1、【导读】红字讲述了发生在北美殖民时期的恋爱悲剧。女主人公海丝特白兰嫁给了医生奇灵渥斯，他们之间却没有爱情。在孤独中白兰与牧师丁梅斯代尔相恋并生下女儿珠儿。白兰被当众惩罚，戴上标志“通奸”的红色A字示众。然而白兰坚贞不屈，拒不说出孩子的父亲。小说惯用象征手法，人物、情节和语言都颇具主观想象色彩，在描写中又常把人的心理活动和直觉放在首位。 【节选】In this manner, the mysterious old Roger Chillingworth became the medical adviser of the Reverend Mr.Dimmesdale.As not only the
2、 disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men, so different in age, came gradually to spend much time together.For the sake of the ministers health, and to enable the leech to gather plants with healing balm in the
3、m, they took long walks on the seashore, or in the forest; mingling various talk with the plash and murmur of the waves, and the solemn windanthem among the treetops.Often, likewise, one was the guest of the other, in his place of study and retirement.There was a fascination for the minister in the
4、company of the man of science, in whom he recognised an intellectual cultivation of no moderate depth or scope; together with a range and freedom of ideas, that he would have vainly looked for among the members of his own profession.In truth, he was startled, if not shocked, to find this attribute i
5、n the physician.Mr.Dimmesdale was a true priest, a true religionist, with the reverential sentiment largely developed, and an order of mind that impelled itself powerfully along the track of a creed, and wore its passage continually deeper with the lapse of time.In no state of society would he have
6、been what is called a man of liberal views; it would always be essential to his peace to feel the pressure of a faith about him, supporting, while it confined him within its iron framework.Not the less, however, though with a tremulous enjoyment, did he feel the occasional relief of looking at the u
7、niverse through the medium of another kind of intellect than those with which he habitually held converse.It was as if a window were thrown open, admitting a freer atmosphere into the close and stifled study, where his life was wasting itself away, amid lamplight, or obstructed daybeams, and the mus
8、ty fragrance, be it sensual or moral, that exhales from books.But the air was too fresh and chill to be long breathed with comfort.So the minister, and the physician with him, withdrew again within the limits of what their church defined as orthodox.Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutinised his patient c
9、arefully, both as he saw him in his ordinary life, keeping an accustomed pathway in the range of thoughts familiar to him, and as he appeared when thrown amidst other moral scenery, the novelty of which might call out something new to the surface of his character.He deemed it essential, it would see
10、m, to know the man, before attempting to do him good.Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these.In Arthur Dimmesdale, thought and imagination were so active, and sensibility so intense, that the bodily infirmity would be
