-
-
浅析《红字》中象征主义手法的运用
Abstract
Nathaniel
Hawthorne
is
a
great
romantic
novelist
in
America
in
the
19th
century.
As
a
great
romantic
novelist,
Hawthorne
is
outstanding
in
handling application of symbolism.
The
Scarlet
Letter
is
Hawthorne's
most
important
symbolic
novel,
which
is
the
best
work
of
Hawthorne
and
one
of
the
indubitable
masterpieces
of
American
Literature.
And
it
is
this
novel
that
makes
Nathaniel Hawthorne known all around
the world. In this work, Hawthorne
uses
the symbolism so skillfully that it enhances the
artistic effects of his
work
greatly.
In
The
Scarlet
Letter,
symbolism
runs
through
the
whole
novel. The most important symbol is the
scarlet letter itself. Not only does
“
A
”
manifest
in
various
forms,
but
also
it
has
changing
meanings
from
“
adultery
”
to
“
able
”
, even
“
angelic
”
< br> in the novel. Besides, the name of the
four
major
characters
in
the
novel:
Hester
Prynne,
Arthur
Dimmesdale,
Roger
Chillingworth
and
Pearl
also
have
their
own
symbolic
meanings.
Some
other
objects
and
natural
surroundings
that
are
described
in
the
novel such as the jail, the forest, the
rose bush and so on are all endowed
with a deep symbolic significance. The
author of the thesis will explore the
usage of symbolism in The Scarlet
Letter from the three aspects mentioned
above
and
analyze
Hawthorne
’
s
skillful
use
of
symbolism
in
The
Scarlet
Letter.
总结
.
-
Key Words: the scarlet letter
；
symbolism
；
Heste
r Prynne
；
Pearl
摘
要
纳撒尼尔·
霍桑是十九世纪美国伟大的浪漫主义小说家。
作为一
位伟大的浪漫主义小说家
,
霍桑对象征主义手法的运用可以说是独具
匠心。
长篇小说《红字》是霍桑重要的象征主义代表作品，无疑也是美
国文
学浪漫主义时期最著名的作品之一。
也正是这部巨著使得霍桑誉
满全球。在这部作品中，作者巧妙运用了象征主义手法，加强了作品
的艺术效果。整篇作
品象征主义手法贯穿始终。其中，最重要的要数
红字“
A
”本身的象征意义。它不仅以各种各样的形式出现，并且其
象征意义不
断变化，从“通奸”到“有能力的”甚至“天使般的”
。
此外，小说中四个主要角色：海丝特
,
丁梅
斯代尔，齐灵沃斯
,
珠儿也
都有其各自
的象征意义。
小说中描述的景物和场景，
例如监狱、
森林、
玫瑰花园等等也都寓意深刻。
本文正是从以
上这几个方面着手，
探究
作者在小说《红字》中对象征主义手法
的巧妙运用。
关键词
:
红字；象征；海丝特·普琳；珍珠
Acknowledgements
总结
.
-
This
thesis
is
the
product
of
the
author
and
the
supervisor's
three
months
of
efforts.
It
has
been
repeatedly
revised
under
the
guidance
of
Professor XXX. It was the joint efforts
of both the author and the teachers
in
Foreign
Languages
Department.
I
would
like
to
express
my
heartfelt
thanks to
Professor XXX and the teachers who have helped the
author in
the
process
of
the
thesis
writing.
I
will
also
give
my
thanks
to
my
classmates and friends who have helped
me revise the thesis. Last but not
least, I will give my heartfelt thanks
to my parents who have been always
supporting and encouraging me.
Contents
Introduction
5
1
Various Symbolic Meanings of the Scarlet Letter
“
A
”
8
1.1 The Change of the
Symbolic Meanings of the Scarlet Letter
“
A
”
8
1.1.1 Adultery
8
1.1.2 Alone and Alienation
9
1.1.3 Able, Admirable and
Angel
10
1.2 The Scarlet
Letter and the Strictness of Puritan Society
11
2 The Symbolic Meaning of
the Four Main Characters
12
2.1 Hester Prynne
12
2.2 Arthur Dimmesdale
13
总结
.
-
2.3 Roger Chillingworth
15
2.4 Pearl
17
3
The Symbolic Meanings of the Objects in the Novel
21
Conclusion
25
Bibliography
26
总结
.
-
Introduction
Nathaniel
Hawthorne
was
born
in
Salem
in
1804.
