A Study Of The Religious Influence On TheLiterary Creation

The scarlet letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s representative and outstanding work.And it’s the fist novel as its unique psychological analysis and intuition description in American literature word. Additionally,In this paper, a strong sense of guilt and confession which beyond the time and space pointed to everyone’s soul and we can still be deeply attracted by the story in the novel, and this novel is also regarded as "soul romance". Nathaniel Hawthorne has been considered one of the greatest novelist in the American romantic period of 19th century and he was also one of the founders of American literature. In 1850, the publication of "The Scarlet Letter" allowed him famous,and the novel received a high praise from the critics and showed his superb writing skills, therefore Hawthorne was seen as "the greatest writer born in this century"by critics.Besides the superb writing skills, we should not ignore the profound thought that The scarlet letter has. Hawthorne was influenced by a number of factors in the creation of The Scarlet Letter, among the impact of the factors, the puritanism has a profound influence on the author.Hawthorne was a great writer and he has a deep thought and understanding of puritanism,besides he was good at observing the evil side of human nature, he also has a clear understanding of evil about human nature,he explored the"original sin "that hidden in the depths of the human heart, and actively sought the way to rescue the human, he advocated to achieve "salvation" through the heart of repentance and good deeds.He believed that puritan doctrine can play a positive and effective role to improve human’s ethics, he tried to find the improvement of human life method.But on the other hand, Hawthorne has seen the repression and mutilation of human nature that religion brought, which let the author’s heart full of doubt and confusion.The author showed his such a complex ambivalence in the novel.This paper studies the impact of religion on the creation of The Scarlet Letter,mainly from the following aspects.First, the first chapter analyzes the causes of Hawthorne thought, mainly from the author’s life environment and the aspects of thinking which produced a affect on the author’s thought. Hawthorne was born in a place where has a strong traditional religious culture atmosphere,which has some affect on Hawthorne’s thought.Hawthorne’s family environment and family life back on the author also had some influence on the author’s ideal, so he formed a wrestling, worried character. Hawthorne was good at thinking evil in human nature, and has a profound understanding of human ethics.Second, a strong sense of guilt is full of this novel,whether Dimmesdale, Hester or Chillingworth, they were committed to sin responsibility.And the author tried to seek the way to rescue the human soul and the moral self-improvement method when he describing and thinking the evil. Third, Hawthorne has a profound ambivalence on religion.On the one hand,Hawthorne was affected by puritanism "inherent depravity" and "salvation"and committed to explore ethical and criminal issues. He advocated washing away sins through individual repentance and good deeds. On the other hand, the author was disagree with the puritan doctrine,the repression and the destruction of the puritan inhuman rule made the author’s heart full of doubt and confusion,this idea were reflected in the hero Dimmesdale and Hester’s character in this novel.Finally, the novel prototype imagery and symbolism have some contacts with religion in some aspect.Specific performance in the novel are some archetypal images, such as Adam and Eve, the serpent and Satan, the letter "A", the names of the characters in the novel, and "U" type narrative structure.