Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)
New England writer Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, where his paternal ancestors had been prominent since the founding generation (who then spelled their last name Hathorn). When he began writing fiction, he was drawn into a search for material in the careers of his early ancestors and in the history of colonial New England. While attending Bowdoin College, Hawthorne began writing tales or a romance or both. He would go on to write many American stories and novels, including “Young Goodman Brown” (1835), Twice-Told Tales (1837), “Ethan Brand” (1850), The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and The Blithedale Romance (1852).
In sketches, tales, and romances published in the second third of the 19th century, Hawthorne chose mainly American materials, drawing especially on the history of colonial New England and his native Salem in the time of his early American ancestors. Heir to the Puritan tradition and alert to the transcendental thought prominent in his region and time, he subjected both to his skeptical, questioning scrutiny in the moral and psychological probing that is characteristic of his fictional works. Considering guilt—actual or imagined, revealed or concealed—to be a universal human experience, he traced out in his characters the types and the effects of guilt. The seriousness of his literary purpose, his independence of mind, and his intellectual and artistic integrity were recognized by Herman Melville and others of his contemporaries. He placed a number of characters and scenes among the most memorable in world literature; he was master of a prose style that is individual, simple and direct, and yet richly varied. Hawthorne’s writing influenced Melville, who dedicated Moby-Dick (1851) to Hawthorne, as well as Henry James and William Faulkner; they were drawn particularly by his symbolic method and his attention to the dark elements in human experience. Through both direct statement and example, he helped define for his age the literary sketch, the tale, and long fiction that fuses romance and psychological realism.
Hawthorne lived in New England most of his life, and at one point lived in Concord, Massachusettes, where he lived near Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. He died on May 19, 1864 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
纳撒尼尔·霍桑（Nathaniel Hawthorne，1804—1864），是美国心理分析小说的开创者，也是美国文学史上首位写作短篇小说的作家，被称为美国19世纪最伟大的浪漫主义小说家。
霍桑出生于美国马萨诸塞州塞勒姆，幼年丧父，同寡母一道住到了位于萨莱姆镇的外公家，自幼性格孤高自许，顾虑多疑，童年的不幸和生活氛围使他内心有一种“痛苦的孤独感”，他对社会改革毫无兴趣，对资本主义经济迅速发展无法理解。外公家笃信基督教的清教，霍桑受到了清教的影响。
1825年，霍桑从波登大学大学毕业后，回到萨莱姆，创作并发表了几十篇故事和短篇小说。1839年，霍桑在波士顿海关工作了两年多，之后，进入了“布鲁克农庄”，接触超验主义思想，并结识了超验主义思想的代表人爱默生和梭罗等人。
此后，霍桑又赴萨莱姆海关上任，萨莱姆海关的生活对他创作《红字》有着直接的影响，《红字》的出版巩固了他在美国文坛的坚实地位，也给后世以巨大的影响。
霍桑被评价为一个生活的旁观者，这一人生态度决定了他对人的内心、心理活动的兴趣和洞察力。他深受原罪思想的影响，而且原罪代代相传，倡导人们以善行来洗刷罪恶，净化心灵。
其代表作包括长篇小说《红字》，《七角楼房》，短篇小说集《重讲一遍的故事》，《古宅青苔》，《雪影》等。其中《红字》已成为世界文学经典，亨利·詹姆斯、爱伦·坡、赫尔曼·麦尔维尔等文学大师都深受其影响。
“ The Birthmark” is a short story from Mosses from an Old Manse. This shorttext owns Hawthorne’s typical writing style. For instance, it has only severalcharacters, rich symbolic meanings, the theme of evil and so on. I would try toanalyze this text from the following three parts, the traits of characters, thetheme, and the symbolic meanings of the birthmark.
