The Black Cave in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Short Stories.doc

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1、纳撒尼尔霍桑短篇小说中的黑洞理论The Black Cave in Nathaniel Hawthornes Short StoriesAbstract: Nathaniel Hawthorne is a perfect romanticist in the American literary history. He has an unceasing interest in the “interior of the heart” of human being. He holds a Calvinistic belief that human beings are basically depra

2、ved and corrupted. His works are marked by a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil. His literary world has much to do with his “black vision” of life and human beings. When the readers read about Hawthornes works, they must keep Hawthornes black view in his

3、mind. The sense of sin and evil haunts Hawthorne, and this can be found in all his books. Although he thinks human nature is sinful and evil, he also seems to say in his works that achievement is possible only under the impact of evil.Key words: black view; original sin; evil摘 要：霍桑是美国文学史上最完美的浪漫主义作家。

4、他喜欢不断地探索人的内心世界。他坚定加尔文的信念人的本质都是堕落腐败的。他的作品都贴上了加尔文的原罪观和邪恶的神秘观的标签。在他的多数文学作品中他都用他的黑色视角来审视人。当读霍桑的作品时，必需把他的黑色观点铭记在心。原罪和邪恶的意识一直萦绕着他，这在它的所有作品中都能找到。尽管他认为人的本质充满罪与恶，但他似乎也在作品中传达了这样的思想人唯有在经历了或是受罪恶影响后才有可能有所成就。关键词：黑色观念；原罪；邪恶ContentsI. Background Information.1A. Hawthornes life, works and reputation.1 1. Hawthornes

5、life and works.2 2. Hawthornes reputation.2B. The religious background2 II. Definition of “The Black Cave”.3III. Studies of Hawthornes Works3A. Studies of Hawthornes works abroad.3 B. Studies of Hawthornes works in China.4 C. About Hawthornes works.5IV. Hawthornes Black Vision5V. Hawthornes Black Vi

6、sion in “Young Goodman Brown”6VI. Conclusion8Works Cited10I. Background InformationA. Hawthornes life, works, and reputation1. Hawthornes life and worksHawthorne was born on the fourth of July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Some of his ancestors were men of prominence in the Puritan theocracy of seve

7、nteenth-century New England. One of them was a colonial magistrate, notorious for his part in the persecution of the Quakers, and another was a judge at the Salem Witchcrafts Trail in 1692. Gradually the family fortune declined. His father, a sea captain, died in Dutch Guiana, leaving the widow and

8、the child behind to shift for themselves. Young Hawthorne was intensely aware of the misdeeds of his Puritan ancestors, and this awareness led to his understanding of evil being at the core of human life, to “that blackness in Hawthorne,” as Herman Melville put it. There is a certain amount of truth

9、 in the statement that Hawthorne wrote some of his books like The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables as an attempt at expiating the sin of his ancestors. “Young Goodman Brown” is one of his most profound tales. It concurs with guilt and evil. In this story Hawthorne sets out to prove t

10、hat everyone possesses some evil secrets. “The Ministers Black Veil” is one of Hawthornes black stories of psychological burrowing. The black veil is symbolic of the cover that man uses to conceal his secret guilt.In 1821 Hawthorne went to Bowdoin College, where he had Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as

11、a classmate. He also developed a friendship with Franklin Pierce who was to become the fourteenth President of the United States. From 1825 to 1837 Hawthorne lived in solitude and seclusion. He read widely, became further acquainted with local history, and began to practice writing. His first attemp

12、t at novel writing, a book about his school life, proved to be a failure; his first tale appeared in print in 1830. The year of 1837 saw the publication of his Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short stories, which enjoyed critical attention. For a while he worked in the United States Custom House i

13、n Boston and later in Salem. Another collection of short stories Mosses from an Old Manse came out in 1864. All these works, however, brought him neither great fame nor any fortune large enough to relieve him of the harassment of poverty. It was The Scarlet Letter that did it for him: not only did t

14、he book make his name as a writer of no small talent; it also brought him the money that made him finally financially comfortable. The House of the Seven Gables came out in 1851, to be followed by The Blithedale Romance in 1852 and The Marble Faun in 1860. He was, during the four years (1853-1857) w