He
was
born
in
a
prestigious
New
England
family
closely
related
with
Puritan
church;
his
ancestors
attended
the
persecution
of
people
belonging
to
different
churches, such as Quakers. When he was
born, his family declined. He was
aware
of
his
ancestors'
misdeeds
and
thus
of
Hawthorne
formed. He thought
that the reason of his family's decline is his
ancestors'
misdeeds.
And
he
didn't
agree
with
the
optimism
held
by
Transcendentalists
towards
human
nature.
He
wrote
lots
of
works
on
everlasting evil side in human nature
Hawthorne
graduated
from
Bowdoin
College.
Henry
Wadsworth
Longfellow
and
Franklin
Pierce,
the
14th
American
presidents
were
his
classmates.
After
graduation,
he
lived
in
seclusion
and
wrote.
Later,
he
worked in
the
US
Custom
House. After
Pierce
became
president,
he was
asked to be the
consular in Liverpool and Italy.
Hawthorne's
masterpiece
includes
his
short
story
collections:
Twice-Told
Tales; Moses from an Old Manse and novels: The
Scarlet Letter;
The House of Seven
Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble Faun.
Hawthorne's writing skills can be
summarized as follows: Hawthorne
seems
to be influenced a lot by the sin and evil in his
sense. He believes
evil exists in human
heart all the time. For example, in the novel The
Scarlet
Letter, the minister Dimmesdale
tries to pretend how pure and pious he is.
总结
.
-
He
wants to cover up the evil in his mind. Not only
Dimmesdale wants to
do like this, but
also all the people in the world, because we are
only human
beings. And the evil just
likes a mark that exists in our mind when we are
born.
And
in
Hawthorne
’
s
mind,
people
who
commit
a
crime
must
be
punished,
because people can get experience from this way.
And also he
supports people to tell the
truth and not to offend. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a
great romantic novelist in America in
the 19th century and is considered to
be
the
first
greatest
American
fiction
writer
in
the
moralistic
tradition.
Hawthorne
is
outstanding
in
literature
skill,
especially
in
handling
symbolism. His work
---The Scarlet Letter is notable for its symbolism
and
is regarded as the first symbolic
novel in American literature.
The
story
begins
in
seventeenth-century
Boston,
which
is
under
Puritan command. The husband---an old
and ugly scholar, sends a young
woman,
named Hester Prynne, ahead to America. However,
for many years,
he himself
doesn
’
t arrive. Obviously,
it is possible that he has been lost in
the sea. While waiting for her husband,
Hester and a young local minister
called Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love
with each other. They commit adultery
secretly.
Because
of
Hester
’
s
Pregnancy,
the
secret
is
finally
discovered.
Hester and
Dimmesdale love each other. But their love is
forbidden in that
strict
society.
It
is
sinful.
Due
to
this
fact,
Hester
is
punished
by
society
with a letter
“
A
”
on
her chest, which is considered to be an evil, a
shame.
Hester is brave enough to face
the cruel society. She is always with a
总结
.
-
mind of courage. She has been alone
with her child for so long a time, with
little communication. Hester has to
wear the letter
“
A
”
day by day, seven
years
as
for
punishment
and
ill
fame.
However,
Hester
is
a
kind-hearted
woman and is always ready to help other
people in the community without
expecting any thanks. Later, people in
the town no longer view the scarlet
letter A as a punishment, but rather as
representing her great strength and
bravery and they say it means
“
Able
”
.
But Arthur Dimmesdale, his sin against
Hester and Pearl is that he will
not
acknowledge them as his wife and daughter in the
daylight. He is too
weak
to
admit
his
sins.
He
suffers
from
mysterious
heart
trouble,
seemingly
caused
by
psychological
distress.
What
’
s
worse,
he
is
an
advisor to the
townspeople about their sins.
After
Mr.
Dimmesdale
’
s
death, no one
changes
more
in appearance
than
Roger
Chillingworth.
All
his
strength
and
energy
has
been
used
to
harm his patient. This unhappy man has
made his aim in life to add to the
suffering of the young minister. When
the evil old man no longer has such
a
purpose, the devil takes him back to the hell.
The Scarlet Letter is a cultural
allegory, in which the author indirectly
tells
the
future
of
Puritanism.
The
Scarlet
Letter
is
a
sample
in
which
American
Romanticism
adapted
itself
to
American
Puritanism.
The
theme of the story
should
总结
.
