أهلا بك زائرنا الكريم في منتديات آرتين لتعليم اللغات (^_^)
اليوم هو الخميس آذار 28, 2024 9:00 م
اسم المستخدم : الدخول تلقائياً
كلمة المرور :  
لوحة الإعلانات الإدارية

عذراً أخوتي .. تم إيقاف تسجيل الأعضاء الجدد في آرتين حتى إشعار آخر


آخر المشاركات

  ... آرتين ...   » لابدّ أن أستأذن الوطن .... نزار قباني *  .:. آخر رد: محمدابو حمود  .:.  الردود: 4   ... آرتين ...   » لا يصلح العطار ما افسدة الدهر  .:. آخر رد: محمد الربيعي  .:.  الردود: 2   ... آرتين ...   » مناقشة كتاب"Translation with Reference to English & Arabic"  .:. آخر رد: Jordan  .:.  الردود: 124   ... آرتين ...   » المعرب و الدخيل و المولد ... تتمة  .:. آخر رد: aaahhhmad  .:.  الردود: 6   ... آرتين ...   » تحميل ملف  .:. آخر رد: مصطفى العلي  .:.  الردود: 0   ... آرتين ...   » The Best Short Stories of J.G. bialard The Terminal Beach  .:. آخر رد: المرعاش  .:.  الردود: 0   ... آرتين ...   » هام للطلاب الي بيواجهوا صعوبه بمادة الصوتيا  .:. آخر رد: bassam93  .:.  الردود: 16   ... آرتين ...   » مساعدة مشروع تخرج عن تراجيديات شكسبير  .:. آخر رد: ahmadaway  .:.  الردود: 0   ... آرتين ...   » نتائج سنوات 2009 2010 2011  .:. آخر رد: أبو عمر  .:.  الردود: 0   ... آرتين ...   » نتائج سنوات 2009 2010 2011  .:. آخر رد: أبو عمر  .:.  الردود: 0

جميع الأوقات تستخدم GMT + ساعتين [ DST ]




إرسال موضوع جديد الرد على الموضوع  [ 13 مشاركة ]  الانتقال إلى صفحة 1, 2  التالي
الكاتب رسالة
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: السبت شباط 23, 2008 8:39 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
صورة العضو الشخصية
اشترك في: 01 آذار 2007
المواضيع: 133
المشاركات: 837
المكان: حماة
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
 
Character List

Arthur Dimmesdale: Arthur Dimmesdale is a respected minister in Boston and the father of Pearl. While Hester waited for her husband to arrive from Amsterdam, she met Dimmesdale and had an adulterous affair with him, which led to the birth of their daughter. While Hester is publicly shamed for the adultery, Dimmesdale must suffer the ignominy quietly since no one knows of his culpability. The suffering begins to take its physical toll, especially since Hester's husband Chillingworth seeks to destroy Dimmesdale and is a constant reminder of the guilt and shame he harbors from his affair with Hester. At the very end of the novel, Dimmesdale admits to being Pearl's father and reveals that he has a scarlet letter branded into his flesh. He dies upon the scaffold while holding Hester's hand.

Black Man: a nickname for the devil. The legend speaks of a Black Man who inhabits the woods and gets people to write their names in his book, using their own blood as ink.

General Miller: the oldest inhabitant of the Customs House. He has the independent position of Collector, which allows him to avoid the politicized shuffling of positions. He also protects the other men from being fired, which is why many of the employees are old.

Governor Bellingham: the former governor, who believes Hester should not be allowed to raise Pearl since it would only lead to the child's spiritual demise. He decides to allow Pearl to stay with her mother after Dimmesdale pleads on her behalf.

Hester Prynne: Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the novel, is the mother of Pearl. She must wear the scarlet letter A on her body as punishment for her adulterous affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister. Hester is married to Roger Chillingworth, but while Hester awaited her husband's arrival from Amsterdam, she met Dimmesdale and engaged in the adulterous affair, which led to Pearl's birth. Hester is never quite penitent for her “crime,” if only because she cannot understand how her punishments could be so harsh. When Governor Bellingham orders Pearl to be taken away from her, Hester wonders whether a woman must die for following her heart, prompting Dimmesdale to intercede as a subtle way of taking responsibility for the affair. Hester learns that Chillingworth is seeking to destroy Dimmesdale, and she decides that her marriage was never sanctified in the first place, for her husband has the seething rage of the devil himself. Hester is thus paired with Dimmesdale upon the scaffold for his final moments.

