Archetypes embodied in the image of Hester Prynne in The scarlet letter
论文作者:英语论文论文属性:职称论文 Scholarship Papers登出时间:2010-02-09编辑:lisa点击率:15762
论文字数:3500论文编号:org201002091037039276语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:archetypal criticismarchetypesphilosophical ideasreligious views
Abstract: The author intends to employ archetypal criticism theory to explore into the archetypes that are embodied in the tragic images of the Heroine Hester Prynne respectively, namely, Eve, Scapegoat and the Virgin Mary, which, in turn, reveals to us Nathaniel Hawthorne’s conflicting philosophical ideas and religious views in evaluation of Puritanism and individual rebellion against society.
1. Introduction
The Bible, one of the most influential religious works, has a great impact on the development of western culture. It is acknowledged that many writers are indebted to The Bible, and Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of them. Hawthorne is one of the writers in American Renaissance on whom Christianity has a profound influence. He knew his bible well. The impact which The Bible makes could be attributed to Hawthorne’s family background. He was born and brought up in Salem, where Puritanism has prevailed from the times of his ancestors to his times. As E. A. Duyckinck identifies, “The spirit of his old ancestors to whom he refers in the preface, lives in Nathaniel Hawthorne” (Andrews, p. 13). Whether he believes in the doctrine of Puritanism or not, he has inherited the moral atmosphere of his faith. When he is writing novels, consciously or unconsciously, he weaves into his gorgeous web of enchantment the slender filaments he has drawn from The Bible. The scarlet letter is no exception. As his masterpiece, The scarlet letter is generally regarded as the highest achievement in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s literary career. It permanently establishes Hawthorne’s reputation. In the “Custom house”, Hawthorne admits that no matter how much he feels his ancestors’ scorn, “strong traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine” (Hawthorne, p. 10). His novels are saturated with religious ideas and problems like sin and punishment are his favorite subjects. In The scarlet letter, Hawthorne transplants many biblical archetypes into his work and adds new meaning to it. The allusions to The Bible not only help to create a special religious atmosphere, but also construct a myth-like psychological environment for the characters. Therefore, archetypal criticism theory is introduced in this paper in order to better understand the complex and hidden meanings behind the work as well as the author’s religious view in the 19th century America. 2. An archetypal analysis of the heroine Hester Prynne
The famous critic Northrop Frye once defined archetype as, “A symbol, usually an image, which recurs often enough in literature to be recognizable as an element of one’s literary experience as a whole” (Frye, p. 365). In short, archetypes are universal symbols. Moreover, Frye also referred to Bible as the sources of literary symbols and remarked that a scrutiny of Bible was a prerequisite in understanding western literature. Biblical archetypes can be generally classified into three kinds, namely, archetypal characters, archetypal situations, archetypal symbols and associations. Since characters embody the most obvious and most significant archetypes, the emphasis of this paper will focus on this aspect only with great attention attached to the analysis of the heroine Hester Prynne. In a sense, the story of The scarlet letter is the one about Hester Prynne, f
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