Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 2

1.2 Previous Studies 3

1.2.1 Previous researches on Hawthorne 3

1.2.2 Previous researches on The Scarlet Letter 3

1.3 Research Question and the Research Methodology 4

1.3.1 Research Question 4

1.3.2 Research Methodology 4

1.4 Purposes and Significance 4

2. Theoretical Framework: Eco-criticism 5

2.1 The Definition 5

2.2 The Application of Eco-criticism in Literature Analysis 6

3. Eco-criticism Awareness Embodied in The Scarlet Letter 8

3.1 Social Contamination 9

3.1.1 Deteriorated Social Mainstream Values 9

3.1.2 The Repression of Social Atmosphere 10

3.2 Spiritual Contamination 11

3.2.1 The Suffering of Loneliness 11

3.2.2 The Loss of Identity 12

3.3 The Relationship between Social Contamination and Spiritual Contamination 13

4. Conclusion 14

4.1 Pursuing the Redemption of Spiritual Crisis and a Harmonious World 14

4.2 Limitation of the Study and Suggestions for Further Studies 14

1. Introduction

The Scarlet Letter is one of the most enduring and popular novels of American literature. In this novel, heroine Hester Prynne brings a child into the world through an affair. Under the social pressure, she tries her best to lead a new life in Puritan Massachusetts from 1642 to 1649. It has been acknowledged as Hawthorne’s masterpiece. The reason why this book is renowned, owes to the author Hawthorne’s constant efforts for showing a characteristic American literary in Puritan styles, probes themes about legalism, evil, and compunction. “Not to be deficient in this particular, the author has provided himself with a moral - the truth, namely, that the wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones” (from The House of the Seven Gables, 1951). The theme of The Scarlet Letter (1850) is persified. It seems that most of scholars have been concerned with different perspectives, such as the original evil sin, religion, person and society, notions of female philosophy and the contradiction between the mind and the heart. However, not so many scholars have ever done a thorough research into the novel related to the degradation. This thesis tries to analyze this novel by connecting the psychological degradation, social degradation with the eco-criticism. 

1.1 Research Background

Nathaniel Hawthorne, an extremely great American writer of fiction, was born on July 4, 1804 in Massachusetts. Two generations of his puritan ancestors had been involved in the notorious “witch-drive” movement. It is a heavy burden for Hawthorne. There exists a sentence in The Scarlet Letter: “The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have almost recognized, it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison” (Hawthorne, 1850: 1). It can show the social background of the colonial period in the United States. In the 16th century, pilgrims began to migrate to the colonies in North of America. Unfortunately, when these puritans created their rules in the colony, they started to persecute their own people. Researches abroad on this novel mainly focus on three aspects: studies on narrative skills, studies on characterization and studies on gender relationship. This thesis tends to be creative that probes into this novel with the eco-criticism.