Inspector: The Inspector is the patriarch of the Customs House. His father created the post for him, and he has retained it ever since. He is considered one of the happiest workers, likely because he knows he will never be removed from his post.

John Wilson: the eldest clergyman in Boston and a friend of Arthur Dimmesdale.

Jonathan Pue: an ancient surveyor of the Customs House. Hawthorne, as narrator, claims to have found a package with his name on it, containing the story of the novel.

Mistress Hibbins: the sister of Governor Bellingham. She is killed for being a witch after the novel's events. She routinely sneaks into the woods during the night to conduct covert business in the service of "The Black Man."

Pearl: Hester's daughter. Pearl is characterized as a living version of the scarlet letter. She constantly causes her mother and Dimmesdale torment and anguish throughout the novel with her ability to at once state the truth and deny it when it is most necessary. Pearl is described as extremely beautiful but lacking Christian decency. After Arthur Dimmesdale dies, Pearl's wildness eases, and she eventually marries.

Roger Chillingworth: Hester's husband from the Netherlands. Chillingworth arrives in Boston on the day that Hester is publicly shamed and forced to wear the scarlet letter. He vows revenge on the father of Pearl, and he soon moves in with Arthur Dimmesdale, who Chillingworth knows has committed adultery with his wife. His revenge is frustrated at the end of the novel, when Dimmesdale reveals that he is Pearl's father before dying. Chillingworth, having lost the object of his hatred, dies soon thereafter.



yours ....Y.H.M

_________________
التوقيع Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed


صورة


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الاثنين شباط 25, 2008 10:50 ص 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
اشترك في: 15 نيسان 2007
المواضيع: 68
المشاركات: 4580
المكان: حماه
القسم: E
السنة: ماستر/ELT...
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
أوكي...
منبلّش ليه لأ..
يعني هلأ هيك تعرفنا عالشخصيات ..
شو رأيك بس تنزللنا هيك لمحة سريعة عنها مشان افهمها بشكل عام قبل ما يبدا الدوام .. *ممم

_________________
التوقيع
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
 
Nelson Mandela
 


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الاثنين شباط 25, 2008 12:58 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
صورة العضو الشخصية
اشترك في: 01 آذار 2007
المواضيع: 133
المشاركات: 837
المكان: حماة
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
 
له ولو الف طلب متل هالطلب ......ولا يهمك وهي شرح مبدئي عن الرواية ....

Short Summary

Hester is being led to the scaffold, where she is to be publicly shamed for having committed adultery. Hester is forced to wear the letter A on her gown at all times. She has stitched a large scarlet A onto her dress with gold thread, giving the letter an air of elegance. Hester carries Pearl, her daughter, with her. On the scaffold she is asked to reveal the name of Pearl's father, but she refuses. In the crowd Hester recognizes her husband from Amsterdam, Roger Chillingworth.

Chillingworth visits Hester after she is returned to the prison. He tells her that he will find out who the man was, and he will read the truth on the man's heart. Chillingworth then forces her to promise never to reveal his true identity as her cuckolded husband.

Hester moves into a cottage bordering the woods. She and Pearl live there in relative solitude. Hester earns her money by doing stitchwork for local dignitaries, but she often spends her time helping the poor and sick. Pearl grows up to be wild, even refusing to obey her mother.

Roger Chillingworth earns a reputation as a good physician. He uses his reputation to get transferred into the same home as Arthur Dimmesdale, an ailing minister. Chillingworth eventually discovers that Dimmesdale is the true father of Pearl, at which point he spends every moment trying to torment the minister. One night Dimmesdale is so overcome with shame about hiding his secret that he walks to the scaffold where Hester was publicly humiliated. He stands on the scaffold and imagines the whole town watching him with a letter emblazoned on his chest. While standing there, Hester and Pearl arrive. He asks them to stand with him, which they do. Pearl then asks him to stand with her the next day at noon.

