part of this paper, the author discusses the basic theme represented in Hawthorne’s short stories including Young Goodman Brown, The Minister’s Black Veil, Egotism or the Bosom Serpent, Roger Melvin’s Burial and his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter. Moreover, the author summarizes discrepancies among these five works although they have a common subject of sin. The second part focuses on the reasons why Nathaniel Hawthorne chooses such a basic theme. Hawthorne is a descendant of the Puritans and lives in a Puritan town, so the Puritan heritage plays a large part in his life and literary works. And the theme is influenced by his family life as well as his own hermit life. Furthermore, the frequent recollection of his sinful ancestors urges Hawthorne to set such a gloomy basic theme. And the last reason is to moralize people to get away from sinful behavior. In the last part of this paper, the author illuminates the significance of Hawthorne’s basic theme. The whole paper is aimed at helping readers to better understand and appreciate Hawthorne’s works.

　　Key words: basic theme, sin, expiation, redemption, Puritan, Calvinism

　　论文摘要:纳撒尼尔••霍桑是美国19世纪影响最伟大的浪漫主义小说家，同时又是一个深受新英格兰清教传统影响的作家。他多以加尔文教派的善恶观念来认识社会和整个世界，几乎倾其一生致力于探讨人性中的罪恶这一问题。他的作品反应了他根深蒂固的清教主义思想，因此很多作品都表现了一个相似的基本主题——原罪-赎罪-救赎。该论文的 论文检测天使-免费论文检测软件http://www.jiancetianshi.com
第一部分以霍桑的五部作品为例 --《好人布朗》、《胸中的蛇》、《教长的黑面纱》、《罗杰麦文的葬礼》、以及最著名的《红字》—来探讨他的上述基本主题，并归纳出这五部作品的精神意义。论文的第二部分通过霍桑家乡的所在地，家庭背景，和霍桑祖先的行为分析了霍桑选择这一主题的原因和清教徒迫害异端的事件对霍桑的思想所产生的深刻影响。而在最后一部分，论文阐释了霍桑这一基本主题的社会意义和人文意义。霍桑的作品中渗透着加尔文教派中关于“原罪”、“彻底堕落”等教义的观念”，略显隐晦难懂，本论文的目的在于帮助读者更好的理解和欣赏霍桑的作品及其意义。

　　关键词： 基本主题  原罪  悔罪  救赎  清教  加尔文教

　　Ⅰ. Introduction

　　Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great brilliant American writer full of inspiration and talent. He is honored as one of the best and most important novelist of America in the 19th century and “the greatest imaginative genius since Shakespeare” (W.J Long, 392). Nevertheless, many readers, while appreciating his excellent artistic techniques, find his works very difficult to understand. The obstacles, as far as I am concerned, are probably due to Hawthorne’s basic theme which is related with Calvinism; therefore it is necessary to deeply explore it. I believe that the result of the exploration will help the reader to understand this great genius more deeply and to appreciate his works better.

　　Ⅱ. The basic theme of Hawthorne’s writings

　　According to Christianity, ever since Adam and Eve are deceived by Satan into eating the fruit and expelled from the Garden of Eden by God, evil has entered the world, and human beings are doomed to carry the burden of sin. Deeply influenced by Christianity, Hawthorne puts the Calvinism idea of original sin and depravity into his works. In many of his short stories and romances, Hawthorne presents a central theme of original sin, together with an accompanying theme of the hunger for confession and expiation. His works make us realize that people are born sinful and everyone has some secret guilt and sin hidden in heart, that sin exists everywhere in the world, and that human life is a suffering journey of self-redemption. By citing the following works of Hawthorne, I wish to fully display his basic theme of sin-expiation-redemption. 

