纳撒尼尔•霍桑是美国十九世纪杰出的浪漫主义小说家.《红字》作为霍桑的代表作,不仅主题思想丰富深邃、意义纷呈,而且艺术表现形式独特、语言技巧高超,因而不仅具有重要的文学价值,而且也具有很高的艺术审美价值.本论文旨在通过对《红字》中两个否定性艺术形象(丁梅斯代尔和齐灵渥斯)的分析与讨论,来说明这两个形象在小说中所具有的特殊审美价值:(1)通过对比海丝特的美与丁梅斯代尔和齐灵渥斯的丑,海丝特的美更加得到了肯定;(2)在对丁梅斯代尔和齐灵渥斯的丑进行直接否定过程中,海丝特的美得到了间接的肯定,因此从某种意义上说丑转化成了美;(3)两个否定性艺术形象的塑造使得《红字》的艺术美内涵更加复杂和深刻,因此使得它获得了更高的审美价值.本论文还旨在对作者的审美理想做一点初浅的探析.
关键词: 纳撒尼尔•霍桑; 否定性艺术形象; 审美价值; 美; 丑
ABSTRACT
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a great romanticist of America in the 19th century. As the representative work of his, The Scarlet Letter not only has deep thought、rich content and complicated meaning, but also possesses unique art manifestations and superb language techniques. Therefore it is of both important literary value and high aesthetic value. Through analysis and discussion of the techniques in portraying the two negative artistic images (Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth) in The Scarlet Letter, this thesis mainly aims to interpret the special aesthetic value of these two images:(1)By contrasting what is beautiful in Hester and what is ugly in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is all the more confirmed;(2)In the process of direct negation of the ugliness in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is indirectly affirmed, and thus ugliness is somehow transformed into beauty;(3)The portrayal of the two negative artistic images makes the connotation of the artistic beauty of The Scarlet Letter more complex and profound, and hence enables it to acquire even higher aesthetic value. This thesis also seeks to conduct some shallow exploration of the aesthetic ideal of the author.
Keywords: Nathaniel Hawthorne; negative artistic images; aesthetic value; beauty; ugliness
A Brief Discussion on the Aesthetic Value of the Negative Artistic Images in The Scarlet Letter
Introduction
A contemporary writer of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, once said with respect and admiration that Nathaniel Hawthorne never imitated the works of others and no one could imitate his, which would suffice to prove the highly fascinating artistic charm of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hawthorne’s novels are noticeable not only for their deep thoughts and rich content, but also for their superb and ingenious artistic skills. He skillfully combines outstanding art manifestation together with serious morals and historical backgrounds.
Most domestic and international literary comments on the artistic techniques in portraying images in The Scarlet Letter focus on the image analysis of the heroine Hester Prynne, while comments on the image analysis of the two negative artistic images (Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth) have been scarcely seen.
The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s representative novel which symbolizes a breakthrough of the American novel creation for its profound theme, powerful imagination and marvellous skills. Therefore it is of both important literary value and high aesthetic value. Through analysis and discussion of the techniques in portraying the two negative artistic images (Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth) in The Scarlet Letter, this thesis mainly aims to explore the special aesthetic value of these two images and the aesthetic ideal of the author.
From the viewpoint of aesthetics, the artistic value of any artistic work is to appreciate the beauty of essence and its meaning in studying humanity. The ugliness in life can’t arouse people’s sense of beauty and pleasant impressions, but ugliness in art can become the object of beauty with special aesthetic value which is worth appreciating. Through negation of ugliness in life, negative artistic images are endowed with affirmation of aesthetic value in art. The author’s experience and ideal in appreciating beauty is the very key to creating the artistic value of any art content.
In contrast to the heroine Hester Prynne, her adultery partner Arthur Dimmesdale and her husband Roger Chillingworth are the negative artistic images from the aesthetic perspective. The former, afraid of losing his status and prestige and being humiliated, does not confess his sin in public until seven years after the crime took place, while the latter, concealing his real identity, spares no efforts to take harsh revenge on the former, which leads to his self-deterioration.