When a meteor illuminates the three people standing on the scaffold, they see Roger Chillingworth watching them. Dimmesdale tells Hester that he is terrified of Chillingworth, who offers to take Dimmesdale home. Hester realizes that Chillingworth is slowly killing Dimmesdale and that she has to help Dimmesdale.

A few weeks later, Hester sees Chillingworth picking herbs in the woods. She tells him that she is going to reveal the fact that he is her husband to Dimmesdale. He tells her that Providence is now in charge of their fates, and she may do as she sees fit. Hester takes Pearl into the woods, where they wait for Dimmesdale to arrive. He is surprised to see them, but he confesses to Hester that he is desperate for a friend who knows his secret. She comforts him and tells him Chillingworth's true identity. He is furious but finally agrees that they should run away together. He returns to town with more energy than he has ever shown before.

Hester finds a ship that will carry all three of them, and it works out that the ship is due to sail the day after Dimmesdale gives his Election Sermon. But on the day of the sermon, Chillingworth persuades the ship's captain to take him on board as well. Hester does not know how to get out of this dilemma.

Dimmesdale gives his Election Sermon, and it receives the highest accolades of any preaching he has ever performed. He then unexpectedly walks to the scaffold and stands on it, in full view of the gathered masses. Dimmesdale calls Hester and Pearl to come to him. Chillingworth tries to stop him, but Dimmesdale laughs and tells him that he cannot win.

Hester and Pearl join Dimmesdale on the scaffold. Dimmesdale then tells the people that he is also a sinner like Hester, and that he should have assumed his rightful place by her side over seven years earlier. He then rips open his shirt to reveal a scarlet letter on his flesh. Dimmesdale falls to his knees and dies on the scaffold.

Hester and Pearl leave the town for a while, and several years later Hester returns. No one hears from Pearl again, but it is assumed that she has gotten married and has had children in Europe. Hester never removes her scarlet letter, and when she passes away she is buried in the site of King's Chapel.



yours.....Y.H.M

_________________
التوقيع Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed


صورة


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الاثنين شباط 25, 2008 1:09 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
صورة العضو الشخصية
اشترك في: 01 آذار 2007
المواضيع: 133
المشاركات: 837
المكان: حماة
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
 
Key Facts

full title  · The Scarlet Letter

author  · Nathaniel Hawthorne

type of work  · Novel

genre  · Symbolic; semi-allegorical; historical fiction; romance (in the sense that it rejects realism in favor of symbols and ideas)

language  · English

time and place written  · Salem and Concord, Massachusetts; late 1840s

date of first publication  · 1850

publisher  · Ticknor, Reed, and Fields

narrator  · The narrator is an unnamed customhouse surveyor who writes some two hundred years after the events he describes took place. He has much in common with Hawthorne but should not be taken as a direct mouthpiece for the author’s opinions
.
point of view  · The narrator is omniscient, because he analyzes the characters and tells the story in a way that shows that he knows more about the characters than they know about themselves. Yet, he is also a subjective narrator, because he voices his own interpretations and opinions of things. He is clearly sympathetic to Hester and Dimmesdale.
tone  · Varies—contemplative and somewhat bitter in the introduction; thoughtful, fairly straightforward, yet occasionally tinged with irony in the body of the narrative

tense  · The narrator employs the past tense to recount events that happened some two hundred years before his time, but he occasionally uses the present tense when he addresses his audience.

setting (time)  · Middle of the seventeenth century

setting (place)  · Boston, Massachusetts

protagonist  · Hester Prynne

major conflict · Her husband having inexplicably failed to join her in Boston following their emigration from Europe, Hester Prynne engages in an extramarital affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. When she gives birth to a child, Hester invokes the condemnation of her community—a condemnation they manifest by forcing her to wear a letter “A” for “adulteror”—as well as the vengeful wrath of her husband, who has appeared just in time to witness her public shaming