　　A. Young Goodman Brown——Disillusionment in faith

　　Nathaniel Hawthorne’s best short story Young Goodman Brown tells readers the story of the disillusionment in faith, which could be comprehended in two aspects: the disillusionment of the hero Brown’s faith of his own, and that of his faith in others. Goodman Brown is an honest young man in people’s eyes, but is later seduced by evil. He once goes to attend the witches’ Sabbath, but there he finds out some guilty secrets of other people. He meets all the respectable, reputable, and pious persons of the village including the lady of governor, wives of honored husband, excellent fair young girls, and church members of the village famous for their especial sanctity. To his greater surprise, he even sees his newly married wife, the pure and sweetest Faith. Therefore, Brown realizes the evil of others and can not believe in good in himself and in others. In the story, Hawthorne creates a “dark figure” to tell Brown, or rather the readers the following words:

　　“There are all whom ye have reverenced from youth. Ye deemed them holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. Yet here are they all in my worshiping assembly. This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their household; how a woman, eager for widow’s weeds, has given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep his last sleep in her boson, how beardless youths have made haste to inherit their father’s wealth; and how fair damsels—blush not, sweet ones---have dug little graves in the garden and bidden me the sole guest to an infant’s funeral. By the sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places---whether in church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest---where crime has been committed, and shall exult to behold the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. Far more than this, it shall be yours to penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of sin, the fountain of all wicked arts, and which inexhaustibly supplies more evil impulses than human power can make manifest in deed.” (Cowley 65)

　　In this story, attending the Sabbath could be actually considered as “a spiritual journey for exploring the truth of human world”(Wang 3), which is filled with sin and guilt. And we can also conclude that the path in the forest symbolizes a dark journey of Brown to meet the deep mystery of original sin. From the angle of original sin of Puritanism, this journey makes him agony because he finds the darkness and sin in the deep heart of human beings.

　　From the moment he decides to leave his wife, Faith, Brown betrays his faith. Moreover, while he looks at his wife and other people around him with suspicious sight the next morning, the innocent Brown changes completely into another person, gloomy and unbelieving. Though this young man is still called Goodman Brown, the readers know there in no good man in reality and that everyone is sinful.

　　B. The Minister’s Black Veil——Revelation of sin

　　Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is regarded as one of the earliest and greatest American short stories. Like many of Hawthorne’s stories, the nature of secret sin and humans’ fallen nature are the main theme, while this story is specially focused on the revelation of sin in people’s heart. The young respectable minister one day suddenly puts a black veil on his face and continues to wear it until he dies. Though severely criticized, he never explains why he does so. Yet the author gives the readers a hint that he starts to wear the black veil on the day a young girl in his parish dies, leading the reader to realize that the minister has some secret guilt connecting with the dead girl. At the last moment of his life, the minister says to the people around him, “Why do you tremble at me alone? Tremble also at each other! ...When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die!” (Hawthorne 181) Mr. Hooper’s deathbed remarks show that he intends the black veil to symbolize the secret sin which all men “loathsomely treasure up” in their hearts. (Wan 3)

　　Mr. Hooper reveals his sin by wearing a veil for a life long time, and the sins of people in his parish are revealed by feeling frightened of Hooper’s veil, because only those people who hide their sins deeply in their hearts would be afraid of the sight of Mr. Hooper behind his veil. On the wedding, “his frame shuddered—his lips grew white—he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet—and rushed forth into the darkness” (Hawthorne 180). His behavior arouses awareness of the majority of people present at the wedding that it is inevitable that everyone is a sinner even including the minister himself. Thus Hooper tears away people’s wrong illusion of a priest who is absolutely a holy representative of God. He seems to tell the villagers that “to err is human; to forgive is divine”. Hooper goes to great lengths to reveal his sin instead of beautifying himself just because he has discovered “the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil” (Hawthorne 181).

　　While many readers consider Hooper a coward, I prefer to see him as a relatively honest man. Even his hidden sin to that young lady is true, the action of coming to the lady’s funeral still shows his gut and repentance of what he does. His confession of his sin through wearing the black veil lasts for a life-time long, which presents his honesty. The wearing of the veil, in my point of view, does not indicate that the minister despairs of his own and his congregation’s salvation. On the contrary, it is motivated by his hope for peace of mind in the afterlife: “It is but a mortal veil—it is not for eternity!” (Hawthorne 181) Compared with those who keep their sin secret in heart, Mr. Hooper has the willingness to remedy his mistake, which is more admirable and venerable.