Through analysis and discussion of the techniques in portraying the two negative artistic images (Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth) in The Scarlet Letter, this thesis mainly aims to interpret the special aesthetic value of these two images:(1)By contrasting what is beautiful in Hester and what is ugly in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is all the more confirmed;(2)In the process of direct negation of the ugliness in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is indirectly affirmed, and thus ugliness is somehow transformed into beauty;(3)The portrayal of the two negative artistic images makes the connotation of the artistic beauty of The Scarlet Letter more complex and profound and hence enables it to acquire even higher aesthetic value.
Hawthorne’s portrayal of the two negative artistic images was not to disclose the concrete details of their misdeeds or the spiritual damage to humanity by the severe Puritanic doctrines, but rather to acknowledge the virtues of the heroine such as honesty, kind-heartedness, selflessness and fortitude, etc, and affirm and eulogize the final win of right over wrong, good over evil, true over false― that is, beauty (beautiful aspects of humanity) over ugliness (ugly aspects of humanity).
I
A Brief Introduction about Some Basic Theoretical Concepts Concerning Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the study and research of the essence of beauty and its meaning. It is a liberal discipline which makes use of image, concrete and experiential methods in an outstanding way, and studies emotional, living and whole images of humanity from concrete appreciation activity of beauty (beauty, sense of beauty and art).To put it more concisely, aesthetics studies emotional, living and whole images of humanity from concrete appreciation activity of beauty.
A negative artistic image is an image which an artist creates and moulds from ugliness in life. Such ugliness can not arouse people’s sense of beauty. However, once ugliness in life enters the artistic realm and becomes the typical negative artistic model, it obtains a kind of special aesthetic value. Through observation, research and analysis, an artist expresses his or her indignation and loathing for ugliness, penetrates deeply into the essence of ugliness in life and its hidden social meaning, affirms beauty from the reversed side, and thus conveys his or her aesthetic ideal (firm pursuit of and longing for beauty) and reveals his or her fine soul.
Thus, negative artistic images are of special aesthetic value. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, beauty in contrast to ugliness. The purpose of having beauty in contrast with ugliness is to affirm beauty, and the description of ugliness is just a means of artistic creation. The depiction of beauty in contrast to ugliness must contain the aesthetic evaluation, attitude and ideal of authors and artists, and art of beauty then can be created. The purpose of art is, on the one hand, to exaggerate fine things, thus making them finer, and on the other, to exaggerate ugly things so as to arouse people’s dislike for them and encourage people to destroy them. All comparisons between beauty and ugliness lead to one objective: to negate ugliness and to affirm beauty.
Second, the transformation of ugliness into beauty. In the direct negation of ugliness, beauty is indirectly affirmed. The ugly artistic images acquire their aesthetic value only when they are negated and criticized. The aesthetic ideal and fine soul of the author are concealed behind the disclosure, derision and criticism of ugliness.
Third, once ugliness in life enters the artistic realm and becomes a negative artistic image, it will be of important value to the expansion of the width and depth of the artistic field, to the deeper understanding of the aesthetic value of artistic works and to the further development of aesthetic ideal of writers. The entrance of ugliness in life into art poses challenges to aesthetic and artistic theories, causes great changes in artistic concepts of aesthetic value, makes people have a deeper understanding of artistic essence, and leads to a further development of artistic production and aesthetic ideal of art. The connotation of artistic beauty thus becomes more complicated and profound, acquiring an ever higher aesthetic value.
II
On Hawthorne’s Portrayal of the Two Negative Artistic Images
Ugliness can only represent the negative aspect of human nature. It is an opposite but existent life kind, compared with beauty, and is the distortion and alienation of mankind’s essential power. Writers should possess “spiritual discernment” and shoulder obligations and responsibilities to examine, select and refine “ugliness” with an aesthetic attitude. Only when ugliness and wickedness are uncovered and criticized, only when ugliness and wickedness become the positive power controlled by humanity, and only when the longing for and pursuit of beauty and goodness of people are aroused, can ugliness acquire its aesthetic value. The two negative artistic images created by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter are of high aesthetic value.
When Hawthorne portrays the two characters Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, he concentrates on the ugliness of their moral characters and souls.