rising action · Dimmesdale stands by in silence as Hester suffers for the “sin” he helped to commit, though his conscience plagues him and affects his health. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, hides his true identity and, posing as a doctor to the ailing minister, tests his suspicions that Dimmesdale is the father of his wife’s child, effectively exacerbating Dimmesdale’s feelings of shame and thus reaping revenge

climax  · There are at least two points in The Scarlet Letter that could be identified as the book’s “climax.” The first is in Chapter XII, at the exact center of the book. As Dimmesdale watches a meteor trace a letter “A” in the sky, he confronts his role in Hester’s sin and realizes that he can no longer deny his deed and its consequences. The key characters confront one another when Hester and Pearl join Dimmesdale in an “electric chain” as he holds his vigil on the marketplace scaffold, the location of Hester’s original public shaming. Chillingworth appears in this scene as well. The other climactic scene occurs in Chapter XXIII, at the end of the book. Here, the characters’ secrets are publicly exposed and their fates sealed. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth not only acknowledge their secrets to themselves and to each other; they push these revelations to such extremes that they all must leave the community in one way or another

falling action  · Depending on one’s interpretation of which scene constitutes the book’s “climax,” the falling action is either the course of events that follow Chapter XII or the final reports on Hester’s and Pearl’s lives after the deaths of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth

themes  · Sin, experience, and the human condition; the nature of evil; identity and society

motifs  · Civilization versus the wilderness; night versus day; evocative names

symbols  · The scarlet letter; the town scaffold; the meteor; Pearl; the rosebush next to the prison door

foreshadowing  · Foreshadowing is minimal, because the symbols tend to coincide temporally with events, enriching their meaning rather than anticipating their occurrence.

_________________
التوقيع Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed


صورة


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الاثنين شباط 25, 2008 2:56 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
اشترك في: 02 آذار 2007
المواضيع: 94
المشاركات: 4047
المكان: Hama
القسم: English Department
السنة: دبلوم ELT
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد

:: أنثى ::


غير متصل
       Yamen,  
ما شاء الله عليك  *1  عنجد نحنا هاد اللي بدنا ياه من زماااان  :wink:
الله يعطيك العافية  *1 للحفظ فورا" و للدراسة كمان مو  :mrgreen:
للتثبيت فورا" ما في كلاااام  *ورود

_________________
التوقيع


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الثلاثاء شباط 26, 2008 5:03 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
اشترك في: 15 نيسان 2007
المواضيع: 68
المشاركات: 4580
المكان: حماه
القسم: E
السنة: ماستر/ELT...
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
*ورود  *ورود  *ورود  *ورود  *ورود  *ورود
شكرا كتير .. ان شاء الله ببدا فيون عن قريب...

_________________
التوقيع
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
 
Nelson Mandela
 


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الأحد آذار 09, 2008 1:37 م 
مشرفة قسم مهارات تطوير الذات
مشرفة قسم مهارات تطوير الذات
صورة العضو الشخصية
اشترك في: 15 نيسان 2007
المواضيع: 64
المشاركات: 3023
المكان: حمص
القسم: انجليزي
السنة: MA
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد

:: أنثى ::


غير متصل
       Yamen,  
ههههههههههههههههههههههههههههههههههههههه في كلمة بقولوا الشوام
ربي هلأ خطرت ببالي
( ان شالله ما منحترمك)   :mrgreen:
ههههههههههههههههه والله يا يامن هادا اللي خطر ببالي وفعلاً الله لا يحرمنا منك والفضل بعد الله إلك باني طالعت الكلاسيكي لأني ما قريت إلا الأشيا اللي انت نزلتن

ويخليلنا اياك ذخراً للأعمل الأدبية :wink:

_________________
التوقيع لــلــمــلائــكــة  حــضــورهــا


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الأحد آذار 09, 2008 1:45 م 
آرتيني مشارك
آرتيني مشارك
صورة العضو الشخصية
اشترك في: 15 نيسان 2007
المواضيع: 5
المشاركات: 149
المكان: حمص
القسم: انجليزي
السنة: رابعة.
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
ما شاء الله لسا ما بلشو الدكاترة يا عمي خود نفس  
بس إنت أشطر منون
مشكور كتير كتيركتير
والحقيقة المعلومات اللي نزلتها الفصل الأول عن
الكلاسيكي وعن النثر كانت كتير مفيدة وساعدتني بأنو طلع المادتين
و انشا اله هادا الفصل رح يكون نفس الشي
لك روح ربي يوفقك.

