The Scarlet Letter (1850) is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, considered to be his masterpiece and most famous work. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
Plot summary
The novel takes place during the summer in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms and on the breast of her gown "a rag of scarlet cloth" that "assumed the shape of a letter." It was the uppercase letter "A". The Scarlet Letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin—a badge of shame—for all to see. A man, who was elderly and a stranger to the town, enters the crowd and asks another onlooker what's happening. He responds by explaining that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she, and whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead to America whilst settling affairs in Europe. However, her husband does not arrive in Boston, and the consensus is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her daughter. She will not reveal her lover's identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and secrecy. On this day Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child's father.
The elderly onlooker is Hester's missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter Pearl grows into a willful, impish child—in Hawthorne's work, Pearl is more of a symbol than an actual character—and is said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister's torments and Hester's secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an "A" burned into Dimmesdale's chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.
The Scarlet Letter. Painting by T. H. Matteson. This 1860 oil-on-canvas may have been made with Hawthorne's advice.
Dimmesdale's psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester's charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl's request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red "A" in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning adultery. Hester can see that the minister's condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale's self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.
Later in the story, while walking through the forest, the sun would not shine on Hester, although Pearl could bask in it. They then encounter Dimmesdale, as he is taking a walk in the woods that day. Hester informs Dimmesdale of the true identity of Chillingworth and the former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook, because he again refuses to make known publicly their relationship. However, he too clearly feels a release from the pretense of his former life, and the laws and sins he has lived with.
The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just after Pearl kisses him.
Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resumes her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both." The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", for Hester and Dimmesdale.
Major themes
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Sin
The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge—specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter functions as "her passport into regions where other women dared not tread", leading her to "speculate" about her society and herself more "boldly" than anyone else in New England.
As for Dimmesdale, the "cheating minister" of his sin gives him "sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate[s] in unison with theirs." His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His "Fall" is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity. He ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister is his own deceiver, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.
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 than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.
Chillingworth's misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale's illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart.
Although Pearl is a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol. Pearl herself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread, just like the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom. Parallels can be drawn between Pearl and the character Beatrice in Rappaccini's Daughter. Both are studies in the same direction, though from different standpoints. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she herself becomes poisonous. Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents' guilt.
Past and present
The clashing of past and present is explored in various ways. For example, the character of the old General, whose heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength, is said to be "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.
Hawthorne himself had ambivalent feelings about the role of his ancestors in his life. In his autobiographical sketch, Hawthorne described his ancestors as "dim and dusky", "grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steel crowned", "bitter persecutors" whose "better deeds" would 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 imagined 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 ancestors' 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.
Publication history
Hawthorne originally planned The Scarlet Letter to be a shorter novelette which was part of a collection to be named Old Time Legends. His publisher, James Thomas Fields, convinced him to expand the novelette to a full-length novel. Hawthorne's wife Sophia later disputed that Fields had a larger role than this, complaining that "he has made the absurd boast that he was the sole cause of the Scarlet Letter being published!" She noted that her husband's friend Edwin Percy Whipple, a critic, approached Fields to consider its publication.
The Scarlet Letter was published as a novel in the spring of 1850 by Ticknor & Fields, beginning Hawthorne's most lucrative period. When he delivered the final pages to Fields in February 1850, Hawthorne said that "some portions of the book are powerfully written" but doubted it would be popular. In fact, the book was an instant best-seller though, over fourteen years, it brought its author only $1,500. Its initial publication brought wide protest from natives of Salem, who did not approve of how Hawthorne had depicted them in his introduction "The Custom-House". A 2,500-copy second edition of The Scarlet Letter included a preface by Hawthorne dated March 30, 1850, that he had decided to reprint his introduction "without the change of a word... The only remarkable features of the sketch are its frank and genuine good-humor... As to enmity, or ill-feeling of any kind, personal or political, he utterly disclaims such motives".
The Scarlet Letter was also one of the first mass-produced books in America. Into the mid-nineteenth century, bookbinders of home-grown literature typically hand-made their books and sold them in small quantities. The first mechanized printing of The Scarlet Letter, 2,500 volumes, sold out within ten days, and was widely read and discussed to an extent not much experienced in the young country up until that time. Copies of the first edition are often sought by collectors as rare books, and may fetch up to around $6,000 USD.
Critical response
On its publication, critic Evert Augustus Duyckinck, a friend of Hawthorne's, said he preferred the author's Washington Irving-like tales. Another friend, critic Edwin Percy Whipple, objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" with dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them". Orestes Brownson complained that Hawthorne did not understand Christianity, confession, and remorse. A review in the Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register concluded the author "perpetrates bad morals."