　　C. Egotism, or the Bosom Serpent——Perceptivity on sins

　　Another example, the short story ‘Egotism or the Bosom Serpent’ also clearly shows Hawthorne’s black theme. He provides a very powerful insight into the self-obsession known as egotism. The hero Roderick Elliston is estranged from his wife, and from then on, a singular gloom spreads over his daily life. He believes that there is a live serpent in his bosom perpetually gnawing him. It leaves him only when he is able to meet his wife again and forgets his obsession with his own ills. Actually the snake is the symbol of people’s innermost sinful consciousness. As all people are sinful, they have snakes in their hearts, too. Since Roderick himself keeps the guilty and sinful sense in his bosom, he has a better perceptivity of the sins committed, and he can seek out his own disease in every breast. When he meets an individual who for thirty years has cherished hatred against his own brother, he immediately perceives that there is a serpent in the man’s heart which is gnawing him, too. When he encounters an ambitious statement, he affirms that the gentleman’s serpent must be of the species of the boa constrictor, “for its appetite is enormous enough to devour the whole country and constitution.” (Pearson 1110) Once he assures “a close-fisted old fellow, of great wealth, but who skulks about the city in the guise of a scarecrow, with a patched blue coat, brown hat and mould boots, scraping pence together and picking up rusty nails” (Pearson 1110) that his serpent is a copper-hand, and has been generated by the immense quantities of that base mentality with which he daily defiles his fingers. On another occasion he tells an envious author, who depreciates works which he could never equal, that “his snake is the slimiest and the filthiest of all the reptile tribe but is fortunately without sting” (Pearson 1111). He warns a fair young girl that she cherishes a serpent of the deadest kind within his bosom, and a few months later, the poor girl dies of love and shame. He makes two ladies, “rivals in fashionable life, who tormented one another with a thousand little stings of womanish spite” (Pearson 1111), understands that each of their hearts is “a nest of diminutive snake which does quite as much mischief as one great one” (Pearson 1111). In this way, he makes his own serpent, if he really has one in his bosom, the type of each man’s fatal error, or hoarded sin, or unique conscience, and strikes his sting so unremorsefully into the sorest spot, which nearly everybody indeed possesses.

　　D. Roger Melvin’s Burial——Retribution of sins

　　People often say what goes around comes around. Hawthorne is interested in what would happen to people after committing sins. Therefore, retribution of sins becomes the inseparable parts of his gloomy theme. He once says: “The mere facts of guilt are of little value except to the gossip and the tipstaff; but how the wounding and wounded souls bear themselves after the crime, which is one of the needful lessons of life.”(W.J. Long 402) Thus he emphasizes retributions. In order to expiate his sin, the sinful character must suffer and bear all the punishment, which could be summarize as retribution.

　　In this story, Hawthorne creates a plot that Reuben survives after the war, but he cannot feel at peace because he has not buried Roger Melvin as he promises, moreover, when he recovers, he does not have the courage to tell Dorcas, Malvin’s daughter and Reuben's fiancée, that he leaves her father to die, even though it is Malvin's wish. Many years later, when Reuben and Dorcas' son is already a grown boy, their family travels through wilderness. At a rest, Reuben and his son wander into the forest separately. At a certain moment, Reuben hears something in the bushes and shoots, thinking it might be a deer, but it turns out that he has killed his own son. As he observes the terrain, it is obvious that this is the same place where he leaves Roger Malvin. In the story, God punishes Reuben by killing his son, which is a didactic plot, aiming at persuading people to avoid committing sins. However, in real life, punishment often comes from the sinner’s inner soul. It is self-punishment. The person who commits a crime or who himself thinks he does so is bitterly tortured by his own conscience. He condemns himself so hard that he will try all ways to punish himself, to clear the ignominy, and to expiate the sin. W.J. Long clearly expresses this meaning in his book about American Literature, saying Hawthorne “makes man his own judge, punishing himself in his life instead of awaiting sentence at the final judgment”. (W.J. Long 405)

　　With this in mind, the reader can easily understand why in “Roger Melvin’s Burial”, after unwittingly shooting his only son to death, Reuben Bourne feels relieved. That’s because he regarded the tragedy as a punishment to himself. Although he feels he deserves no censure for leaving his father-in-law when he is dying, “concealment had imparted to a justifiable act much of the secret effect of guilt.” (Pearson 1132) Therefore, Reuben experiences in no small degree the mental terrors which punish the perpetrator of the undiscovered crime. He at times almost imagines himself a murderer. The unbearable suffering makes him long for a punishment. By killing his son, Reuben symbolically kills himself. His son is a valuable sacrifice. The American professor Estes once tells me that Hawthorne thinks the only way people save themselves from guilt is to sacrifice themselves. Thus, by making such a tremendous sacrifice, Reuben’s sin “was expiated, the curse was gone from him, in the hour, when he had shed blood dearer to him than his own” (Cowley, 101). The tragedy finally releases him. He trusts that “it was Heaven’s intent to afford him an opportunity of expiating his sin.” (Cowley 97)

　　E. The Scarlet Letter——Redemption of sins

　　In the first chapter, the prison-door, of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne says “The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognised it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.” (Hawthorne 3) These words clearly illustrate the secret sin, one of the themes most focused on in this work.