In the case of Dimmesdale, the ugliness of his moral character is mainly shown in his hypocrisy, which can be seen in two aspects. First, he shirks not only his moral responsibility but also his social responsibility. After having sexual intercourse with Hester Prynne, as her partner, he should have stood out to tell the truth and shared with Hester the inexpressible public humiliation and pain brought by the shame. However, he did not. Instead, he kept silent. Being judged negatively is a fear known to most people, especially to those with high social reputation and status. Arthur Dimmesdale had more of a reason to fear the judgement than anyone else. He was a minister, someone who was supposed to embody morality. Everyone idolized him as the man closest to God in their community. “His eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession.” 1This proves that the people of the town looked up to him and he was the last person that anyone had ever expected to sin. Sex was one of the most shunned upon sins in that Puritan society in seventeenth-century New England. If he were to tell people that he not only had had sex, but with a married Puritan woman, and impregnated her, he would have been exiled, or worse, killed. Naturally, for his own interest, he chose to conceal his crime. He denied his past to have a better future. On violating the dignity of his position as a minister, he chose to violate it further by not telling anyone and tried to hide his sin beneath a religious mask. Such behavior would undoubtedly arouse the reader’s dislike for him, and this kind of emotional attitude is not simply of an ethical property, but rather of an aesthetic property.
Besides, as Pearl’s own father, he should have first admitted this unbreakable bond of father and daughter and then fulfilled his due responsibility of being a father. However, he did not. In Chapter 3, when Hester was being questioned about who her child’s father was, he did not even have the slightest courage to reveal his identity as the father of Pearl. All what he hoped in his heart on that occasion was “She will not speak!” 2. And in a period as long as seven years, he did not give Pearl any paternal love. Nor did he give Hester any help in shouldering the responsibility of raising and educating their own child, not even in a secret manner. Hence, the bringing-up of Pearl was the sole obligation and accountability of her mother.
Second, he deceived himself as well as others in his moral life. When his adultery partner Hester Prynne was publicly humiliated in front of the townspeople, in addition to his cowardice and dishonesty in not telling the truth, he acted as a defender of morality and the Puritanic doctrine. In Chapter 3, when Mr. Wilson asked Dimmesdale to persuade Hester to confess the truth, he said to her hypocritically:
“…thou hearest what this good man says, and seest the accountability under which I labor. If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer! Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.…Take heed how thou deniest to him－who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself－the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!” 3
All these words gave the listeners around the impression that the young minister seemed to have had nothing to do with Hester’s sin, and that he seemed to be morally the cleanest person in the world. Isn’t that a sort of shameless deception? Besides, Dimmesdale was indulged in self-redemption designed by himself. He never confessed his sin (until the last moment before his demise), even though he was given numerous opportunities. In Chapter 11, when Hawthorne analyses the interior of Dimmesdale’s heart, he writes:
“He longed to speak out, from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell the people what he was. ‘I, whom you behold in these black garments of the priesthood,－I, who ascend the sacred desk, and turn my pale face heavenward, taking upon myself to hold communion, in your behalf, with the Most High Omniscience,－I, in whose daily life you discern the sanctity of Enoch－I, whose footsteps as you suppose, leave a glean along my earthly track, whereby the pilgrims that laid the hand of baptism upon your children,－I, who have breathed the parting prayer over your dying friends, to whom the Amen sounded faintly from a world which they had quitted,－I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie!’ ” 4
More than once, the hypocrite had actually spoken words like the above. He had told, in his heart, his hearers that he was altogether vile, a vile companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity. But that was all, which was to no avail. He also locked himself in a closet beating himself relentlessly with chains and a whip. And he cut the letter “A” into his skin like how Hester had to wear it on her breast. As if this wasn’t enough he went on near life-threatening fasts, too. And he even put on a ridiculous repentance show deep in the night which lacked true courage and honesty.
The ugliness of Dimmesdale’s soul is chiefly manifested in his selfishness.
Being fearful of losing his achieved fame and status, and prospects, he concealed his crime for seven years and never confessed in public. He never put himself in the shoes of Hester who was the only one there to endure humiliation and alienation, and to swallow pain. He was considered to be sacred, pure and the one with a deeply religious temperament to save the souls of others, thus gaining admiration and respect in his professional life. “…The people knew not the power that moved them thus. They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness. They fancied him the mouthpiece of Heaven's messages of wisdom and rebuke and love. In their eyes, the very ground on which he trod was sanctified.” 5Therefore no one ever suspected him of committing any crime.
And he was so self-centered that he never performed the role of being the father of Pearl, which threw Pearl into a miserable fatherless life, making her a born outcast of the infantile world.