On the other hand, 20th century writer D. H. Lawrence said that there could be no more perfect work of the American imagination than The Scarlet Letter. Henry James once said of the novel, "It is beautiful, admirable, extraordinary; it has in the highest degree that merit which I have spoken of as the mark of Hawthorne's best things--an indefinable purity and lightness of conception...One can often return to it; it supports familiarity and has the inexhaustible charm and mystery of great works of art."
The book's immediate and lasting success are due to the way it addresses spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American standpoint.[citation needed] In 1850, adultery was an extremely risqué subject, but because Hawthorne had the support of the New England literary establishment, it passed easily into the realm of appropriate reading. It has been said that this work represents the height of Hawthorne's literary genius; dense with terse descriptions. It remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth, and continues to be read as a classic tale on a universal theme.
Allusions
* Anne Hutchinson, mentioned in Chapter 1, The Prison Door, was a religious dissenter (1591–1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by the Puritans and exiled from Boston and moved to Rhode Island.
* Martin Luther (1483–1545) was a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
* Sir Thomas Overbury and Dr. Forman were the subjects of an adultery scandal in 1615 in England. Dr. Forman was charged with trying to poison his adulterous wife and her lover. Overbury was a friend of the lover and was perhaps poisoned.
* John Winthrop (1588–1649), first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
* King's Chapel Burying Ground in the final paragraph exists; the Elizabeth Pain gravestone is traditionally considered an inspiration for the protagonists' grave.
導演：
邊赫 Hyuk Byun
主演：
李恩珠 Eun-ju Lee
韓石圭 Suk-kyu Han
成賢娥 Hyeon-a Seong
類型：驚悚 / 懸疑
更多中文片名：
赤色誘惑
更多外文片名：
Juhong geulshi
片長：115 分鐘
國傢/地區：韓國 Korea
對白語言：韓語 Korean
發行公司：Cine Qua Non Films
上映日期：2004年10月15日 韓國
更多中文片名：
真愛一生
紅色禁戀
影片類型：
愛情 / 劇情
片長：
135 min
【演職員表】
導演 Director：
* 羅蘭·約菲 Roland Joffé
編劇 Writer：
* 納撒尼爾·霍桑 Nathaniel Hawthorne .....(novel The Scarlet Letter)
* Douglas Day Stewart .....(screenplay)
演員 Actor：
* 加裏·奧德曼 Gary Oldman .....Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
* 黛咪·摩爾 Demi Moore .....Hester Prynne
* 羅伯特·杜瓦爾 Robert Duvall .....Roger Chillingworth
* 瓊·普萊懷特 Joan Plowright .....Harriet Hibbons
* Lisa Joliffe-Andoh .....Mituba
* Edward Hardwicke .....Gov. John Bellingham
* Robert Prosky .....Horace Stonehall
* Roy Dotrice .....Rev. Thomas Cheever
* Malcolm Storry .....Maj. Dunsmuir
* James Bearden .....Goodman Mortimer (as Jim Bearden)
* Larissa Laskin .....Goody Mortimer
* 艾米·懷特 Amy Wright .....Goody Gotwick
* George Aguilar .....Johnny Sassamon
* Tim Woodward .....Brewster Stonehall
* Joan Gregson .....Elizabeth Cheever
* Dana Ivey .....Meredith Stonehall
* Diane Salinger .....Margaret Bellingham
* Jocelyn Cunningham .....Mary Rollings
* Francie Swift .....Sally Short