　　In this story, each of the three main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, has his or her own secret sins. Hester’s sin is not revealing the identity of her sexual partner, Pearl’s father. Likewise, Reverend Dimmesdale’s secret sin is committing adultery with Hester. Moreover, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, is guilty of violating another human’s heart and soul. All of these characters wish to confess their sins to lay down the burden of guilt off their shoulders, but only one of them is truly able to get redemption.

　　Hawthorne makes Hester a heroine and survives to a tranquil old age just by expiating her offence. She wears the scarlet letter A, somewhat willingly, for the purpose of confessing her sin, of meditating and of reforming herself. On this point, Mark Van Doren’s comments about Hester, in my interpretation, agree with Hawthorne’s original intention. Doren says that she is “heroic in size and strength…Although she came to be Puritanism’s victim, she never surrendered the integrity of her soul. Neither did she complain of her fate. Her fate was to waste her life, yet we do not feel in the end that her life was wasted. Rather it is known, she is immortal.” (W.J. Long 406) Each Character has a secret sin that he or she wishes to confess and each of those sins affects the character that commits that sin as well as other characters in the story.

　　Though they are all sinners, Dimmesdale’s sins stands out more boldly than that of Hester’s or Chillingworth’s, for he has committed not just the sin of adultery, but also that of dishonesty as well as cowardice, and his first sin with Hester leads him to commit other sins.

　　Unlike the sins of Hester and Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth’s secret sin is more severe. While the sins of the other characters are sins against society, Chillingworth’s sin is a sin against another person’s heart and soul. Once Chillingworh discovers the true identity of his wife’s lover, he spends most of the rest of his life trying to get revenge on Dimmesdale. Prying away, piece by piece, at Dimmesdale’s already guilt-trodden soul, Chillingworth is a large factor in the minister’s illness and death. By pretending to be Dimmesdale’s doctor and friend, Chillingworth is able to ask Dimmesdale many questions that make Dimmesdale spiritually and physically ill.

　　To sum up, most of Hawthorne’s works are chiefly studies of sin and its expiation. He takes up the problem of sin and judgment and shows the torturing effect of sin in the mind itself rather than in outward punishment. Unfortunately, all this makes his basic theme black and bleak.

　　Ⅲ. Why does Hawthorne choose such a basic theme?

　　W.J. Long points out that Hawthorne “saw the darker side steadily enough but the light and hope in which we mostly live, or hope to live is not reflected in his pages.” (W.J. Long 406) This is absolutely true. Nevertheless, what on earth is it that gives Hawthorne “great power of blackness” to ride “his dark horse of the night”, or, to portray the dark landscape of the human mind? In my study of Hawthorne, I have found several reasons for this.

　　First of all, Hawthorne is a descendant of the Puritans and lives in a Puritan town, so the Puritan heritage plays a large part in Hawthorne’s life and literary work. His home town Salem is in Massachusetts of New England, the living place of the first batch of British immigrants after they cross the ocean. Most of those immigrants are Puritans who believe in Calvinism; therefore, life of New England people at that time is characterized by the gloomy religious color. Those Puritans’ religious belief is so firm and their zeal is so strong that they do many unreasonable things. Such a place, undoubtedly, would leave some influence upon later generation to which Hawthorne belongs. For instance, the scene he presents in “Young Goodman Brown” is just laid in Salem, his own home town. A critic named Norman Holmes Pearson makes this comment on Hawthorne, “there was no truer of the religious mood and the cultural heritage of New England.” (Pearson vii)

