Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an outstanding romantic novelist in the American literature. His family members were all devout Calvinism believers in generations. Hawthorne’s works, with rich ideological connotation and outstanding artistic performance, enjoy a high literary reputation, among which is Scarlet Letter as his most prestigious representative work. It gives a vivid and rich description of a love tragedy happened in the New England colony in the 17th century. Hester Prynne, the female protagonist of the novel, falls in love with a young and promising priest Dimmesdale and they commits adultery and Hester gets pregnant. Thus Hester is severely punished by the religion and is forced to wear all her life a scarlet letter A as a symbol of her sin. Meanwhile, her accomplice, Dimmesdale stills appears in front of others as an upright and respected priest. However he bears an acute suffering in his inner world. Here, religion has a close relationship with the tragic fate of the characters in this work. The mighty pressure of religion forces the female protagonist to be separated from her beloved priest and is despised by people around her. Besides, her kind deeds can never meet fair return. Meanwhile, the binding power of religion gives a young man premature death and turns a pious believer of religion into a real hypocrite in morality. Religion in this work also has the evil power to becloud the moral outlook of the mass and deprive people of the ability of distinguishing good and evil, thus make people lose the universal brotherhood advocated by Bible.
In this paper, I want to reveal the complex relationship between religion and fate of the protagonists in the novel through a full analysis of the competition between religion and affection, fame, status, faith and personal pursuit, to dialectically discuss social system and personal will, religious doctrines and personal beliefs, and to further study the profound significance of religion in Scarlet Letter.

Keyword: Puritanism; religion; love; belief; fate

摘要

纳撒尼尔•霍桑是美国文学史上杰出的浪漫主义小说家，其家族世代都是虔诚的加尔文教信徒。霍桑的作品以其丰富的思想内涵和卓越的艺术表现能力享誉文坛，其中《红字》是其最富盛名的代表作，其描述的是17世纪新英格兰殖民地的一场爱情悲剧。女主人红海斯特因为爱上了年轻的牧师丁梅斯代尔，犯下了通奸罪，被迫佩戴红色的字母A以向世人昭示自己的罪恶，而他的同犯却依然以一个正直的受人爱戴的牧师形象出现在世人面前，但内心饱受煎熬。宗教在这里与作品中人物的悲剧命运有着紧密地关系。宗教的压力迫使一个年轻的女子无法和相爱的人厮守，还要饱受世人的鄙视，善意也得不到公正的回报。同时，宗教的束缚也使得一个年轻的人过早衰竭，把一个宗教的信奉者变成了道义上的伪君子。宗教也蒙蔽了世人的道德观，使得人变得善恶不分，丢失了圣经中所倡导的博爱精神。
 本文通过分析作品中宗教与爱情、名誉地位、信仰以及个人追求等等之间的较量，来揭示宗教与作品中人物命运之间存在的种种复杂关系，辩证地讨论社会制度与个人意志，宗教信条与个人信仰之间的关系，进一步探讨宗教在《红字》中所具有的深刻意义。

关键词：清教；宗教；爱情；信仰；命运