_________________
التوقيع أعظم لحظات التحدي....أن تبتسم والدمعة في عينيك


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: الجمعة آذار 14, 2008 11:13 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
صورة العضو الشخصية
اشترك في: 01 آذار 2007
المواضيع: 133
المشاركات: 837
المكان: حماة
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
 
About the Novel
A Brief Synopsis



In June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness an official punishment. A young woman, Hester Prynne, has been found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet A on her dress as a sign of shame. Furthermore, she must stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation. As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity. When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses.

As Hester looks out over the crowd, she notices a small, misshapen man and recognizes him as her long-lost husband, who has been presumed lost at sea. When the husband sees Hester’s shame, he asks a man in the crowd about her and is told the story of his wife’s adultery. He angrily exclaims that the child’s father, the partner in the adulterous act, should also be punished and vows to find the man. He chooses a new name—Roger Chillingworth—to aid him in his plan.

Reverend John Wilson and the minister of her church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question Hester, but she refuses to name her lover. After she returns to her prison cell, the jailer brings in Roger Chillingworth, a physician, to calm Hester and her child with his roots and herbs. Dismissing the jailer, Chillingworth first treats Pearl, Hester’s baby, and then demands to know the name of the child’s father. When Hester refuses, he insists that she never reveal that he is her husband. If she ever does so, he warns her, he will destroy the child’s father. Hester agrees to Chillingworth’s terms even though she suspects she will regret it.

Following her release from prison, Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of town and earns a meager living with her needlework. She lives a quiet, somber life with her daughter, Pearl. She is troubled by her daughter’s unusual character. As an infant, Pearl is fascinated by the scarlet A. As she grows older, Pearl becomes capricious and unruly. Her conduct starts rumors, and, not surprisingly, the church members suggest Pearl be taken away from Hester.

Hester, hearing the rumors that she may lose Pearl, goes to speak to Governor Bellingham. With him are Reverends Wilson and Dimmesdale. When Wilson questions Pearl about her catechism, she refuses to answer, even though she knows the correct response, thus jeopardizing her guardianship. Hester appeals to Reverend Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester’s care.

Because Reverend Dimmesdale’s health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, a newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister’s illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale to be Pearl’s father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale’s vestment aside, Chillingworth sees something startling on the sleeping minister’s pale chest: a scarlet A.

Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the square where Hester was punished years earlier. Climbing the scaffold, he sees Hester and Pearl and calls to them to join him. He admits his guilt to them but cannot find the courage to do so publicly. Suddenly Dimmesdale sees a meteor forming what appears to be a gigantic A in the sky; simultaneously, Pearl points toward the shadowy figure of Roger Chillingworth. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale’s deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband. In her discussion of this with Chillingworth, she tells him his obsession with revenge must be stopped in order to save his own soul.

Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest, where she removes the scarlet letter from her dress and identifies her husband and his desire for revenge. In this conversation, she convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they can start life anew. Renewed by this plan, the minister seems to gain new energy. Pearl, however, refuses to acknowledge either of them until Hester replaces her symbol of shame on her dress.

Returning to town, Dimmesdale loses heart in their plan: He has become a changed man and knows he is dying. Meanwhile, Hester is informed by the captain of the ship on which she arranged passage that Roger Chillingworth will also be a passenger.

On Election Day, Dimmesdale gives what is declared to be one of his most inspired sermons. But as the procession leaves the church, Dimmesdale stumbles and almost falls. Seeing Hester and Pearl in the crowd watching the parade, he climbs upon the scaffold and confesses his sin, dying in Hester’s arms. Later, witnesses swear that they saw a stigmata in the form of a scarlet A upon his chest. Chillingworth, losing his revenge, dies shortly thereafter and leaves Pearl a great deal of money, enabling her to go to Europe with her mother and make a wealthy marriage.

