英语本科毕业论文-The Psychoanalysis of Hester in The Scarlet Letter.doc

第 15 页The Psychoanalysis of Hester in The Scarlet LetterThe Hawthorne Nathaniel and Hester Prynne1.1 Hesters Pains and Hawthornes Views on SufferingsHawthorne is aware that society can be changed gradually, and his also aware that the progress of society is accompanied with heavy cost. Hawthorne has long had a sad, tragic recognition that a break with the past and its values too often can not be achieved at all or can not be made without “such suffering that the cost may to too high”. Constance Rourke once said that “Hawthorne was deeply engaged by the consideration of lost or submerged emotion.” The Scarlet Letter, like his other works. Describes the loss or submergence of emotion involved in the abandonment of the cultural heritage of the Old World. In Hawthornes eyes, if a certain beauty disappears on our essay from the Old World to the New World, that is the price we should pay. In this passage, attention is paid to the sufferings of Hester Prynne in the process of striving for a new order of life. In her long years struggling, Hester turns herself from an adulteress punished by the colony to the self-ordained “Sister of Mercy,” but her victory is gained at great costthe loneliness over love, lofty and laughter. Hawthorne in his lifetime suffers the pain of being separated from the outside world, partly because of his lonely family, and partly because of his disagreement with his contemporaries in light of social reform. Then it depicts Hesters gloomy life with no love and laughter. Hester is surrounded by a mood of harried dejection. Hesters gloom is illustrated from two aspects: one is from the grey environment surrounded Hester; the other is that Hester is the victim of the Puritan society that treats her with hard severity at best. Hesters tragedy is also indicated by alienation from the communityboth physical and spiritual.1.2 Hawthornes Alienation in His Personal LifeComing back from Hawthornes funeral, Enderson wrote in his journal:Clarke in the church said that Hawthorne had done more justice than any others to the shades of life, shown sympathy the crime in our nature, and like Jesus, was the friends of sinners. I thought there was a tragic element in the error, that might be more fully renderedin the painful solitude of the war, which, I suppose, could no longer be endured, and he died of it. According to Emerson, the greatest pain in Hawthornes life in the “ painful solitude,” both the physical loneliness which Hawthorne has in his early childhood or in his solitary years in his “dismal own rest” after college (Rubinstein P95) and the spiritual detachment from the world around him.After leaving the Bowdein College, Hawthorne lives for twelve years in Salem, passing “unhonored” and “unrecognized”. There, lives almost as a hermit, reading and writing, with little contact with the outside world, or even with his dismal of being carried apart from the main current of life” You tell me that you have met with troubles and changesbut I can assure you that trouble is the next best thing to enjoyment, and there is no something in this world so terrible to have no share in either its joys or sorrows”(Rubinstein P86). In the preface of “The snow-Image”(1851) which takes the form of a letter addressed to his friends Horatio Bridge, Hawthorne uses strikingly similar phrases to refer to his years of isolation” I sat down by the way-side of life, like a man under enchantment”(Penn P282).Hawthorne disagrees with his contemporary writers in view of social reform. When Hawthorne returned home from Europe before the outbreak of the Gulf War, he found him heartsick both at the war itself and at the great gulf between himself and virtually all the literary men he know, who all ardently supported the war. Hawthorne is bitterly troubled by the isolation from human race. In many of his works, he creates his characters who suffer the similar pains. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, like Hawthorne himself, suffers the pains of being in disaccord with the society. Hesters Sufferings and Her Rebellion 2.1 Hesters Gloomy LifeWhen Hawthorne read The Scarlet Letter to his wife after it was finished, it “sent her to bed with a grievous headache.” This book was, as Hawthorne later states, positively a hell-fired story, which I found almost impossible to throw a cheering light”(Penn P293). In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents with great sympathy Hesters sufferings when she strives for a better society. If Hawthornes alienation is caused by the disagreement between his fellow writers and himself on the idea of social reform, Hesters pain is brought about by her divergence from the Puritan multitude. Hester realizes the injustice of the Puritan society and aims at changing the institution for better, while the townspeople obstinately protect the conventions of the Puritan society. The divergence between Hester and multitude destines Hesters tragedy when she struggles for a brighter future.From the beginning of the tale, Hester is under a gray environment. The first sentence of the tale introduces a major character, that is, the Puritan community“a throng of red-bearded men, in sad colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats.” The words sad colored” and “gray” establish the predominant mood of the tale. The gloomy atmosphere is further strengthened by the shabbiness of the Puritan prison. It is a wood jail “marked with whether-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front”. The “Steeple-crowned hats” and “sad-colored garments” blend with the “beetle-browned and gloomy front” of the prison in a shared exterior gloom. To make the surrounding gloomier, the grass plot outside the ugly building is covered with “unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison”(SL P67). So before Hester appears, a harsh environment is set awaiting her.The Puritan society discards Hester. To illustrate the unsympathetic of the populace, Hawthorne makes, in the beginning of the tale, a contrast between a throng of men “in sad-colored garments” and the wild rose bush. To contrast with the unsympathetic of the watches, Hawthorne offers one wild rose bush which blossoms near the threshold of the prison. It is covered, “in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance on fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom” in token that Nature may pity man. