浅析《红字》中象征手法的运用
空中乘务-社区服务总结
题目:
浅析《红字》中象征手法的运
用
An Analysis of
Symbolism
Scarlet Letter
姓名：张春燕
系别：英语系
专业：英语（师范）
年级：09级本科
in The
An Analysis of Symbolism in
The
Scarlet Letter
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 various usage of
symbolism in The Scarlet Letter makes
the
novel as a work of the world. The Scarlet Letter
is a novel of plenty of symbols
throughout the
whole passage. Hawthorne uses symbolism so
skillfully that it greatly
enhances the
artistic effects of his work. 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‖ in the novel. Besides, the
four
major characters: Hester Prynne, Arthur
Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and Pearl
have
their symbolic meanings, Moreover, some other
objects that are described in the
novel also
have their symbolic meanings, such as the jail,
the forest, the rose bush and
so on are all
endowed with a deep symbolic a word,The Scarlet
Letter
is a novel of much symbolism. 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.
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。在《红字》这部
小说中他广泛地运用象征主义，从而
使这部小说成为了世界名著。作者在作品中
采用的象征手法贯穿始终，极大地加强了作品的艺术效果。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” 。另外，还有四个主要
人物：海斯特、丁梅斯
代尔、齐灵渥斯以及珍珠都有他们各自的象征意义。而且，
在文中描写的一些景物景色也有其深刻的象征
意义. 例如监狱、森林、玫瑰花园
等等也都寓意深刻。总之，《红字》是一部充满象征主义的小说。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。
Key Words: the scarlet letter；symbolism；Hester
Prynne；Pearl
Contents
1Introduction
……………………..………………………………… …………….1
2 The Symbolic
Meanings of the Scarlet Letter “A”…………………………….2
2.1for .2
2.2 .3
2.3…………………………………........4
3The Symbolic
Meaning of the Four Main Characters………………………...5
3.1Hester Prnney
……………………..…………………………………………...5
3.2Arthur
Dimmesdale………………………………..…………………………...6
3.3Roger Chillingworth
……………………..……………………………….........7
3.4Pear ……………
………..…………………….....................................
...............9
4 The symbolism Meaning of
the objects in the novel………………………….....10
4.1
The forest and the
river……………………………………………………......10
4.2 The p
rison………………………………………….............................
...............11
4.3
Scaffold………………………………………………………………………....12
5
Conclusion………………………………………...……. …………………………12
1Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the leading
American writers of his century. He
was the
representative of transcendentalists together with
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Henry Thoreau, and so on.
Hawthorne’s masterpiece The Scarlet Letter was
published
in 1850. With the appearance of The
Scarlet Letter, he became famous as the greatest
writer of fiction. Over the years, his
reputation has increased, and many biographical
and critical studies have been done about him
and his works. His influence upon the
Chinese
reader is also becoming greater and greater.
In The Scarlet Letter all elements of his
thinking and aesthetics seem to find an
adequate expression .The novel, with the
background of New England life in Colonial
period, describes a young girl called Hester
Prynne, she is bound up with the illegal
marriage, and publicly exposed for adultery,
however, she reconstructs herself in spirit
owing to atoning for her crime for a long
time. The story is simple but very moving.
In
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne remarkably handles
the puritan background, and
carefully unfolds
the deep shadows from which the grim tragedy
naturally proceeds.
The dominating theme of
the novel, like that in many of Hawthorne’s other
novels is
about sin and its consequences,
around which the moods created are those of
repentance, sorrow, and despair. Moreover, all
those moods are woven so consistently,
naturally and harmoniously into the story that
its characters, action, and setting blend
into
a delicate but enduring work of art. In it,
Hawthorne also gives a scrutinized
analysis of
the moral problem of his own age through a
remarkably vivid picture of
the New England
past. His excellent sense of the past and
historical reconstructions
about such things
as witchcraft, the puritan influence, the
theocratic society and his
adherence to
details are fully expressed in it. In addition,
this novel is suffused with
allegory and
symbolism, metaphors and similes abound, most of
which are stirringly
fresh and effective: and the
masterly use of the three dominating colors of
black, red,
and gray .All contribute to the
vivid expression on symbolism: symbolic ―A‖,
symbolic four characters’ names meanings and
symbolic the Objects in the Novel
2. 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.