-
1 Various Symbolic
Meanings of the Scarlet Letter
“
A
”
1.1 The Change of the Symbolic Meanings
of the Scarlet Letter
“
A
”
In
this
novel,
the
scarlet
letter
“
A
”
changes
its
meanings
for
many
times. This change is very significant.
It shows growth in the characters,
and the community in which they live.
At the very beginning, the letter
“
A
”
is regarded as a kind of sin or evil.
Then with the development of the story,
it becomes a symbol of alone and
alienation of the female character Hester.
Finally, it becomes a symbol of able,
admirable and angel.
1.1.1 Adultery
In the novel, the letter
adultery against Roger Chillingworth.
Putting the letter
“
A
”
on
her bosom
and letting her show to the
public is the puritan way of treating her as a
criminal, for the crime of adultery.
Hester is looked down upon as if she is
some sort of demon from hell that
commits a terrible crime. This letter is
meant to be worn in shame, and to make
Hester feel unwanted. This is the
common way
to
explain
the
symbolic meaning
of
the letter. The
color
of
scarlet is the symbol of
blood and desire. Hester and Dimmesdale cannot
control
their
love
for
each
other
and
become
the
criminals
of
God.
A
woman
loses her purity and a holy minister is punished
for bringing shame
to his holy
occupation. Red should be regarded as the symbol
of love and
life, but under the control
of the Puritan strictness, Hester has to wear the
scarlet
letter
“
A
”
in
order
to
be
regarded
as
a
symbol
of
shame
and
总结
.
-
punishment.
“
Here, she said to herself,
had been the scene of her guilt, and here
should be the scene of her earthly
punishment
…”
（
Brown
，
2002
：
123
）
Hester is ashamed of her sin, but she
chooses to face the reality rather than
escape from it. Many people may choose
the way of leaving for some other
places where nobody knows of her sin.
However, Hester is brave enough to
continue to live her life, which shows
great strength and integrity of her.
1.1.2 Alone and Alienation
The
scarlet
letter
“
A
”
also
symbolizes
Hester's
lonely
life
in
New
England.
Hester's
social
life
is
virtually
eliminated
as
a
result
of
her
shameful
past. She has to live in such a community
regardless of others'
ironical words
and with great courage and ability.
“
It had been built by an
earlier settler, and abandoned, because
the soil about it was too sterile for
cultivation, while its comparative
remoteness put it out of the sphere of that
social activity which already marked
the habits of the
emigrants.
”
Hester
comes
to
have
a
part
to
perform
in
the
world
with
her
native
energy
of
character and rare
capacity.
that made her feel as if she
belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and
even
the
silence
of
those
with
whom
she
came
to
contact,
implied,
and
often
expressed,
that
she
was
banished,
and
as
much
alone
as
if
she
inhabited
another
sphere,
or
communicated
with
the
common
nature
by
other
organs and senses than the rest of human kind. She
stood apart from
总结
.
-
moral
interests
…
seemed
to
be
the
sole
portion
that
she
retained
in
the
universal
heart.
only
companion
of
her
lonely
life.
In
other
people's
eyes,
Hester
is
a
criminal and most of them regard
communicating with her as a shameful
thing.
Therefore,
the
scarlet
letter
“
A
”
is
also
a
symbol
of
alone
and
alienation.
1.1.3 Able, Admirable and Angel
“
The letter was the symbol
of her calling. Such helpfulness is found in
her
so
much
power
to
do
and
power
to
sympathize
-
that
many
people
refuses
to
interpret
the
scarlet
letter
‘
A'
by
its
original
signification.
”
(Rubinstein, 1988, ) We can see that
the meaning of the scarlet letter
“
A
”
changes from adultery to being able,
angel and admirable. At the beginning,
people
living
in
the
town
looked
down
upon
the
woman
because
of
her
crime. But later, they
find that Hester is so skillfully in needlework
and she
always help the poor and sick
without expecting any return or thanks. She
is
unselfish
and
always
ready
to
help
others
considerately
and
patiently.
People in the
town then
realize her noble nature and
change the view on
her.
“
Do you see that woman with
the embroidered badge? It is our Hester
–
the town's own Hester
–
who is so kind to the
poor, so helpful to the sick,
so
comforting to the
afflicted!
”
(Hawthorne,
1994) The people in the town
soon begin
to regard the letter
“
A
”
as
a badge served to ward off the evil.
This is a kind woman who should not
shoulder the shame and be looked
总结
.
-
down upon by others.