15、hen President Pierce was in office, the United States consul in Liverpool, England, and later traveled in Italy. He died in 1864.2. Hawthornes reputationHawthorne is the most ambivalent writer, a perfect romanticist in the American literature history. He has an unceasing interest in the “interior of

16、 the heart” of mans being. He holds Calvinistic belief that human beings are basically depraved and corrupted. His works are marked by a preoccupation with the Calvinistic view of original sin and the mystery of evil. His literary world turns out to be a most disturbed, tormented and problematical o

17、ne, which has much to do with his “black” vision of life and human beings. With the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne became famous as the greatest writer living then (as indeed some critics put it) and his reputation as a major American author has been on the increase e

18、ver since. Over the years a good number of biographical and critical studies have been written, and almost all aspects of his life and work have been treated with meticulous care. He is also becoming more and more popular with Chinese readers. Since Shi Hengs Chinese translation of The Scarlet Lette

19、r appeared in1950s, scholars and readers in this country have shown an ever-increasing interest in his works, which offers another testimony of Hawthornes power and permanence.B. The religious backgroundPuritanism is a branch of Protestantism, a version of Calvinism, which is strongly anti-Catholic.

20、 In Hawthornes time, puritans were dissenters, and they advocated a “purer” form of Protestantism than they saw in the Church of England in the 1630s. According to Perry Miller the “very heart” of Puritanism is the belief in “supernatural grace”, which comes upon the elect with “irresistible force a

21、nd depends on no antecedent conditions or preparations.” Therefore, human destiny is pre-determined, and men and women can do nothing to earn grace or avoid it. Under such severe spiritual pressures, puritans, before and around Hawthornes time, nevertheless, examined themselves and their behavior to

22、 find out signs that they were chosen for salvation. In the early colonies of New England, puritan influences were paramount. In New England, at first, the governing body and the religious authorities were one and the same. In order to survive in the extreme alien and hostile environment, early sett

23、lers regarded themselves as Gods chosen people who had just escaped persecution on the European Continent like the Israelites led by Moses, wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. To get Gods grace and save their souls, they must work hard, be industrious and thrifty, purging themselves of all sin

24、s, especially sins brought by the desires and passions of the body. Therefore, puritan control over human body and soul merged with the social administration, an effort to run the colony community with strict and cold puritan rules.II. The Definition of “The Black Cave”The soul of human is often com

25、pared as a huge cave, and the mouth of the cave is the state of original sin of human beings. When a disciple continues exploring from the mouth into the deeper cave, he will find a dark and mess world. The deeper go on, the more evil and depravity are. And when the disciple is the lowest point ther

26、e, he will at last see how depraved he is and realizes that how unreliable the human nature is. All the outside authority and position and inside morality and ability are unreliable and depraved. When all the inside quality and outside material can not save the disciples, they choose to give up tota

27、lly. Meanwhile, the Puritanism warns its disciples that they will not accept God until they have nothing to depend on but God. God is the only hope of human when he is extremely hopeless. This is the condition in Puritanism that human beings are saved. The black view is everywhere in Hawthornes work

28、s, and then the black soul or nature of human being is black cave. III. Studies of Hawthornes WorksA. Studies of Hawthornes works abroadSince the year of 1836 Park Benjamin first wrote a critical article about Hawthornes works and published it on New England Magazine. Now it has had a-170- year hist

29、ory to study Hawthorne and his works. Actually, After Randall Stewart edited and published Hawthornes American Notes; many people begin to study Hawthorne and his works. Bill Christophersen even says that the study of Hawthornes “Rappaccinis Daughter” has formed an industry. Fogel thinks Rappaccinis

30、 daughter is outside beautiful and inside evil. (Fogel 1952) Foreign scholars study Hawthorne from different aspects: his life, his works, his belief and so on. In Alfred Kazvins view that there is a tomb and prison in everybodys soul.(Alfred 1997) In almost every book, Hawthorne discusses sin and e

31、vil. Melville was the contemporary writer with Hawthorne, and he said that there was “blackness, ten times black” in Hawthornes works. “Young Goodman Brown” is one of Hawthornes most profound tales, in the manner of its concern with guilt and evil. It exemplifies what Melville calls the “power of bl

32、ackness” in Hawthornes work. Hawthorne himself also said, “There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.” A piece of literary work should “show how we are all wronged and wringers, and avenge one another.” Ha