　　However, by Hawthorne’s time, the theology of Calvinism has largely disappeared. Hawthorne is not a Calvinist, not even a church-goer. Once his dearest fiancée urges him to attend the services of Father Edward Taylor, the famous and passionate preacher, but he lets her down; he never goes. In spite of this, he still has the Puritan instinct, whose elements pervades his character and guides his efforts. He studies the history of two hundred years before to search out what Puritans brought to America, and he comes to understand the Puritan mind. Puritans believe in the Devil, whose essential wickedness, lurking within every human heart, is bound to sweep people into deserved and lasting torment if they lack divine help. Although Puritanism is not Hawthorne’s religious belief, it bears a longstanding and deep influence on his literature because Puritanism is Hawthorne’s theoretical weapon to understand human beings and society. He rejects Emerson’s philosophy of universal goodness and insists that evil exists and could not be avoided, and that evil is the basic part of human nature. Thus, in a generation that puts away Puritanism, he still understands what Puritanism is. In a century which dismisses the sense of sin as old-fashion, he makes most of his works out of nothing else.

　　The second reason that determines Hawthorne’s theme is the influence of his family life as well as his own hermit life. His father dies when he is only four years old. After that, his mother lives isolated from nearly everybody. She even eats alone in her own room. His eldest sister, born seven months after their parents gets married, is very gloomy by nature. The family life is covered with grey clouds and sad atmosphere. When Hawthorne is nine, he is hurt on the foot and has to stay at home all day long for quite a long time. After his graduation from college, he lives a completely recluse life in his little chamber for twelve years, reading, thinking and writing. In a word, he grows up with a shadow over him that is never dispelled. Such an early life helps form his personality. He is introspective, with all the self-searching instinct of his Puritan ancestry. He is solitary and permeates with a sense of mystery of life and sin. By pondering over them, he tends to exaggerate them more and more. Gradually he forms and develops his original theme. I quite agree with many authors of theses on Hawthorne about how his hermit life gives him a style and a subject, just as W.J. Long says, “left so much to himself, brooding in his own room or by the lonely sea, he discovers certain laws and impulses of the human heart which he determines to use as the motive for his stories.” (W.J. Long 393)

　　Thirdly, the frequent recollection of his sinful ancestors urges Hawthorne to set such a gloomy basic theme. When immigrants from European continent arrive at the new mainland, they keep the scrupulous living style. The action and idea of people in New England is strictly inspected; therefore, those behaviors normal in today’s life and those far from crime would receive harsh punishment at that time. Moreover, different ideas from creative people are considered as heresy and the most ruthless penalties all over the world are exploited then. His great grandfather, acting as one of the three judges, plays an important part in the Salem witch trial in the 17th century and condemns many innocent people to death. After then, a rumor is spread that the dead witch curses Hawthorne’s family, disasters befalling onto every offspring of the family. Hawthorne is always attracted by his family’s past. His ancestors’ crime in the name of preserving the religious belief leaves heavy shadows in Hawthorne’s mind. He remains fascinated by the darker regions of the human mind that is presided over by his seventeenth century ancestors. He feels the victims’ blood may leave a stain upon him. He writes in the introduction to The Scarlet Letter “I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties, or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being. At all events, I, the present writer, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes”. (Pearson 89) Hawthorne’s guilt of wrong committed by his Puritan ancestors is indeed paramount in the development of his literary career. I even imagine that Hawthorne might want to put a black veil on his face. Who can say that, by sticking to the theme of guilt and sin, he is not expiating for the sin his ancestors committed?

　　Finally, it is with a moral purpose that Hawthorne chooses such a basic theme to write with. New England, where Hawthorne lived, was accustomed to didacticism in its literature, so there is no wonder Hawthorne also holds that the purpose of literature is, first of all, its usefulness, that is, it should teach some kind of lesson and make a point. If the reader makes an examination on Hawthorne’s works, he will notice that in nearly all of them the most remarkable and characteristic thing is the incessant action of the moral faculty, because in an increasingly commercialized and industrialized America, where the old republican virtues seem to be passing from the scene, Hawthorne feels it more necessary to emphasize morality.

　　Although original sin can lead to depravity, it may also be an educating element and therefore a step to moral penitence and redemption. Writing with his basic theme of sin-expiation-redemption, Hawthorne moralizes everything to make people wiser and better, pointing out a path for the guilty to return to the Garden of Eden. He firmly believes “Purify that inward sphere, and the many shapes of evil which haunt the outward, and which now seem almost our only realties, will turn to shadowy phantoms and vanish of their own accord.” (Pearson 89)

　　[8]电大学习网.免费论文网[EB/OL]. /d/file/p/2024/0425/fontbr />　　Nevertheless, Hawthorne’s writing is not absolutely didactical. He is one of the few writers who combine successfully a strong moral purpose with a strong artistic sense. His gentle and decorous prose heightens the effect of his stories and his techniques make the messages more profound and the stories more powerful.

