A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
OF --------------------UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
BACHELOR OF ARTS

BY
----------------------------
CLASS: 3 GRADE: 2002
SUPERVISED BY
---------------------------
June 2006

Contents
Chapter One: Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne…………………………………...P1
Chapter Tw Depravity---the Origin of the Scarlet Letter…………………………..P2
Chapter Three: Hester Prynne’s Resurrection --- From Suffering and Redemption to Salvation……………………………………………………………………………...P5
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….P10
References…………………………………………………………………………..P11
Hester Prynne---Resurrection
Abstract: The Scarlet Letter makes the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne known all around the world. Hawthorne is a pious Christian, and is deeply influenced by the theology. He’s so much indulged in the religious doctrine that people can find the reflection of the God almost everywhere in his works. After reading The Scarlet Letter, one is mostly impressed by the spirit of The Bible the story depicted. The book chiefly discusses sin and how to atone for it. Hester Prynne is the heroine of the fiction. This paper researches her fate to illustrate the influence of The Bible to Hawthorne. Hester Prynne commits adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her breast. At the beginning, she encounters all kinds of sufferings, both from the society and from her own soul. However, she realizes her sin and tries her best to atone for it. And she dose not choose to avoid her fault. Finally, through her endeavor, God forgives her. In short, sin and atoning for sin, that is the purpose of this paper.

Chapter One: Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne
With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne became one of the greatest writer at that time and built his reputation as a major American author. Since that time on, people began to take great interest in all aspects of his life and a great many biographical and critical studies had been written about him and his works. He is also becoming more and more popular and familiar with Chinese readers. Since the Chinese translation of The scarlet Letter appeared in 1950s, scholars and readers in this country have shown an ever-increasing interest in his works.
Hawthorne was born on the fourth of July, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Some of his ancestors were big shots in seventeenth-century New England, which was under the control of Puritanism. One of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious for his participation in the persecution of Quakers, and another was a judge at the Salem Witchcraft Trail in 1692. Gradually, the family fortune declined. Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain, who died in an accident and left his mother and him behind to struggle to live for themselves. Young Hawthorne was quite aware of the misdeeds of his Puritan ancestors, and this awareness made him believe that evil was at the core of human life. To some extent, Hawthorne wrote some of his books, such as The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gambles to try to make up for the sin of his ancestors.
Hawthorne’s writing skills can be concluded as follows:
Firstly, all his life, Hawthorne seems to be indulged in his sense of sin and evil in life. Reading his books, one cannot but be overwhelmed by the black vision which these books reveal. Evil exists in the human heart all the time. For instance, in the short story, “ Earth’s Holocaust,” we can find that, though all symbols of tradition and the past have been burned in the bonfire of the life of the New World, the source of evil---the human heart, remains intact. Everyone possesses some evil secret as tales like “ Young Goodman Brown” set out to prove. Everyone tries to cover up its innermost evil in the way the minister Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter tries to pretend how pure and pious he is. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. This point of view is just as what The Bible describes people’s original sin.
Secondly, to Hawthorne, sin will surely get punished, one way or another. As a matter of fact, he was said to be always troubled by the thought that the decline of his family’s fortune had something to do with the sins of his Puritan ancestors. Hawthorne deeply believes that “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones”(The House of the Seven Gambles). It is also interesting to note that Hawthorne believes that evil educates. What Hawthorne seems to prove is that man can get experience from the crime which brings about the disaster.
In short, to tell the truth and yet not to offend, that is all Hawthorne tries to achieve in his works.
“
Chapter Tw Depravity---the Origin of the Scarlet Letter

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