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is portrayed as the victim of the Puritan community that treats her with hard severity. The Puritan community has no sympathy towards Hester Prynne. In the chapter of “ The Msrket-Place,” Hawthorne describes a group of Puritan women who are taking about Hesters sin while waiting at the jail for Hesters appearance. As women, this group should naturally exhibit some sympathy for and understanding of Hesters plight. But they are in fact more savage than the men in their condemnation of Hesters misdeed. As Hester emerges from prison with her baby and her letter, those who” had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud” were instead “astonished by how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped.” Hester pays great price for her rebellion. She commits adultery in order to affirm her passionate nature, yet in the long years afterwards, she has to withdraw herself so as not to divulge her nature; she attempts to seek a life based on love, but she mot only fails to gain Dimmesdales love, she is also confined outside the magnetic chain of humanity and receives cruel treatment from the Puritans, adult and children.2.2 Hesters IsolationHester suffers a lot for her rebellion. She leads a gray life in the rest of life. And what is more terrible to Hester is her alienation from the surroundingsboth physical and spiritual. In this section, concentration is placed on the analysis of Hesters loneliness in the hostile Puritan community.In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne pictures a lonely woman, Hester Prynne, who violates the Puritan law by her sexual transgression. The Puritan society punishes he by the fixing of the scarlet letter on her bosom. But like all legal punishment, it aims much more at the protection of society than at the reformation of the culprit. Hester is to stand as a warning to other tempered as she was: if she recovers her own salvation in the process, so much the better for her, but for better or worse, society has ceased tohave any concern with her. “ We trample you down,” society says to those who break its law”, not by any means in order to save your soulfor the welfare of the problematical adjunct to your civic personality is a matter of completely indifferent to us,-but because, by some act, you have forfeited your claim to our protection, because you are a clog to our prosperity, and because the spectacle of your agony may discourage others of similar unlawful inclination”(Julian Hawthorne 1886).Hester lives a lonely life, and she has no friends in the colony. She earns her living by sewing. For a variety of reasons, Hesters handiwork becomes the fashion. Prominent people in Boston choose to wear the garments she makes. She sews the ruffs of the Governor, military mens scarves, the ministers “band” little caps for babies and coffin clothes for the dead. Except for the small expenditure in the decoration of her infant, Hester bestows all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than her. To sum up, Hawthorne is always tortured by the feeling of involuntararily losing ones place in life. His torture is partly caused by the isolated life of his family members, especially by his mothers withdrawal into her forlorn widowhood. What else responsible for his torment is his constant spiritual alienation from the circle of ordinary humanity. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents a heroine, Hester Prynne, who experiences the similar intense feelings of sadness and pains. Hester suffers for her rebellious deed. She is from her neighbors. The townspeople treat her with hard severity. Hesters sorrow is also evoked by her ultimate loneliness, both physical and spiritual. For Hawthorne, such pains are the price one should pay when he is away from the ordinary life.2.3 Hesters RebellionHesters sin (committed about a year before the novel begins) is that which gives the book its title and around which the action of the book revolves. Adultery, prohibited by the seventh Commandment, was so seriously regarded by the Puritans of the seventeenth century Massachusetts that it was often punished by death. From the tale, we can see that Hester does not, with deliberate calculation, plan a sin, nor does she willfully does harm to others. Hesters fault is that her passions, and her love, are much stronger than her respect for the moral code. Although Hawthorne certainly does not condone Hesters sin, in Hawthornes writing, Hester is, to some degree, victim.Hester is the victim of her marriage. It is a truth that the marriage between Hester and Chillingworth is under the protection of the Puritan law and religion, so that when Hester betrays her marriage with Chillingworth by the Puritan authorities. But from the very beginning of their marriage, it is doomed wrong.In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne sympathetically portrays his heroine, Hester Prynne, who, throught the tale, remains generally silent, accepting the severe treatments of the Puritan society. Only when publis criticism threatens her two beloved, Pearl and Dimmesdale, does she defend openly against the townspeople. Yet under her seeming conformity, Hester expresses her resistance with her fine embroidery