Several years later, Hester returns to Boston, resumes wearing the scarlet letter, and becomes a person to whom other women turn for solace. When she dies, she is buried near the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a simple slate tombstone with the inscription “On a field, sable, the letter A gules.”




صورة

Summaries and Commentaries
The Custom House


Hawthorne begins The Scarlet Letter with a long introductory essay that generally functions as a preface but, more specifically, accomplishes four significant goals: outlines autobiographical information about the author, describes the conflict between the artistic impulse and the commercial environment, defines the romance novel (which Hawthorne is credited with refining and mastering), and authenticates the basis of the novel by explaining that he had discovered in the Salem Custom House the faded scarlet A and the parchment sheets that contained the historical manuscript on which the novel is based.

The preface sets the atmosphere of the story and connects the present with the past. Hawthorne’s description of the Salem port of the 1800s is directly related to the past history of the area. The Puritans who first settled in Massachusetts in the 1600s founded a colony that concentrated on God’s teachings and their mission to live by His word. But this philosophy was eventually swallowed up by the commercialism and financial interests of the 1700s.


The clashing of the past and present is further explored in the character of the old General. The old General’s heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength. He is “the soul and spirit of New England hardihood.” Now put out to pasture, he sometimes presides over the Custom House run by corrupt public servants, who skip work to sleep, allow or overlook smuggling, and are supervised by an inspector with “no power of thought, nor depth of feeling, no troublesome sensibilities,” who is honest enough but without a spiritual compass.

A further connection to the past is his discussion of his ancestors. Hawthorne has ambivalent feelings about their role in his life. In his autobiographical sketch, Hawthorne describes his ancestors as “dim and dusky,” “grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steel crowned,” “bitter persecutors” whose “better deeds” will be diminished by their bad ones. There can be little doubt of Hawthorne’s disdain for the stern morality and rigidity of the Puritans, and he imagines his predecessors’ disdainful view of him: unsuccessful in their eyes, worthless and disgraceful. “A writer of story books!” But even as he disagrees with his ancestor’s viewpoint, he also feels an instinctual connection to them and, more importantly, a “sense of place” in Salem. Their blood remains in his veins, but their intolerance and lack of humanity becomes the subject of his novel.

This ambivalence in his thoughts about his ancestors and his hometown is paralleled by his struggle with the need to exercise his artistic talent and the reality of supporting a family. Hawthorne wrote to his sister Elizabeth in 1820, “No man can be a Poet and a Bookkeeper at the same time.” Hawthorne’s references to Emerson, Thoreau, Channing, and other romantic authors describe an intellectual life he longs to regain. His job at the Custom House stifles his creativity and imagination. The scarlet letter touches his soul (he actually feels heat radiate from it), and while “the reader may smile,” Hawthorne feels a tugging that haunts him like his ancestors.

In this preface, Hawthorne also shares his definition of the romance novel as he attempts to imagine Hester Prynne’s story beyond Pue’s manuscript account. A careful reading of this section explains the author’s use of light (chiaroscuro) and setting as romance techniques in developing his themes. Hawthorne explains that, in a certain light and time and place, objects “… seem to lose their actual substance, and become things of intellect.” He asserts that, at the right time with the right scene before him, the romance writer can “dream strange things and make them look like truth.”

Finally, the preface serves as means of authenticating the novel by explaining that Hawthorne had discovered in the Salem Custom House the faded scarlet A and the parchment sheets that contained the historical manuscript on which the novel is based. However, we know of no serious, scholarly work that suggests Hawthorne was ever actually in possession of the letter or the manuscript. This technique, typical of the narrative conventions of his time, serves as a way of giving his story an air of historic truth. Furthermore, Hawthorne, in his story, “Endicott and the Red Cross,” published nine years before he took his Custom House position, described the incident of a woman who, like Hester Prynne, was forced to wear a letter A on her breast.