2.1 A for Adultery
The letter ―A‖ is the first letter of the word
―Adultery‖. It is considered as ―the
mark of
guilt‖ when it appears at the first time, for
Hester commits the crime of
adultery, in
accordance with the stern puritan laws she is made
to stand in the public
scaffold with her
illegitimate child and to wear the letter A
embroidered on her dress.
The puritan
treatment continues. As Hester walks through the
streets, she will be
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.
―Here, she said to herself, had been the scene
of her guilt, and here should be the
scene of
her earthly punishment…‖(Hawthorne, The Scarlet
Letter 74) Hester is
ashamed of her sin, but
she could not escape it. Though she is ashamed,
she also
receives her great treasure —Pearl, as her
only source of survival! She is a very
strong
woman to be able to hold up so well against what
she must face. Other
people will have fled
Boston, and seek a place where no one knows of her
terrible sin.
That Hester chooses to stay
there shows a lot of strength and integrity of
her.
2.2 A for Alienation
The scarlet
letter A also stands for Hester's lonely life in
New England. After
she is released, Hester
lives in a cottage near the outskirts of the city.
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.
Letter 75) Hester's social life
is virtually eliminated as a result of her
shameful history.
Hester comes to have a part
to perform in the world with her native energy of
character and rare capacity.
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
byother organs and senses than
the rest of human kind. She stood apart from moral
interests… seemed to be the sole portion that
she retained in the universal
rne, The Scarlet
Letter 78) Hester has no friends in the world, and
little Pearl is the only companion of her
lonely life, so the scarlet letter A also is a
symbol of the words
2.3 A for Able,
Admirable and Angel
Later, the scarlet letter
A changes its meaning into being able, angel and
admirable. The townspeople who condemned her
now believe the scarlet letter to
stand for
her ability to her beautiful needlework and for
her unselfish assistance to the
poor and sick.
her so much power to do and power to
sympathize - that many people refuses to
interpret the scarlet letter A by its original
rne, The Scarlet
Letter 148) At this point, a
lot of the townspeople realize what a noble
character
Hester possesses. 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, The Scarlet Letter 149)
The townspeople
soon begin to believe that the
badge served to ward off evil, and Hester grows to
be
quite admirable amongst the people of the
town. Hester overcomes the shame of her
sin
through the purity and goodness of her soul.
Unselfishly offering her time and
love to
those who need her most proves that she is not
worthy of the fate which has
been dealt to
her. The three changes in The Scarlet Letter are
significant; they show
Hester Prynne’s
response to the scarlet letter A is a positive
one:they show the
progressive possession of
her sin, her lonely life, and her ability. Hester
is a strong
admirable woman who goes through
more emotional torture than most people go
through in a lifetime.
3The Symbolic Meaning of
the Four Main Characters
3.1 Hester Prynne
Hester is the most familiar, beautiful,
strong, sinner in the novel. Her passion and
beauty dominate every other person. The writer
gives her much symbolic meanings
by giving her
this name. Hester Prynne is the heroine of this
novel. She is the symbol
of the truth, the
goodness and the beauty: ―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 sunshine with a gleam, and a
face which, beside being beautiful from
regularity of feature and richness of
complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to
a marked brow and deep black eyes‖（ Hawthorne,
The Scarlet Letter 50）Hester
refuses to speak
out the name of Pearl’s father, and takes over all
the punishment by
herself. Hester is a brave
woman. Though she is punished as an adulteress and
spurned by her villagers, Hester doesn’t show
any weakness in public. Hester
withstands
their insolence and pursues a normal life. She
proves her worth through
her uncommon sewing
skills and providing community service. Even
though the
people she tries to help often
revile the hand that help them. At last, Hester
gets their
acceptance.