of her scarlet letter and Pearls clothing.In the eyes of the community , the scarlet letter on her breast is the mark of Hesters transgression, but Hesters way of presenting it dramatizes the contradictions of ideas. Hester taken the badge for shame, and felt remorse at heart, she would not have decorated the letter in such a way, using so impressive a colorgold contrasting the scarlet. As a result, the scarlet letter ”A” embroidered with gold would glitter in the sun and make it most lively and outstanding in the Puritan gray world. Hester embroiders and embellishes with brilliant color the living scarletPearl, thus expressing her inward resistance against Puritan punishment. The Personality Structure of Hester3.1 The Theory of Personality Structure Freud makes an elaborate analysis of the three forces of the human psychical apparatus，known as the three layers of an individuals personality structure: the id，the ego and the superego. The id is the reservoir of instinctual energy，or libido. It contains everything that is inherited and that is present at birth，including all the repressed instincts，including sexuality、The id operates by “the pleasure principle” ,it discharges increases in tension. To be more exact，if energy builds up due to environmental stimulation or internal changes，then the id tries to discharge this energy as easily and quickly as possible. The id pursues satisfactions not being constrained by anything，yet it is completely unconscious，and contents of the id are repressed andkept from reaching the conscious level. The ego serves as intermediary between the external world and the id. It takes the task of self-preservation and operates according to the reality principle: its aim is to prevent the discharge of tension from the id until an object appropriate for the need is found in the world. As regards external events，the ego becomes aware of stimuli，stores up experiences about them(in the memory)，avoids excessively strong stimuli(through flight)，deals with moderate stimuli(through adaptation) and learns to bring about expedient changes in the external world to its own advantage(through activity).As regards internal events，in relation to the id，the ego gains control over the demands of the instincts，decides whether they are to be a11owed satisfaction，postpones that satisfaction to times and circumstances favorable in the external world or suppresses their excitations entirely. The ego is referred to as the executive of personality and must serve three masters: reality or the external world，the id and the superego. The superego expects to achieve the personality perfection rather than pleasure or reality, and represents influence of parents，teachers，role models as well as racial and societal traditions. The superego is dominated by moral principles and consists of two parts: the ego ideal and the conscience. The ego ideal，embodied as moral norm and ethics，is a pursuit of perfection that is originated from conventional education，while the conscience implies punishments to law-violating activities. The main functions of the superego are as follows: a) to inhibit the impulses of the id，particularly sexual and aggressive drives; b) to influence the ego to substitute moral goals for immoral ones; c)to strive for perfection.3.2 Hesters id and superego“The id contains the passions”. “Passion is the root word employed by Hawthorne in his descriptions of Hester, whose passion, or id, is demonstrated not through her relations with Dimmesdale but also in her emotional attachment to Pearl in her defiance of Govermor Rellingham, and even in her conversations with Chillingworth.Generally speaking, love indicates physical love and spiritual love, and perfect love means the harmonious combination of the two. As interpreted in psychological sense, mental health means the balance between the id and the superego. Driven by the same physical love, or the primitive id, Hester and Dimmesdale commit sexual transgression, but after that, they depart. Since Dimmesdales superego, determined by his education and parental influence, is self-sacrifice to God and giving up his earthly emotion, he is entrapped in repentance and cannot get out until his ultimate destruction. But Hester has not such theological education or family background as Dimmesdales, hence different superego.3.3 The Defense Mechanism of Hesters Ego and Their SuccessThe appropriate use of ego defense mechanisms can satisfy the needs of the id, and at the same time, not upset the superego. The techniques Hesters ego adopts work successfully, thus keeping Hester a balanced personality. Hester , after the humiliating exposure of her sin to the public, does not flee away to return to her home country, instead, she remains in Boston, in the place where “ the world was hostile” and “everything was against her”. The reasons for her staying on in such a place, according to her, is because” the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost”. In fact, such patience is only something that she “compelled herself to believe”, because it is only “half a truth, and half a self-delusion”. Although she hides the real secret motive from herself, it struggles out of her heart. Therefore, despite a sense of fatality, the real motive lies partly in her love for Dimmesdale, partly in some expectation that she and Dimmesdale will enjoy an otherworldly reunion, which is, again, her superego in her unconsciousness.Through her good work that causes people to alter the meaning of the letter from Adulteress to Able, Hester achieves a symbolic victory. That is a victory, as regards the external events, of her ego adapting the self to the external world by the defense mechanism of rationalization, because of which Hester takes for granted everything of the conventional judgment. “In modifying the meaning of the letter, Hester has conformed to commu