Summaries and Commentaries
Chapter 1 - The Prison-Door
In this first chapter, Hawthorne sets the scene of the novel—Boston of the seventeenth century. It is June, and a throng of drably dressed Puritans stands before a weather-beaten wooden prison. In front of the prison stands an unsightly plot of weeds, and beside it grows a wild rosebush, which seems out of place in this scene dominated by dark colors

In this chapter, Hawthorne sets the mood for the “tale of human frailty and sorrow” that is to follow. His first paragraph introduces the reader to what some might want to consider a (or the) major character of the work: the Puritan society. What happens to each of the major characters—Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth—results from the collective ethics, morals, psyche, and unwavering sternness and rigidity of the individual Puritans, whom Hawthorne introduces figuratively in this chapter and literally and individually in the next.

Dominating this chapter are the decay and ugliness of the physical setting, which symbolize the Puritan society and culture and foreshadow the gloom of the novel. The two landmarks mentioned, the prison and the cemetery, point not only to the “practical necessities” of the society, but also to the images of punishment and providence that dominate this culture and permeate the entire story.

The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it—as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be—is held out in part as an invitation to find “some sweet moral blossom” in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that “the deep heart of nature” (perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child (the roses among the weeds) than do her Puritan neighbors. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.

Hawthorne makes special note that this colony earlier set aside land for both a cemetery and a prison, a sign that all societies, regardless of their good intentions, eventually succumb to the realities of man’s nature (sinful/punishment/prison) and destiny (mortal/death/cemetery). In those societies in which the church and state are the same, when man breaks the law, he also sins. From Adam and Eve on, man’s inability to obey the rules of the society has been his downfall.

The Puritan society is symbolized in the first chapter by the plot of weeds growing so profusely in front of the prison. Nevertheless, nature also includes things of beauty, represented by the wild rosebush. The rosebush is a strong image developed by Hawthorne which, to the sophisticated reader, may sum up the whole work. First it is wild; that is, it is of nature, God given, or springing from the “footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson.” Second, according to the author, it is beautiful—offering “fragrant and fragile beauty to the prisoner”—in a field of “unsightly vegetation.” Third, it is a “token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to” the prisoner entering the structure or the “condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom.” Finally, it is a predominant image throughout the romance. Much the same sort of descriptive analyses that can be written about the rosebush could be ascribed to the scarlet letter itself or to little Pearl or, perhaps, even to the act of love that produced them both.

Finally, the author points toward many of the images that are significant to an understanding of the novel. In this instance, he names the chapter “The Prison Door.” The reader needs to pay particular attention to the significance of the prison generally and the prison door specifically. The descriptive language in reference to the prison door—“ … heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes” and the “rust on the ponderous iron-work … looked more antique than anything else in the New World” and, again, “ … seemed never to have known a youthful era”—foreshadows and sets the tone for the tale that follows.


وآسف على التاخير والتطويل ....

yours    
Y.H.M


*1  *good  *1

_________________
التوقيع Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed


صورة


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
  • عنوان المشاركة: Let's start with "The Scarlet Letter"...4th
مرسل: السبت آذار 15, 2008 4:41 م 
آرتيني مؤسس
آرتيني مؤسس
اشترك في: 15 نيسان 2007
المواضيع: 68
المشاركات: 4580
المكان: حماه
القسم: E
السنة: ماستر/ELT...
لا يوجد لدي مواضيع بعد



غير متصل
ثانكس يامن وفي عندي كمان شوي عنها بس ظبطون رح نزلون بمجلة آرتين وهوون...

_________________
التوقيع
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
 
Nelson Mandela
 


أعلى .:. أسفل
 يشاهد الملف الشخصي  
 
إرسال موضوع جديد الرد على الموضوع  [ 13 مشاركة ]  الانتقال إلى صفحة 1, 2  التالي

جميع الأوقات تستخدم GMT + ساعتين [ DST ]


لا تستطيع كتابة مواضيع جديدة في هذا المنتدى
لا تستطيع كتابة ردود في هذا المنتدى
لا تستطيع تعديل مشاركاتك في هذا المنتدى
لا تستطيع حذف مشاركاتك في هذا المنتدى
لا تستطيع إرفاق ملف في هذا المنتدى

البحث عن:
الانتقال الى:  

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لـ ©2012Art-En.com . تصميم بواسطة Art-En . راسلنا . سياسة الخصوصية . قوانين المنتدى
Powered by phpBB© . Translated by phpBBArabia