Hester is an angel sent by God to the people in
the
town. And she should win the
respect and sympathy of others instead of
being punished by having to show her
crime to the public by wearing the
scarlet
letter.
People
and
the
author
of
the
novel
really
admire
her
pure
nature and ability.
The
three changes in the scarlet letter are
significant; they show the
progressive
presentation of her sin, her lonely life, and her
ability. Hester is
an admirable woman
who experiences more emotional torture than most
people go through in a lifetime.
1.2 The Scarlet Letter and the
Strictness of Puritan Society
The
Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the
scarlet letters to
symbolize
he
harshness
of
Puritan
society,
showing
how
they
branded
sinners for life.
Although Puritan society is unforgiving towards
the sinful
scarlet letter, their
strictness improved the bearers of the sin. The
scarlet
letter was also an example of
how Puritan society will always remember the
sin.
“
When
strangers looked curiously at the scarlet letter-
and none failed
to do so, they branded
it afresh into Hester
’
s
soul.
”
(Hawthorne, 1994) A
letter
“
A
”
but freshly green, instead of scarlet was created
by her, showing
how Hawthorne made a
jest at the punishment Puritans put upon Hester.
And the scarlet letter was also a toy
to Pearl, something that she enjoyed.
Hawthorne uses the scarlet letter to
depict his feelings of the exaggerated
emotions of the puritans and their
dramatic punishments. The author of the
总结
.
-
paper thinks that the symbolism in this
novel is used quite skillfully. The
technique Hawthorne uses makes his
novel more artistic.
2 The Symbolic
Meaning of the Four Main Characters
2.1
Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne is one of
the most important characters in The Scarlet
Letter. Hester is the symbol of love,
beauty, kindness and truth. She was
described by Hawthorne like this:
“
The young woman was tall, a
figure of
perfect
elegance
on
a
large
scale,
she
had
dark
and
abundant
hair,
so
glossy
that
it
threw
off
the
sunshine
with
a
gleam,
and
a
face
which,
besides
being
beautiful
from
regularity
of
feature
and
richness
of
complexion, had the impressiveness
belonging to a marked brow and deep
black
eyes
…”
(Harold,
1990
：
104)
It
is
true
that
Hester
is
beautiful
and
attractive
in
appearance.
But
the
most
precious
part
of
the
character
lies
not only in her kindness toward other
people, but also in her great courage
of facing her love. Her love for the
minister Dimmesdale is pure and true.
This is the reason that she refuses to
speak out the name of her partner in
sin, but takes over all the punishment
by herself. Instead of running from
the
hostile colonists, Hester withstands people's
insolence and pursues a
normal
life.
She
proves
her
worth
with
her
uncommon sewing skills
and
provides
community
service.
Hester's
sin
gives
her
“
sympathetic
knowledge of the sin in other
hearts.
”
Even though the
people she tries to
help
“
often
reviled
the
hand
that
was
stretched
forth
to
succor
them.
”
总结
.
-
(Xia,1996:34 )
She
continues her
services
because she actually
cares.
At
last,
the
colonists
come
to
think
of
the
scarlet
letter
as
“
the
cross
on
a
nun's
bosom
”
, which is not small
accomplishment.
Hester is the homophone
of the word haste. At first, she gets married
to Roger Prynne, an ugly man who gives
his best years to feed the hungry
dream
of
knowledge.
Not
having
got
the
news
about
her
husband
who
should have arrived by ship from
England, she falls love with Arthur hastily
and gives birth to Pearl, for which she
is condemned to wear on the breast
of
her gown the scarlet letter
author of
the paper thinks that it is natural and
understandable. Hester has
the freedom
to pursue the true love of her deep heart and the
happiness of
the
life.
The
punishment
of
puritan
society
is
somehow
too
harsh
on
a
woman who is led by human instinct. She
doesn't love her husband and
when
she
falls
in
love
with
Dimmesdale,
she
is
tortured
physically
and
mentally
for
her
sin.
The
strictness
of
Puritan
society
accounts
for
Hester's sympathetic fate and
Dimmesdale's tragedy.
2.2 Arthur
Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale is a young
minister, whose initials are AD, which
also stands for adultery. Obviously, he
should take part in the punishment
for
Hester. He loves Hester deeply and is the father
of Pearl, but he is not
brave enough to
admit their relationship. Only in the forest or in
darkness,
he can show his passion and
love for Hester. So the word Dimmesdale also
总结
.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
上一篇：北京中考英语完型高频词汇及必背词组
下一篇：监狱法律文书