Also Hester is
pronounced as hesitate, and it implies that she is
hesitant to
speak out her lover’s name and to
break out the puritan rules to meet her lover
publicly. So the name gives a vivid and
suitable description of Hester. On the other
hand, Hester is the homophone of the word
haste. At first, she gets married to Roger
Chillingworth, an ugly man who gives his best
years to knowledge and cares nothing
for her. Not
having any common ideology with him, Hester falls
in love with Arthur
Dimmesdale hastily and
gives birth to Pearl. Hence, she had to wear on
the breast of
her gown the scarlet letter
―A‖, which stands for adultery. But in The Scarlet
Letter,
Hester is tortured physically and
mentally for her sin. The punishment of puritan
society is somehow too hard in a woman who is
led by human instinct.
3.2 Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale, the personification of
and physically delicate man. He has melancholy
eyes and a tremulous mouth. It
shows us that
he is a sensitive man. As an ordained Puritan
minister, he is well
educated, and he has a
philosophical turn of mind. There is no doubt that
he is
devoted to God, passionate in his
religion, and effective in the pulpit. Of the four
major characters in this novel, who
investigates the nature of evil and sin and is a
criticism of Puritan rigidity and intolerance,
Dimmesdale is the only Puritan. In
Puritan
terms, Dimmesdale's predicament is that he is
unsure of his soul's status: He is
exemplary
in performing his duties as a Puritan minister and
an indicator. However,
he knows he has sinned
and considers himself as a hypocrite. As a
minister,
Dimmesdale has a voice that consoles
and an ability to sway audiences. His followers
adore him and his parishioners seek his
advice. As a minister, Dimmesdale must be
above reproach, and there is no question that
he excels at his profession and enjoys a
reputation among his congregation and other
ministers. Aside his soul, he does do
good
works. His ministry aims people at leading good
lives. If he publicly confesses,
he would lose
his ability and reputation. So he hesitates to
confess his sin.
Dimmesdale's struggle is dark
and his penance is horrifying as he tries to
unravel his
mystery. In Chapter 11, Dimmesdale struggles
with his knowledge of his sin, his
inability
to disclose it to Puritan society, and his desire
for penance. As a sinner, he is
weakened to
temptation. As demonstrated later, his weakened
condition makes it
easier for him to associate
himself with the Black Man in the forest. His
congregation
expects him to be above other
mortals, and his life and thoughts must exist on a
higher spiritual plane than others. In the
forest scene, Dimmesdale evidently realizes
that he is human and should ask forgiveness
and do penance openly. Dimmesdale's
confession
in the third scaffold scene and the climax of the
story is the action that
ensures his
salvation. The reader senses that whether chosen
or earned, Dimmesdale's
salvation is a
reality. Having had several opportunities to
confess, it is without success
until this
scene, because he asks God's forgiveness not only
for himself, but also for
Chillingworth. At
the end of the story, the writer puts the moral
which presses upon
the reader from the poor
minister’s miserable experience into one sentence,
Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if
not your worst, yet some trait whereby
the
worst many be inferred!
3.3 Roger
Chillingworth
Another main character Roger
Chillingworth is a man of complicated nature and
abnormal psychology. The words ―chilling‖ and
―worth‖ compose the surname
Chillingworth.
Chilling comes from the word ―chilling‖ which
means this man is a
merciless avenger. He is
calm and kind in appearance, but keeps evil
intentions. All
his strength and energy has
been used to avenge. 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. He is really an unforgivable
criminal. According
to the explanation of the Christian and the
Romantic period, the
unforgivable crime means
to infringe on others' soul and feelings in order
to know
about their reaction toward something.