33、wthorne seems to say that sin and evil is human nature. “Once the evil-and-sin inner side is purified, most evil of the outside world will vanish.” (Randall 1948) B. Studies of Hawthornes works in ChinaBecause Hawthornes view that human nature is sin and evil is opposite with Chinese traditional vie

34、w that human nature is good, Chinese scholars began to study Hawthornes works since 1980s. And here are some of the views: Chen Yu most focuses on how to interpret the “poison” in “Rappaccinis Daughter”. She thinks the poison is the symbol of evil (Chen 34). Cui Wei says that the angel about Hawthor

35、nes study is rich. The theme of study includes the religious view, value view, moral view and so on. Especially, the contract between evil and good in his thoughts shows Hawthornes confusion (Cui 67-70). Also Jin Nanhui and Chen Xu make a compare between Hawthorne and Allan Poe. They two both have m

36、iserable experience, which makes them can see the hidden evil blackness and recognize the black side in human nature.(Jin & Chen 67) When reading “Young Goodman Brown”, its clear that Hawthorne analyses sin and evil in human nature from religion and explains the sin-and-evil human nature and the gro

37、wing up experience.(Ren & Chen 25-28) . Also Fang Wenkai shows in his Humanity, Nature and Home of Soul: Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Modernity the human nature is evil (Fang 154). Chen Guanshang says in his Hawthornes Short that Hawthornes works before Scarlet Letter just express sin and evil exist

38、in human nature; however, he doesnt tell how to pass through the black cave in human soul. He tells the solution in Scarlet Letter in order to get rid of the outside evil is just only to purify the human soul, and in order to come over the evil in human nature is to start from humans innermost and m

39、ake it purified under religion (Chen 1980). Chang Yaoxin thinks the young man leaving his wife despite her repeated earnest pleadings not to go off into the night can be seen in one sense as symbol of the inner urge of the young to grow up and get initiated into the adult world. He must go; it is de

40、cided by his human nature: it is a phase to go through. He must lose his innocence to discover about the evil that exists in life as well as in him in order to reach maturity (Chang 79).C. About Hawthornes worksSin and evil are one of the themes of Hawthornes works. It can be found almost in Hawthor

41、nes every works. Thats is why I choose his black view of human nature in his short stories as an angel to study the black cave the each character must experience. All his life, Hawthorne seems to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Reading his tales and romances, one cannot but be overw

42、helmed by the “black” vision which these works reveal. Evil exists in the human heart as is evident, for instance, in the short story, “Earthy Holocaust”, which tells us that, though all symbols of tradition and the past have been burned in the bonfire of the fire of the New World, the source of evi

43、l-the human heart-remains intact. Everyone possesses some evil secret as tales like “Young Goodman Brown” set out to prove. However, Browns tragedy lies in the fact that he fails to see evil in himself. So Brown is trapped into the Black Cave forever and never passes through it.IV. Hawthornes Black

44、VisionNothing is more curious and interesting than this almost exclusively imported character of the sense of sin in Hawthornes mind; it seems to exist there merely for an artistic or literary purpose. He had ample cognizance of the Puritan conscience; it was his natural heritage; it was reproduced

45、in him. Looking into his soul, he found it there. But his relation to it was only, as one may say, intellectual; it was not moral and theological. He played with it, and used it as a pigment; he treated it, as the metaphysicians say, objectively. He was not discomposed, disturbed, haunted by it, in

46、the manner of its usual and regular victims, who had not the little postern door of fancy to slip through, to the other side of the wall. It was a necessary condition for a man of Hawthornes stock that if his imagination should take license to amuse itself, it should at least select this grim precin

47、ct of the Puritan morality for its playground. He speaks of the dark disapproval with which his old ancestors, in the case of their coming to life, would see him trifling himself away as a storyteller. But if they hadnt frowned more darkly, they could have understood that he had converted the very p

48、rinciple of their own being into one of his toys!The deliberate consciousness of Americans is so fair and smooth-spoken, and the under-consciousness so devilish. Destroy! Destroy! Destroy! hums the under-consciousness. Love and produce! Love and produce! crackles upper consciousness. And the world hears only the Love- and- produce cackle, but refuses to hear the hum of destruction underneath, unless it will have to hear.D