In “The Birthmark”, the hero Aylmer who is prettyobsessive with science leads to the death of his wife, Georgiana. Although the backgroundof the story is set in the latter part of 18th century, I think whatAylmer represents is those people in 19th century when Americanindustry developed quickly and people worshiped the power of science andtechnology. Meanwhile, Aylmer is also stubborn and has a strong desire ofcontrolling his wife. The woman character in this story, Georgiana, is abeautiful lady with small imperfection, who depends on Aylmer without her ownthoughts. She is obedient to her husband, which also results to her tragedy.
As we all know, most of Hawthorne’s novels dealwith the evil. And the origin of evil is people’s soul. Evil is also the centreof “The Birthmark”. We could see the evil clearly from Aylmer, who uses scienceinappropriately and sacrifices his pretty wife without hesitation in order toprove his scientific hypothesis. Meanwhile, in the process of describing the failureand cruel experiment of Aylmer, we could also see that the negative attitude ofHawthorne to science. Apart from that, it is easy to find that there is astruggle between the spirit and the body. In the text, the author repeatedlyrefers to this. For example, when introducing the assistant, Aminadab, it writes“he seemed to represent man’s physical figure; while Aylmer’s slender figure…,were no less apt a type of the spiritual element”. And at the end of the story,the author writes “ thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in itsinvariable triumph over the immortal essence…”. What Hawthorne wants to expressis that if you try to destroy a person’s flesh endowed by God, you are killingher. Unclasping the firm gripe of that little hand is a dehumanizing process,which is doomed to fail. No matter how intellect you are, there is no way toruin the precious body.
After analyzing the theme, I’d like to elucidatethe symbolic meanings of the birthmark, the main line of this story. ProfessorChang Yaoxin once said in his book ABrief History of American Literature “ Hawthorne’s eyes were symbolic eyes;his mind worked with the help of signs and symbols. Reading his novels withoutnoticing this feature of his art would be an incomplete experience.” The shortstory Birthmark completely proves this point. Hawthorne’s tales are oftencapable of more than one interpretation, so is “Birthmark”. In the text,Hawthorne has explained it from different aspects. Some Georgiana’s lovers saidthat some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’scheek, which added charm to her beauty. Some fastidious persons affirmed thatthe bloody hand destroyed Georgina’s beauty. While Aylmer regarded it as thesymbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay and death. In my opinion, thebirthmark represents evil. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. Different fromGeorgiana, most of people’s evils hind in their hearts. Besides that, there isalso another explanation. The birthmark also represents the sentiment andnature of human beings in that it would change colors with the change ofGeorgiana’s emotion, turning red or white. For Georgiana’s other lovers, themark seems so charming. However, for Aylmer, it seems to be a ugly and scaringmonster. This is because he lacks that kind of quality, that is sentiment, and insteadhe is a cold-blood and rational scientist. The process of taking away the markis also a struggle between the sentiment and rationality. And in the end, thedisappearance of this red mark also implies the vanishing of human beings’sentiment. It is a confusing question that exists in Hawthorne’ generation.
All in all, in terms of the themes, the characters,and the symbolic meanings, we can clearly see Hawthorne’s excellent writingtechniques. His evil themes, complicated connotative meanings, detailed psychological description anddepiction of dark scenes leave the readers reflections. In addition to what Ihave analyzed, there are still lots of questions that are worthwhile to think. Asan example, what is the meaning of “ the hoarse, chuckling laugh”? Maybe it isthe sneer of God or other meanings.
《胎记》写的是一位科学家,娶了一位世界上最美丽的姑娘尼娜,可是他却仍感不足,因为美丽妻子的下巴上有一抹淡紫色的胎记,这成了妻子唯一缺陷.于是,他下决心研制一种药物,以去掉妻子脸上那块胎记.他似乎成功了,当他美丽的妻子喝下这药时,随着那抹淡紫色的消失,尼娜最后一丝气息也消失在真空中了.这位科学家终于使自己的妻子成为世界上第一个十全十美的人,然而她也永远不存在世界上了.