“Pearl was…An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants.…The truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child;…Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom.” 6
It is worth to mention that near the very end of the novel, Dimmesdale delivered a poignant confession to the townspeople. Afterwards his strength expired and he died. Dimmesdale’s behavior suggested that his only reason for living so long was to deliver that final confession to the townspeople, therefore comforting his conscience and making peace with God.
In the case of Roger Chillingworth, the ugliness of his moral character is primarily manifested in his treacherousness. At first Chillingworth seemed to be more of a recipient or victim of the crime of the sinners than an actual sinner himself, since Hester had betrayed their marriage and Chillingsworth’s trust in her. However, after finding out what was going on at the scaffold where Hester was being humiliated, the first thing he said was “It irks me, nevertheless, that the partner of her inquity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her side. But he will be known! － he will be known!－ he will be known!” 7 This foreshadowed the sin that he would commit against Arthur Dimmesdale. In order to realize his plan of revenge, he took up his residence in the Puritan town as Roger Chillingworth, which was not his real name. He presented himself as a physician in the name of healing the injured and saving the dying, which made him quite received. He was believed to be the one who made his advent to the town to save Arthur Dimmesdale. He attached himself to Arthur Dimmesdale as a parishioner, and sought to win a friendship and trust from his naturally reserved sensibility. “He expressed great alarm at his pastor's state of health, but was anxious to attempt the cure, and, if early undertaken, seemed not despondent of a favourable result. The elders, the deacons, the motherly dames, and the young and fair maidens, of Mr. Dimmesdale’s flock, were alike importunate that he should make trial of the physician's frankly offered skill.” 8Then he stayed day and night with Arthur Dimmesdale as doctor and patient. He dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold; or rather, like a sexton delving into a grave. Outwardly, he was calm in temperament, kind, watchful and sympathetic, but never an intrusive friend. Yet, secretly“ He groped along as stealthily, with as cautious a tread, and as wary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man lies only half asleep,－or, if it may be, broad awake－with purpose to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eye.” 9.
The ugliness of Chillingworth’s soul is, in the main, shown in his sinisterness. Chillingworth devoted his entire life to finding Hester’s partner in crime and taking revenge on him. He suspected Dimmesdale and so became his doctor and moved in with him. The major turning point is when we find out to what extent Chillingworth would go through to find personal information about his patient, Dimmesdale. Hawthorne describes it like this: “The physician advanced directly in front of his patient, laid his hand upon his bosom, and thrust aside the vestment, that, hitherto, had always covered it even from the professional eye.” 10Once he was certain of his culprit, he kept him alive to live in agony. He wanted to destroy the soul of Dimmesdale, so “He became, thenceforth, not a spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister's interior world. He could play upon him as he chose. Would he arouse him with a throb of agony? The victim was forever on the rack; it needed only to know the spring that controlled the engine; and the physician knew it well!” 11And he was so fascinated by his scheme of vengeance. The effect of his vicious sin on his own character was that of a complete transformation into evil. His physical characteristics became twisted and corrupted, as did his soul and life purpose.
“…It was not so much that he had grown older…But the former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet, which was what she best remembered in him, had altogether vanished, and been succeeded by an eager, searching, almost fierce, yet carefully guarded look…there came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man’s soul was on fire, and kept on smouldering duskily within his breast…” 12
His one-track mind led him to eventual self-deterioration. By Chapter 14, Chillingworth’s transformation seemed to be complete, and Chillingworth became aware of what had happened. It was too late to change who he was and what he had become. Beyond a shadow of doubt, the worst sinner and the most evil was old Roger Chillingworth. The quote that brings the whole book together is one found in Chapter 17, when Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale were in the woods and they were discussing the magnitude of their sin. Dimmesdale commented to Hester, “We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so.” 13Once Chillingworth’s transformation into a devil was complete, there was no turning back.
Hawthorne’s portrayal of the two negative artistic images fully demonstrates Hawthorne’s incomparable artistic skills, and manifests his aesthetic ideal of affirming and eulogizing what is beautiful, and negating and flogging what is ugly. Through negating the ugly and evil aspects of the characters, Hawthorne achieves in confirming and praising the beautiful and good aspects of in human nature and conduct.