　　Ⅳ. My understanding and interpretation of the significance of Hawthorne's basic theme

　　From most of his works we can see Hawthorne derives his basic theme from Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity and Original Sin because what he is concerned with is the black and bleak problems in then society and people's dark spiritual world of his times. Consequently, his basic theme has a social significance in that his works with this theme truly reflect the state of that society.

　　This basic theme, in particular, shows the religious influence on people's life: blind religious belief ruins people's mind, inhibits man's natural desire, twists man's normal psychology, forces people to become hypocritical and dishonest, even without exception of the members of church. Hawthorne, with the concept of original sin, tears up the ideal pastoral picture of colonial society drawn by the writers of old generations, exposes the dark and gloomy side of the colonial period ruled by Calvinism, and suggests the spiritual crisis of his own times. Just as the English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray brings all the dirty tricks of the Vanity Fair to light, Hawthorne unmasks all the deadly sins of the "Guilty Fair": covetousness, lust, envy, cheat, overweening ambition and so on -- all are attacked in his works. In a sense, his works indicates that the old moral principle has been out of date, but the new one is hypocritical, under capitalist conditions. Writing with the basic theme of sin-expiation-redemption, Hawthorne intends to eliminate the evil and promote the good and thus purify the whole society.

　　Another significance of Hawthorne’s basic theme lies in his exploration and observation of human nature. With his unusual life experience and unique understanding of literature, Hawthorne is closely interested in human living condition and human fate. He calls his works psychological romance because he always digs deep into the inner world of his characters through superficial phenomena. When I am reading his works, I feel as if he is constantly asking, in one way or another, “Where does the human sin come from? What effect does it have on every human being? How can human beings get out of the swamp of sin?” Hawthorne regards “sin” as the root of many social and personal problems, and he maintains that the solution to “sin” depends on kindness and self repentance. He puts much emphasis on individual’s self-reflection and self-perfection. Dark as his basic theme is, he brings some hope to the redemption of human soul. From the works with such a basic theme, we can see Hawthorne’s ruthless dissection of human nature, his serious reflection on human living state, and his sincere concern about man’s fate – all that makes him great and outstanding.

　　However, Hawthorne has his limitations. Although he touches the problems of capitalist society, he never sticks to the criticism of capitalist system, but is lost in the research of some abstract questions. His works, directly or indirectly, attack the poisonously religious fever and the stifling religious dogma; nevertheless, in the recesses of his mind, he observes the world in the strict religious point of view. He attributes all the social contradictions, problems and crimes of capital society to the abstract sense of sin. Therefore, he thinks that the way of solving those problems is to get rid of the omnipresent sin. He goes so far in this direction that his theme unavoidably turns out to be dark and gloomy. This may be the passive side of his basic theme.

　　In the early stage of the capitalism development, Hawthorne stands highly, scans humanity of people in that age, and realizes the difficulties people face in the 19th century. In stead of painting an excessively optimistic picture as his contemporaries like Emerson, Whitman and Longfellow, he represents his compassion to the whole human beings all the way in his works, and persists in pursuing the way of meliorating the society and humanity.

　　Ⅴ. Conclusion:

　　In brief, Nathanial Hawthorne is a great genius and real artist. There are some writers who try to write the same theme, but none can reach the height of Hawthorne's works. In his tales and novels, there is richness and a multiplicity of meanings that rise above the dogma of any single orthodoxy, and "they display a psychological insight into moral isolation and human emotion." (MaMichael 1112) That makes his works contemporary and yet timeless.

　　Work Cited and Consulted:

　　〔1〕Baym, Nina. The Shape of Hawthorne’s Career. NY: Cornell University Press, 1976.