11、likely to have its groundwork there.So Roger Chillingworththe man of skill, the kind and friendly physicianstrove to go deep into his patients bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasureseeker in a dark cavern.Few
12、secrets can escape an investigator, who has opportunity and license to undertake such a quest, and skill to follow it up.A man burdened with a secret should especially avoid the intimacy of his physician.If the latter possess native sagacity, and a nameless something morelet us call it intuition; if
13、 he show no intrusive egotism, nor disagreeably prominent characteristics of his own; if he have the power, which must be born with him, to bring his mind into such affinity with his patients, that this last shall unawares have spoken what he imagines himself only to have thought; if such revelation
14、s be received without tumult, and acknowledged not so often by an uttered sympathy as by silence, an inarticulate breath, and here and there a word, to indicate that all is understood; if to these qualifications of a confidant be joined the advantages afforded by his recognised character as a physic
15、ianthen, at some inevitable moment, will the soul of the sufferer be dissolved, and flow forth in a dark, but transparent stream, bringing all its mysteries into the daylight.就这样，神秘的老罗杰齐灵渥斯成了丁梅斯代尔牧师先生的健康顾问。这位医生不仅对疾病感兴趣，而且还对他的病人的个性和品质严加窥测。这两个人虽然在年纪上相差悬殊，但逐渐共同消磨过更多的时间了。为了牧师的健康，而且也使医生能够收集具有奇效的植物，他俩在海滨、
16、林间长时间散步，聆听海浪的低语与林涛的戾鸣。同样，他俩也时常到彼此的书斋和卧室中去作客。对牧师来说，这位科学家的陪伴中自有一种魅力，因为从他身上可以看出广博精深的知识修养，以及浩渺无际的自由观念这在自己的同行中是万难找到的。事实上，他在医生身上发现了这些特色，即使没有引起震惊，也足以深感诧异。丁梅斯代尔先生是一个地道的牧师，一个真正的笃信宗教的人，他有高度发展的虔诚的感情和有力地推动着自身沿着信仰的道路前进的心境，而且会随着时间的流逝而日渐深入。无论在何种社会形态中，他都不会是那种所谓有自由见解的人；他总要感到周围有一种信仰的压力，才能心平气和，这信仰既支撑着他，又将他禁闭在其铁笼之中。然而当
17、他放弃惯常采用的认识而换用另一种知识媒介来观察宇宙时，他也确实感到一种偶然的舒畅，尽管这种喜悦之中仍带着几分震颤。犹如打开了一扇窗户，使一种更自由的气息得以进入那闭锁和窒人的书斋，而他通常就在这里的灯光或遮着的阳光之下，伴着从经书中散发出来的霉烂气味不管是感官上还是道德上的，消耗着他的生命。但这破窗而入的空气又过于清冷，使他无法坦然地长久吸取。于是，牧师和陪伴他的医生只好再龟缩到他们的教会划为正宗的禁区之内。罗杰齐灵渥斯就是这样仔细检查他的病人的：一方面，观察他的日常生活，看他在熟悉的思绪上所保持的惯常的途径，另一方面，也观察他被投入另一种道德境界时的表现，因为那种境界的新意可能唤起某些新东西
18、浮出他性格的表面。看来，医生认为首先要了解其人，然后才能对症下药。凡有心智的东西，其躯体上的病痛必然染有心智上的特色。在阿瑟丁梅斯代尔的身上，他的思维和想象力十分活跃，他的情感又是十分专注，他身体上的病症大概根源于此。于是，罗杰齐灵渥斯，那位和善友好又技艺精湛的医生，就竭力深入他病人的心扉，挖掘于他的准则之中，探询着他的记忆，而且如同一个在黑暗的洞穴中寻找宝藏的人一样，小心翼翼地触摸每一件东西。象他这样一个得到机会和特许来从事这种探索，而且又有熟巧将其进行下去的调查人，很少有秘密能逃过他的眼睛。一个荷有秘密的人应该特别避免与医生亲密相处。假如那医生有天生的洞察力，还有难以名状的某种能力我们姑且
19、称之为直觉吧，假如他没有流露出颐指气使的唯我独尊，他自己又没有鲜明的难以相处的个性，假如他生来就有一种与病人脉脉相通的能力，借此使病人丧失警觉，以致自言自语地说出心中所想的事，假如他平静地听到这些表白，只是偶尔用沉默无声的同情，用自然而然的喘息，以及间或的一两个字眼，表示充分的理解，假如在一个可信赖的人的这些品格上加上他那医生身分所提供的有利条件那么，在某些难以避免的时刻，患者的灵魂便会融解，在一个黑暗而透明的小溪中涓涓向前，把全部隐私带到光天化日之下。知识积累1for the sake of 为了2in the company of 在陪伴下3in truth 事实上4undertake vt.从事；承担文化链接红字作者简介霍桑(18041864)，美国19世纪后期浪漫主义文学的重要作家。他的代表作红字一经问世，便引起了巨大轰动。小说以深邃的主题，象征、隐喻等艺术手法的运用而形成了独特的风格，其中象征手法影响了白鲸的作者麦尔维尔、法国的波德莱尔以及现代派文学的象征主义。此外，霍桑对美国文学史上一批卓有成就的作家诸如海明威、菲兹杰拉德、福克纳等都产生过影响。