* Sheldon Peters Wolfchild .....Moskeegee
* Eric Schweig .....Metacomet
* Kristin Fairlie .....Faith Stonehall
* Sarah Campbell .....Prudence Stonehall
* Judd Jones .....Mr. Bobbin
* Anthony Paton .....Town Beadle
* Marguerite McNeil .....Widow Wormser
* Kennetch Charlette .....Tarrantine Chief
* Deborah Tennant .....Quaker Lady
* Kateri Walker .....Female Sachem
* Shaun R. Clarke .....Militia Guardsman
* Jay Carmichael .....Militia Guardsman
* Jason Parkhill .....First Guardsman
* Jeremy Keddy .....Drummer Boy
* Nicholas Rice .....The Clerk
* Len Doncheff .....Trader
* Ashley Nolan .....Goody Hunter
* Stephen Aderneck .....Speaking Native
* Evelyn Francis .....Algonquin Native
* Gary Joseph .....Native Rider
* Stephen Micalchunk .....Passenger #1
* Jeremy Akerman .....Middle Aged Passenger
* Scout LaRue Willis .....Young Pearl
* Tallulah Belle Willis .....Infant Pearl
* Jodhi May .....Pearl (voice)
* Jerry Hamm .....Militia Captain (uncredited)
* David Kehoe .....Extra (uncredited)
* Mike Skutt .....Metacomet's son (uncredited)
製作人 Produced by：
* 羅蘭·約菲 Roland Joffé .....producer
* Robert F. Colesberry .....co-producer (as Robert Colesberry)
* Jonathan Cornick .....associate producer
* Dodi Fayed .....executive producer
* Tova Laiter .....executive producer
* Andrew G. Vajna .....producer
原創音樂 Original Music：
* 約翰·巴裏 John Barry
攝影 Cinematography：
* Alex Thomson
剪輯 Film Editing：
* Thom Noble
選角導演 Casting：
* Elisabeth Leustig
藝術指導 Production Designer：
* Roy Walker
美術設計 Art Direction by：
* Tony Woollard
布景師 Set Decoration by：
* Rosalind Shingleton
服裝設計 Costume Design by：
* Gabriella Pescucci
副導演/助理導演 Assistant Director：
* Stephen Bélanger .....third assistant director (as Stephen H. Belanger)
* Simon Board .....third assistant director
* Craig Cameron .....third assistant director
* John E. Gallagher .....second assistant director
* Buddy Joe Hooker .....second unit director
* Dennis Maguire .....first assistant director
* Lars P. Winther .....second assistant director (as Lars Winther)
* Jonathan Wright .....third assistant director
故事發生在兩百多年前的波士頓。
海絲特·白蘭因犯了通姦罪受到加爾文教派權力機構的懲罰， 胸前佩戴着標志通姦的紅色“A”字站在古老的枷刑臺上示衆。她的手中抱着這個罪孽的證據：一個出生僅數月的嬰兒。在人們無情的註視下，她拒絶了年輕牧師阿瑟·丁梅斯代爾提出的懺悔並供出同犯的要求。
受過懲罰後，海絲特在城外遠離人群的一間小茅屋裏住了下來。她以作針綫活維生，並細心地照料着她的女兒——珠兒。這時，海斯特的丈夫來到了美國。他滿懷仇恨地改名為羅傑·奇林沃思，以醫生的身份暗中察訪與海絲特通姦的同犯。
很快七年過去了。珠兒已成長為一個美麗可愛的小姑娘。而海絲特因為不斷熱心接濟和幫助別人，最終贏得了人們的尊敬，使胸前那本來代表恥辱的紅字變成了美好善良德行的象徵。 而經過多年的窺探， 羅傑也認定了“道德偉大”的丁梅斯代爾牧師就是那個隱藏的同犯。於是他千方百計地接近牧師， 旁敲側擊，冷嘲熱諷，不停地在精神上對牧師進行折磨。
海絲特為了使丁梅斯代爾逃離丈夫的陰影，决心帶着女兒和他一起逃走，但卻被羅傑發現，計劃失敗了。而對羅傑的恐懼和自己隱瞞罪責的煎熬使丁梅斯代爾的健康每況愈下。終於在離開塵世前夕，他在全體教衆的面前，他輓着海絲特和他們的女兒珠兒登上了枷刑臺，用以生命為代價的深切懺悔換取了道德上的新生。
【上映日期】
國傢/地區 上映/發行日期
美國
USA
1995年10月13日
英國
UK
1995年11月17日
西班牙
Spain
1995年12月28日
阿根廷
Argentina
1996年1月18日
澳大利亞
Australia
1996年1月25日
丹麥
Denmark
1996年2月2日
德國
Germany
1996年4月18日
葡萄牙
Portugal
1996年4月19日
波蘭
Poland
1996年4月26日
法國
France
1996年5月1日
瑞典
Sweden
1996年6月28日
臺灣，香港電影《紅字》
導演：李佑寧 諾蓬瓦汀
演員：林志穎 吳辰君 安普南蓬 恰恰諾南
類型：劇情 地區：臺灣 香港 泰國 語言：國語 發行時間：1999
相關鏈接：紅字貼吧
1937年的泰國，一些自稱「紅字」的華人勢力，紛紛成立黑幫，控製在泰華人。較有勢力的紅字黑幫有二──「陳公司」與「三點幫」。這兩個幫派之間時常有摩擦，成為水火不容的敵人。
一日，三點幫派遣大護法阿竜喬裝成戲子，以一年一度慶祝演出為名，隨劇團前往陳公司，伺機殺死陳公司的重要頭目，而阿竜自己也身受重傷，幸被華人姑娘玉鳳救回傢中養傷。
林志穎憑藉此片榮獲亞太影帝。