III
On the Special Aesthetic Value of the Two Negative Artistic Images in the Novel
The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne not only forms contrast between beauty and ugliness in a single image, but also demonstrates beauty against ugliness among different characters. The purpose of having beauty contrast with ugliness is to affirm beauty, and the description of ugliness is just a means of artistic creation. The depiction of beauty in contrast to ugliness contains the aesthetic evaluation, attitude and ideal of Hawthorne. All comparisons between beauty and ugliness in The Scarlet Letter lead to one objective: to negate ugliness and to affirm beauty.
In contrast to the two negative artistic images, Hester is the positive one. A human being, as a kind of existence, can not be as limpid as crystal and the personality of Hester contains flaws (she committed the shameful sin of adultery). However, her demerits can not cover up her merits. This kind of antinomy constitutes the aesthetic value of the heroine and results in our favourable judgment over her for her excellent qualities and presentable behavior.
First, Dimmesdale is outwardly pale, faint, sick and miserable because of the conflict between the concealed crime and his undying conscience, and Chillingworth, due to his stubborn vengeance scheme, is increasingly becoming a devil, exteriorly older and uglier. Opposite to them, Hester is physically beautiful. When she appeared on the scaffold, she was described like this:
“The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion…She was lady-like, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity… ”14
And she remains beautiful till the very end of the story.
Second, the ugliness of Dimmesdale’s character is mainly reflected in his shirking not only his moral responsibility as a famous minister but also his social responsibility as a father, and in his self-deceit in his moral life, while the ugliness of Chillingworth’s character is mainly his treacherousness to conduct his revenge upon Dimmesdale. Quite the opposite, Hester has a beautiful character for her honesty, kindness, fortitude and braveness.
She was so honest that she openly acknowledged her sin. She stood on the scaffold, exposed to public humiliation, and wore a scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life as a sign of shame. In disparity to Hester, Dimmesdale’s dishonesty ravaged the quality of his life and led him down a winding spiral of despair and depression with only a meager attempt at forgiveness near the end of his life, while, Hester’s life of honesty, blurred only with her great sin, ended with the love of her daughter and her ultimate forgiveness from the community.
Hester was kind-hearted. She became more and more giving and caring, and was constantly helping the poor and the sick and doing neighbors favors. Hester regarded it as a way to cleanse herself of sins and felt that she owed it to the community, which forced herself into a life of service to others. The scarlet letter A at first symbolized Hester’s seductive and sinful nature, but through her evolution of personality she gained sympathy and recognition of the townspeople. “Such helpfulness was found in her,－so much power to do and power to sympathize－that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.” 15
Once Hester came to grasp the implications of confessed sin, she was “able” to revitalize her spirit and live as a woman proud of her fortitude. Hester’s confessed sin did not destroy her inward spirit; instead she gathered strength and courage, and flourished in spite of the symbol.
And she didn’t fear judgment. Instead, she bravely bore the contempt of the townspeople. Hester deeply believed that because she had sinned, she must remain in Boston and undergo the penance for her sin. “Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here would be the scene of her earthly punishment…more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.” 16
Third, quite opposite to the selfishness of Dimmesdale’s soul—standing aside, leaving Hester alone in public humiliation and alienation and never shouldering the responsibility as a father, and to the sinisterness of Chillingworth’s soul—desperately trying to destroy the soul of Dimmesdale, Hester’s soul is beautiful for her selflessness, self-sacrifice, open-mindedness and compassion for others.
As a mother, she was selfless in assuming the responsibility of her daughter. She tried her best to give maternal love to her daughter so as to redeem her loss of paternal love. “Heart-smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so often came between herself and her sole treasure (Pearl), whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world, Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears.” 17 How deeply she loved her daughter! And how hard a mother she was!
As a lover, she was unswervingly loyal to love and her lover. She refused to tell her husband Chillingworth the name of her adultery partner during the interview in the prison. And even though she understood she could easily share her humiliation with her partner of sin, she bore the cross alone: “‘Never!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking, not at Mr. Wilson, but into the deep and troubled eyes of the younger clergyman. ‘It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!’” 18 In order to protect the status and fame of her adultery partner Dimmesdale and save the love between them, she made a lot of self-sacrifice.