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　　〔3〕马小麒, “The View of Original Sin in The Scarlet Letter.” <<甘肃联合大学学报（社会科学版）>> 第22卷 第02期2006年

　　〔4〕刘宏, “黑色故事"背后的纯真心灵--霍桑黑色小说艺术探析” <<辽宁工程技术大学学报（社会科学版）>>第8卷 第04期 2006年

　　〔5〕钟再强, “人性的救赎--霍桑《红字》的重要主题” <<南通大学学报（社会科学版）>> 第22卷 第02期 2006年

　　〔6〕唐海萍, “霍桑笔下的魔鬼形象--罗杰·奇灵沃思解读” <<广西梧州师范高等专科学校学报>> 第20卷 第02期 2004年

　　〔7〕彭石玉, “对人的宗教审视与困惑--霍桑小说与清教思想” 《湘潭师范学院学报》（社会科学版）JOURNAL OF XIANGTAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY（SOCIAL SCIENCE EDITION）2006年 第02期

　　〔8〕王锋, “霍桑《好男儿布朗》中晦暗、神秘意象的双重解读” Double Interpretation of the Ambiguous and Mysterious Images in YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN 南通职业大学学报JOURNAL OF NANTONG VOCATIONAL COLLEGE  2003年 第04期

　　〔9〕尚晓进, “清教主义与假面剧——谈霍桑创作前期的宗教思想” Puritanism and the Masquerade: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Early Religious Thoughts 解放军外国语学院学报JOURNAL OF PLA UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 2008年 第02期

　　〔10〕马庆林, “人性的罪恶--霍桑作品主题分析” 宁夏社会科学SOCIAL SCIENCES IN NINGXIA 2002年 第06期

　　〔11〕陈妮，胡剑波, “《红字》中罪的探讨” 湘潭师范学院学报(社会科学版)JOURNAL OF XIANGTAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY(SOCIAL SCIENCE EDITION) 2007年 第01期

　　〔12〕丁晓春, “从《红字》和《年轻小伙布朗》看霍桑的人性观” The Human Nature Thought of Hawthorne Judged from Scarlet Letter and The Young Goodman Brown 青海师范大学民族师范学院学报JOURNAL OF MINORITIES TEACHERS COLLEGE OF QINGHAI TEACHERS UNIVERSITY 2007年 第02期

　　〔13〕张金霞，董丽娜, “恐怖神秘的气氛和绝望的心理历程——《年轻的布朗大爷》的文体魅力” On the gothic and mysterious atmosphere and psychological process of desperation，安徽理工大学学报（社会科学版）JOURNAL OF ANHUI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY(SOCIAL SCIENCE) 2007年 第03期

　　〔14〕张海琰, “试论清教思想对霍桑作品的影响Puritanism On Hawthorne's Works” 浙江教育学院学报（综合版）JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG EDUCATION INSTITUTE（COMPREHENSIVE EDITION） 2005年 第04期

　　〔15〕梁汉平, “《红字》中的四个主要人物性格分析” The Four Principal Characters in The Scarlet Letter，和田师范专科学校学报JOURNAL OF HOTAN TEACHERS COLLEGE 2006年 第04期

　　〔16〕胡爱华, “霍桑三部作品中"恶"之主题探析” A Tentative Analysis of the Theme of "Sin" in Hawthorne's Three Novels，<<唐山师范学院学报>>2006年 第28卷 第06期

　　〔17〕万红芳, 张从瑶, “信仰的捍卫者———对霍桑短篇小说·牧师的黑面纱·中胡波牧师的人物解读” SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION 2008 年第22 期

　　〔18〕康杰，苏新莲, “论《红字》中的死亡与救赎主题” On the Theme of Death and Redemption in The Scarlet Letter，<<安康师专学报>>2004年 第16卷 第05期

　　〔19〕 Word of Ralph Waldo Emerson From W.J. Long, American Literature, Boston: Ginn and Company, 1913

　　〔20〕Gorge, MaMichael. Anthology of American Literature. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. 1980

　　〔21〕 Norman, Holmes, Pearson. The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Hawthorne. New York: Random House, Inc, 1937
　　Bibliograph:

　　〔1〕Baym，Nina. The Shape of Hawthorne’s Career. Cornell University Press，1976.

　　〔2〕Hawthorne. The Collected Works of Hawthorne 〔M〕.New York：Hardin Press，1964.

　　〔3〕Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The English Notebooks [M ]. New York: Russell and Russell, 1962.