Chillingworth intends to look into the young
minister's heart depending on some knowledge
of medical science and miracle ways
in
religion. He pretends to be the young minister'
true friend, moves close to him in
order to
torture and devastate Dimmesdale's heart. His
curiosity and intention of
avenge make him
become the symbol of monster and evil. Due to his
abnormal
psychology, he also becomes a victim
in the story. This character symbolizes the great
influence of the sin on people. Chillingworth
married Hester, a woman with youth and
beauty,
deluding him with the idea that intellectual gifts
might veil physical deformity
in a young
girl's fantasy. He married Hester not because he
loved her but because he
wanted to light a
household fire in his lonely and chilly heart. He
is a bookworm who
spends his best time in
libraries, and shows no love to his young wife. It
is he that has
destroyed Hester's flower like
youth, and indirectly leads to Hester's tragedy.
After he
discovers that his wife bore another
man's child, Roger gives up his independence.
His life center has become punish the man who
seduced his wife. For seven years, he
digs
into the minister's heart with pleasure. He
searches the minister's thoughts; he
causes
the poor minister to die daily a living death. He
searches into the minister's
dim interior for
a long time, and turns over many precious a tread,
and as wary an
outlook, as a thief entering a
chamber where a man lies only half asleep, or, if
it may
be, broad awake, with purpose to steal
the very treasure which this man guards as the
apple of his eyes. When he finally found the
scarlet letter
minister, he busted out a
ghastly rapture. When he does these, he is turning
from a
victim to a sinner.
Chillingworth also symbolizes
that the avenger's life is worthless. When he
finds his
wife betrays him, he devotes all his
time and energy to seeking revenge. He forgets
that he needs to lead a new life of his own.
Therefore, he is the victim of his own
abnormal action. After Dimmesdale reveals his
secret to the world, All his strength
and
energy——all his vital and intellectual force——
seemed at once to desert him;
in so much that
he positively withered up, shriveled away, and
almost vanished from
mortal sight, like an
uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. He
dies less than a
year later because he has
nothing left to live for.
3.4 Pearl
Pearl
is Hester and Dimmesdale' s illegitimate daughter
---the fruit of adultery.
Her name has
symbolic meaning. The name Pearl has a meaning of
―pearl of great
price‖. She is the physical
consequence of sexual sin. In Hester’s mind, Pearl
is
her world. She loses everything such as
other people’s respect, but she owns Pearl.
In the novel, Pearl' s primary function is as
a symbol. ―Pearl symbolizes the
shame of
Hester’s punishment for adultery. She also
symbolizes the wretch of
Hester’s life‖ She is
the symbol of shame. She represents the ―sin‖, she
is the real
result of sinful passion. Pearl is
a vivid demonstration of Hester' s scarlet letter
―A‖. But she is also the symbol of the pure
love. Pearl does not only symbolize
Hester' s
sin, she also symbolizes the hope and the
happiness. She was born in a
so stern society,
but she was not obedient. In the book, she is very
lovely and
beautiful. She has supernatural
vigor. Although her living condition is so bad:
people in the town always humiliate her and
Hester, and they are separated from
the town
people' s world, etc., she never feel dark and
painful in her heart. All of
Pearl' s appearances are
bright, which all give the readers the feeling of
optimistic. And since she is the result of her
parents, she represents their virtue
and evil.
At the end of the novel, her parents show their
virtue more or less, so
Pearl' s future is
more or less optimistic. At last, Pearl gets her
happiness. She
returns Europe and gets married
to a peer. The people in the novel are all
miserable, why does Pearl get happiness? Her
happiness manifests the brilliance
of human
future. Here, the author shows his optimistic
ideas about the future.
Pearl also
symbolizes the rebellion. What she does is against
the stern society. For
example, when Wilson
tests her knowledge of religious subject, she
refuses to
answer the simplest one. She loves
nature and freedom. She does not lock her
heart in the Puritanism, and she is very
brave. In the later chapters, Pearl plays
more
important role in Hester' s lives. Her existence
manifests that, it is
meaningless to punish
Hester and to pay more attention to her scarlet
letter. Pearl
is the real consequences of
Hester' s action.