She was sympathetic and generous in lending a helpful hand when misery happened to the people around her who despised her for her crime, which proves her open-mindedness. “In all seasons of calamity, indeed, whether general or of individuals, the outcast of society at once found her place.” 19 She never stood aside. Instead she shouldered her social responsibility which was unbelievable.
By contrasting what is beautiful in Hester and what is ugly in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is all the more confirmed. Hawthorne, on the one hand, uses Hester’s character to uncover the flaws of the Puritan society and the hypocrisy of their reactions to Hester. On the other hand, he takes Hester Prynne as a means of conveying an aesthetic message: his aesthetic affirmation of Hester’s selflessness, honesty, kind-heartedness, fortitude and charity and negation of the dishonesty, hypocrisy and irresponsibility on the part of Arthur Dimmesdale and the sinister and treacherous nature of Roger Chilingworth. Thus the two negative images are full of aesthetic value.
There are direct negations in depicting the two negative images by Hawthorne. And there are a lot of examples. “Poor, miserable man! what right had infirmity like his to burden itself with crime?” 20 The self-conceit of Dimmesdale’s moral life is clearly seen. And Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale’s own psychological thinking to expose his hypocrisy. “The minister well knew―subtle, but remorseful hypocrite that he was!” 21 Hawthorne even employs the word “Satan” to describe Chillingworth. “Had a man seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy, he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into his kindom.”22 In the process of direct negation of the ugliness in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is indirectly affirmed, and thus ugliness is somehow transformed into beauty.
The purpose of Hawthorne’s portrait of the two negative artistic images is to confirm the aesthetic value through the negation of ugliness in life. It is through beauty in contrast to ugliness and the transformation of ugliness into beauty that Hawthorne confirms and applauds the good side of human nature, namely, truth, kindness and beauty. We see the shining points of Hester and then the good aspects of humanity in a further way. And the two negative characters run through The Scarlet Letter, which is the writer’s derision of the disgusting nature of human being. The portrayal of the two negative artistic images makes the connotation of the artistic beauty of The Scarlet Letter more complex and profound and hence enables it to acquire even higher aesthetic value. Thus from the perspective of aesthetics, the essence of beauty and its meaning in The Scarlet Letter are presented.
Through the novel, the good nature and evil nature of human beings can be clearly seen. And the good nature is where the essence of beauty and its meaning lie.
Conclusion
Through analysis and discussion of the techniques in portraying the two negative artistic images (Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth) in The Scarlet Letter, this thesis mainly aims to interpret the special aesthetic value of these two images:(1)By contrasting what is beautiful in Hester and what is ugly in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is all the more confirmed;(2)In the process of direct negation of the ugliness in Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, the beauty in Hester is indirectly affirmed, and thus ugliness is somehow transformed into beauty;(3)The portrayal of the two negative artistic images makes the connotation of the artistic beauty of The Scarlet Letter more complex and profound and hence enables it to acquire even higher aesthetic value.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s selflessness, honesty, kind-heartedness, fortitude and charity form a sharp contrast to the dishonesty, hypocrisy and irresponsibility on the part of Arthur Dimmesdale and the sinister and treacherous nature of Roger Chilingworth. And throughout the book good is rewarded and evil always is eventually punished, which is the perpetual theme of human society and art of aesthetics.
The purpose of Hawthorne’s portrait of the two negative artistic images is to confirm the aesthetic value through the negation of ugliness in life. In the direct negation of ugliness, beauty is indirectly affirmed. The two negative characters run through The Scarlet Letter, which is the writer’s derision of the disgusting nature of human being. It is through beauty in contrast to ugliness and the transformation of ugliness into beauty that Hawthorne confirms and applauds the good side of human nature and moral conduct, namely, truth, kindness and beauty, which thus reflect Hawthorne’s fine ideal of life and soul.
Notes:
1 Hawthorne, N. The Scarlet Letter, (Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001) 15
2 Ibid, 17
3 Ibid, 16
4 Ibid, 74
5 Ibid, 73
6 Ibid, 36
7 Ibid, 13
8 Ibid, 58
9 Ibid, 64
10 Ibid, 70
11 Ibid, 71
12 Ibid, 94
13 Ibid, 113
14 Ibid, 6
15 Ibid, 88
16 Ibid, 27
17 Ibid, 36
18 Ibid, 17
19 Ibid, 87
20 Ibid, 77
21 Ibid, 74
22 Ibid, 70
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