　　〔4〕张珺华，背负家族之过的痛苦罪人——试论霍桑的家族历史及其对霍桑小说的影响，<<时代文学>>2008年 第02期

　　〔5〕马小麒，The View of Original Sin in The Scarlet Letter，<<甘肃联合大学学报（社会科学版）>>2006年 第22卷 第02期

　　〔6〕刘宏，"黑色故事"背后的纯真心灵--霍桑黑色小说艺术探析，<<辽宁工程技术大学学报（社会科学版）>>2006年 第8卷 第04期

　　〔7〕钟再强，人性的救赎--霍桑《红字》的重要主题，<<南通大学学报（社会科学版）>>2006年 第22卷 第02期

　　〔8〕唐海萍，霍桑笔下的魔鬼形象--罗杰·奇灵沃思解读，<<广西梧州师范高等专科学校学报>>2004年 第20卷 第02期

　　〔9〕彭石玉，对人的宗教审视与困惑--霍桑小说与清教思想，《湘潭师范学院学报》（社会科学版）JOURNAL OF XIANGTAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY（SOCIAL SCIENCE EDITION）2006年 第02期

　　〔10〕王锋，《霍桑《好男儿布朗》中晦暗、神秘意象的双重解读》，Double Interpretation of the Ambiguous and Mysterious Images in YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN，南通职业大学学报JOURNAL OF NANTONG VOCATIONAL COLLEGE 2003年 第04期

　　〔11〕尚晓进，清教主义与假面剧——谈霍桑创作前期的宗教思想Puritanism and the Masquerade: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Early Religious Thoughts，解放军外国语学院学报JOURNAL OF PLA UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES 2008年 第02期

　　〔12〕马庆林，人性的罪恶--霍桑作品主题分析，宁夏社会科学SOCIAL SCIENCES IN NINGXIA 2002年 第06期

　　〔13〕陈妮，胡剑波，《红字》中罪的探讨，湘潭师范学院学报(社会科学版)JOURNAL OF XIANGTAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY(SOCIAL SCIENCE EDITION) 2007年 第01期

　　〔14〕丁晓春，从《红字》和《年轻小伙布朗》看霍桑的人性观The Human Nature Thought of Hawthorne Judged from the Red letters and the Fellow Brown，青海师范大学民族师范学院学报JOURNAL OF MINORITIES TEACHERS COLLEGE OF QINGHAI TEACHERS UNIVERSITY 2007年 第02期

　　〔15〕张金霞，董丽娜，恐怖神秘的气氛和绝望的心理历程——《年轻的布朗大爷》的文体魅力On the gothic and mysterious atmosphere and psychological process of desperation，安徽理工大学学报（社会科学版）JOURNAL OF ANHUI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY(SOCIAL SCIENCE) 2007年 第03期

　　〔16〕张海琰，试论清教思想对霍桑作品的影响Puritanism On Hawthorne's Works，浙江教育学院学报（综合版）JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG EDUCATION INSTITUTE（COMPREHENSIVE EDITION） 2005年 第04期

　　〔17〕梁汉平，《红字》中的四个主要人物性格分析The Four Principal Characters in The Scarlet Letter，和田师范专科学校学报JOURNAL OF HOTAN TEACHERS COLLEGE 2006年 第04期

　　〔18〕胡爱华，霍桑三部作品中"恶"之主题探析，A Tentative Analysis of the Theme of "Sin" in Hawthorne's Three Novels，<<唐山师范学院学报>>2006年 第28卷 第06期

　　〔19〕万红芳 张从瑶，信仰的捍卫者———对霍桑短篇小说·牧师的黑面纱·中胡波牧师的人物解读，SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION 2008 年第22 期

　　〔20〕康杰，苏新莲，论《红字》中的死亡与救赎主题，On the Theme of Death and Redemption in The Scarlet Letter，<<安康师专学报>>2004年 第16卷 第05期

　　〔21〕 Word of Ralph Waldo Emerson From W.J. Long, American Literature (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1913)

　　〔22〕Gorge MaMichael, Anthology of American Literature (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. 1980)

　　〔23〕 Norman Holmes Pearson, The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Hawthorne (New York: Random House, Inc, 1937)

　　〔24〕  Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States  (北京:  中国对外翻译出版公司  1985)

　　[8]电大学习网.免费论文网[EB/OL]. /d/file/p/2024/0425/fontbr />