4The Symbolic Meanings of
the Objects in the Novel
4.1 The Forest and
the River
The forest in this novel symbolizes
much more, for some people the forest may
be a
place of sinister thoughts and wrong doing, but
for others it is a place of
freedom and
happiness. The first encounter with the forest
have symbolized that
lingers within the
darkness of the forest .As Hester and Pearl leave
governor
Bellingham's estate, they are
confronted by mistress Hibbins who explains that
the
witches are meeting in the forest ,and she
then invites Hester to become more
deeply
involved with her evil ways.
Hibbins, yet
Hester refuses to sign her name in the black man's
book on that
night .She explains that the only reason she
does not sign is because Pearl is
still in her
life . At this time the forest itself is an open
door to another world, a
wicked world that
would take her away from her resent situation, but
that is not
the only door that the forest
holds. The forest is an open door to love and
freedom
for Hester and Dimmesdale .It is a
place where the letter
longer have an effect
on them if they choose .In pearl's mind, the
forest is her best
friend .It treats her as if
she were one part of the forest. The forest is the
symbols
of nature governed by nature laws, as
opposed to artificial puritan community
with
it man made laws. In the forest, they feel
freedom. The river, Prynne and
Dimmesdale
gather beside, the river, Pearl is in the other
side of. However,
Prynne calls Pearl, but
Pearl is unwilling to cross the river. Then, the
sensitive
pastor said:
the Symbol of line
between evil and pure. In the forest, river means
clear. What’s
more, it seems to Symbolize
Pearl, who owns pure and simple. And the lively
facial of flowing in the shadows would mean
that Pearl’s unknown life
experience.
4.2The Prison
The Prison represents
different Symbols. Firstly, it is a symbol for the
Puritanical severity of law. The prison is
cold, rested and strong with an
iron—clamped
oaken door
the inability to break free of them.
almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bash,
covered, in this month of Tune,
with it's
delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer
their fragrance and
fragile beauty to the
prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned
criminal as the
came forth to his doom in
token that the deep heart if Nature could pity and
be
kind
to him
authoritarianism may be too rigid, which
will obliterate things of beauty.
4.3 Scaffold
In this novel, scaffold appears three times,
the beginning, middle and end. It is
a very
important clue of the entire novel. The first time
second chapter, Hester wears the scarlet
letter
the crowd. The novel has just kicked
off at that time. It is the starting date that
Hester is punished by the religious precepts.
The second appearance of the
scaffold is in
the chapter ten. As a much-admired brilliant young
clergyman,
Dimmesdale hides the feeling of
sin, which makes him very painful. Then his face
is in pale, and his body begins to shrink.
Therefore, he goes to the scaffold and
confesses his sin in a dark night. Although
there is no public punishment by the
religious
precepts, Dimmesdale quietly accepts the
punishment on his soul. The
third appearance
of scaffold is at the end of the novel, when New
England is
being held a grand celebration.
After making the last sermon, Dimmesdale goes
onto the scaffold to confess his sin, and
ultimately he is punished. The scaffold
can be
said to constitute the framework for the whole
novel, and from another
perspective, it hints
a
Conclusion
As a great romantic novelist
in America in 19th century, Hawthorne was
outstanding in handling the application of
symbolism. The Scarlet Letter is
Hawthorne's
most important symbolic novel, which stands as the
best work of
Hawthorne and one of the
indubitable masterpieces of American literature.
This thesis
aims at the exploration of the
usage of the symbolism in the novel. It mainly
discusses
the
deep symbolic significance of the scarlet letter
The scarlet letter is the central symbol of
the novel. Its symbolic meaning changes
from
―adultery‖ to ―able‖, even ―angelic‖ in the novel
（Chase,1957:56）. It also
examines the symbolic
meanings of little Pearl and some typical natural
surroundings
such as the jail, the forest, the
rose bush and so on.