浅谈霍桑原罪.docVIP

浅谈霍桑原罪 　　摘 要：霍桑（1804-1864）是他同时代最具影响力的作家之一。他认为罪恶与美好同时存在于每个人的内心，并在人的内心深处相互斗争。通过阅读霍桑的作品，我们发现原罪的思想占据了很大部分内容。在他看来，“原罪”是很多社会问题的元凶。如果我们要解决整个社会的问题，我们必须要行动起来。 　　关键词：原罪 象征 人性 　　中图分类号：T109.31 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1674-3520（2013）-12-0259-02 　　Ⅰ. Introduction 　　Nathaniel Hawthorne （1804-1864） is an extremely paradoxical figure. He was the most democratic of all great nineteenth century writers but he was also， in many of his views and his political affiliation， the most conservative one. In an age of ardent reformers he was certain that society could only be changed gradually. In a period of unbridled individualism he thought that the greatest threat to man’s happiness lay in his growing apart from his fellow men. In a time of increasing national power and prosperity， when both the small but important group of intellectuals and the great mass of practical men were altogether optimistic， he felt that somehow things were going wrong， that it was less and less possible for man to live throughout the whole range of his faculties and sensibilities. While he had more experience and understanding of practical life than any other contemporary writers， he had an almost desperate need for seclusion and privacy. Finally， almost all his stories were in greater or lesser part allegorical， and he called his novels “romances” to distinguish them from those which dealt in realistic descriptions of current affairs. 　　But before we try to explain or even examine his attitudes and his achievement we shall look at his rather surprisingly varied life. 　　1.1 Background of Hawthorne’s Family 　　In fact， the ideas of “Original Sin” in Hawthorne’s works are closely related to his family background and religions atmosphere. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in a puritan family in Salem. Hawthorne’s father was a well known Salem captain， who died of yellow fever in Dutch Guyana， and abandoned his young wife， two daughters and 4-year old Hawthorne. Father’s death and mother’s isolated life influence little Hawt