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A typical Christian interpretation of The Scarlet letter sees Dimmesdale`s revelation of his secret sin before the town`s peoples as a sign of his salvation, while it sees Chillingworth`s cold revenge as a sign of damnation. But such naive Christian interpretation does not give fair explanation to the final fate of any of the three major characters-Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. Such Christian interpretation overlooks the fact that Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister, and one of the famous Five Points of Calvinist theology explicitly states on $quot;unconditional election$quot; that $quot;God, under no obligation to save anyone, saves, or `elects` whom he will, with no reference to faith or good works, Since all things are present in the mind of God at once, He knows beforehand who will be saved : and thus elution or reprobation is predestined. According to this doctrine, Dimmesdale`s confession of his sin is no proof of his salvation. Dimmesdale`s following absurd praise of God`s mercy is dying man`s desperate wish, not the proof of his salvation : God knows and He is merciful i He hath proved His mercy, moat of all, in my affliction. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast ! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat ! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people ! Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost for ever ! Praise be His name ! His will be done ! Farewell ! On the other hand, Chillingworth is not so devilish as he seems. At least he is not a $quot;fiend$quot; sent by God to save Dimmesdale as the dying minister believes. His devilish revenge must have been beyond God`s $quot;infinite$quot; mercy. But Dimmesdale`s death brought him back a little humanity that was left in him and leaves all his great fortune to Pearl. This surely cannot be a devil`s work. If it does not win God`s pardon, it does at least win the reader`s sympathy. As revengeful Captain Ahab still retained a drop of tear that contained more $quot;wealth$quot; than $quot;all the Pacific,$quot; Chillingworth didn`t lose all his humanity which prevented him from becoming the final fate of Ethan Brand and Richard Digby who never reflected on their evil doings. Lastly, Nester leaves us least room, among the three, for any Christian interpretation. She is, from the beginning to the end, remains to be earthly woman longing for the happiness on earth, not in heaven. And it is very interesting to note, for us Orientals, that these three characters represent three poisons (tri-dosapaha) in Buddhism : raga (貧 = covetousness or craving = Hester), dvesa (瞋 = malice or anger = Chillingworth), moha (痴 = delusion or ignorence = Dimmesdale). These are the root of all human miseries. To avoid these pitfalls, one should abstain from any kind of obsession, even with God ox faith. Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth were obsessed with God, love, and revenge, respectively. Hester and Chillingworth were released of their obsession by Dirnmesdale`s death. But Dimmesdale failed to achieve Enlightenment by casting off his obsession(his blind faith), which is the only way to Nirvana in Buddhism.

The five American Renaissance writers can be tentatively grouped under Transcendentalism, but Hawthorns and Melville as a matter of fact opposed to Transcendentalism proper, Their connection with Emersonian Transcendentalism, if any, is via the characteristics central to Romanticism, namely, man`s awareness of his being in the center of the universe, his impatience at any sort of restraints imposed on by conventions and the society, and the importance of imagination as the primary means of access to truth, and so on. Man as the center of the universe strive for unity with nature, history, and the cosmos itself, so as to achieve self-realization. But Hawthorne and Melville doubt whether a genuine harmony between the individual and his cosmos is possible and find a flaw somewhere. Hawthorne finds it in man himself, in his pride and his spiritual weakness, whereas Melville identifies it with some defect in the workings of the universe. What the two are different from each other is in the approach to the solution of problems rising from self-realization in such defective universe. Hawthorne`s approach can be said to be pragmatic. When Hester Prynne reconciles herself with the hostile society and God and goes about in the service of the poor, her scarlet letter A becomes the A for able. She was thus brought into a link in $quot;the magnetive chain of humanity$quot; or saved. But Melville is more metaphorical and metaphysically more pure in his search for the solution. He looks above the human society for the ultimate answer and $quot;quarrels$quot; with God who seems to be the source of the disordered universe. He soon confronts with the wall of ambiguity, however, and cannot pierce the cardboard $quot;mask.$quot; By the time he comes to write Pierre; or, the Ambiguity after Moby-Dick in which a certain order is still found, he falls into a complete nihilism and ends with death.

The head and the heart are two important symbols in understanding Hawthorne`s fiction, For Hawthorne, the head is associated with intellect which enables man to make great achievements in science, medicine, or art. The head is also related with artificiality. In contrast, the heart is associated with humanity and nature. In his allegory of the heart in American Notebooks, Hawthorne compared the human heart to a dark cavern full of mysteries, fear, and wonder. According to Hawthorne, to ensure happiness in this world man must first achieve the balance between the head and the heart. In his fiction, especially in short stories, Hawthorne presents many head figures and heart figures who illustrate that man may fall into misery or ruin if he loses the balance between the head and the heart. Many of Hawthorne`s head figures, in spite of their intelligence and first-rate professional skills, are villains who victimize their dear people by violating the sanctity of the human heart because of their excessive intellectual curiosity. Many heart figures, virtuous and attractive, are victimized by these cold, intellectual head figures. Some heart figures are vulgar, common people who do not hold any intellectual aspirations or ideals. But these inferior heart figures usually display excellence in surviving in this world. Four short stories, much anthologized and praised, are selected to discuss head and heart figures: $quot;Wakefield,$quot; $quot;The Birthmark,$quot; $quot;Rappaccini`s Daughter,$quot; and $quot;Ethan Brand.$quot; Diversity is found among the head figures in these four stories. Wakefield is a pathetic man who isolates himself from the world because of his curiosity to pry into the heart of his wife during his absence. It is too late that he finds himself the outcast of the universe who has lost his own place in the human society. Aylmer is a tragic hero whose excessive romantic aspiration for high ideals leads him to conduct a dangerous experiment on his wife Georgiana to remove her birthmark from her face. The birthmark disappears, but Georgiana dies, leaving Aylmer in grief and loneliness. Rappaccini is a cold scientist who sacrifices his own daughter Beatrice by playing the role of crypto-God in creating his garden and imbuing Beatrice with deadly poison. Baglioni is a fiendish man who, from his jealousy of Rappaccini and Beatrice, tempts Giovanni and persuades Giovanni to give Beatrice the antidote to drink, which eventually kills hex. Giovanni is a lamentable hero who vacillates between the head and the heart and whose lack of faith in Beatrice`s goodness brings about her death and his ruin. Ethan Brand is an unyielding rebel who defies God in search of the Unpardonable Sin. Yet all that remains for him after his defiance is his tragic death in the lime kiln. Hawthorne`s heart figures in these four stories also show diversity and originality. Mrs. Wakefield is a well-conditioned woman, practical and sensible, who can adapt herself to her new life after her husband`s unannounced disappearance. Georgians is a beautiful and virtuous woman, whose birthmark is a symbol of the imperfectness of humanity after the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Her death implies that only the defective can live in this world. Beatrice, a beautiful and intelligent woman, has the poisonous body and the pure, innocent soul. She is the symbol of humanity because goad and evil coexist in her person. She is victimized by three selfish males--her father Rappaccini, her lover Giovanni,.and her competitor Baglioni, Aminadab and Bartram axe inferior heart figures, vulgar and ugly, who possess strong physical power and obtuse mental power. They lack in intellectual aspirations and high ideals, but they are the people who survive in this world.

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