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AN ANALYSIS OF MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE SCARLET LETTER
Zhu Yujie 朱玉洁
Acknowledgements
I shall first present my thanks to all the teachers in the English Department of University of Science and Technology, Liaoning, to whom I owe much of my knowledge in my study of English language and literature.Then I would like to thank Mr Shu Jingwei and Ms Chen Yuanyuan, who have given us lectures on British and American literature.My heartfelt gratitude also goes to my tutor, Mr Shu Jingwei, whose invaluable instructions, perceptive suggestions, great patience and constant encouragement have helped greatly to shape this thesis.Contents
Abstract(English)..................................................................................i Abstract(Chinese)................................................................................ii Introduction.........................................................................................1 Ⅰ.The Changes of the Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet Letter “A”...............................................................................................................1
A.adultery.....................................................................................................2 B.alone and alienation..................................................................................2 C.able, admirable and angel........................................................................3 Ⅱ.The symbolic meaning of the four major Characters’ names...4
A.Hester Prynne...........................................................................................4 1.Hester Prynne is one of the major characters in the The Scarlet Letter。........4 2.Hester is the homophone of the word haste.........................................................4 B.Arthur Dimmesdale..................................................................................5 C.Roger Chillingworth................................................................................5 D.Pearl...........................................................................................................7 Ⅳ.The Symbolic Meanings of the Objects that are described in the Novel.....................................................................................................9 Conclusion..........................................................................................11 Bibliography.......................................................................................12 Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu i Abstract The Scarlet Letter, the powerful tale of paion, Puritanism, and revenge is one of the foremost claics of American literature.Its main theme is sin and guilt and the novel exhibits us the proce of the heroine‟s heart-purification.Through her kindne and great effort, she changed her image and even changed the symbol of the letter A from “Adultery” and disgrace into virtue and respect.There are many usage of symbolism in the novel, which inspires contemplation and feeling on the part of the readers.And it is just this feature that promotes The Scarlet Letter to be one of the earliest and the most significant novels of romantic style in America.The Scarlet Letter made great contribution to the progre and prosperity of America.This thesis researches the symbolism in this novel from the following three aspects: the changing symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter, the name of the major characters and many objects that are described in the novel to make the symbolism clear to the readers.Keywords: Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
symbolism
Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu ii
摘要
《红字》是一部关于爱情，淸教，复仇的美国经典浪漫主义文学作品，无疑是文学史上的一大巨作，小说的主题是“罪恶“。它向我们展示了主人公“净化”心灵的历程。通过自己的善行和努力,主人公改变了自己在人们心中的形象，甚至将原来表示“通奸”的标志“A”字，变成了德行的象征，贏得人们的尊敬。该作品大量引用象征主义创作手法，并且引起读者的关注和共鸣。也正是由于象征手法的运用，《红字》成为美国文学史上最早的也是最重要的浪漫主义文学作品之一。《红字》为美国文学的发展和繁荣立下了不朽的功勋。本文从红字的多重象征意义，主要人物的人名寓意以及景物等方面入手，研究《红字》的象征主义手法。
关键词: 霍桑 《红字》 象征
Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 1 An Analysis of Main Characters of The Scarlet Letter
Introduction划线了不知道有语法错误吗
Symbolism is a traditional artistic form which uses something concrete to expre abstract concept.As a famous writer of romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at the using of symbolism in his work.The various usage of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter makes the novel a great work of the world.The Scarlet Letter was set in Puritan Boston.The beautiful Hester Prynne falls in love with a young and respectable minister Dimmesdale, and gave birth to her daughter, Pearl;as a result, she committed adultery and was banished from the main stream of the community.While her sinner lover.Dimmesdale, was unpunished and worshipped more and more by the multitude often people.Hester‟s husband, Chillingworth found out about the guilty minister and took every chance to torture Dimmesdale‟s soul.Seven years later, Hester was accepted again by the maes due to her devoted services for the community, and Dimmesdale was brave to stand with Hester and his daughter, openly admitted his sin, and then he died.Ⅰ.The Changes of the Symbolic meaning of the Scarlet Letter ”A“ In this novel, the readers can see the glittering “A” for many times, and the scarlet letter “A” changes its meaning many different times.The letter “A” begins as a symbol of sin.It then becomes a symbol of being alone and alienation, and finally it becomes a symbol of being able, angel and admirable.The three changes are rather significant.They show the progreive poeion of Hester‟s sin, her lonely life and her ability.Hester is a strong admirable woman who goes through more emotional torture that most people go through in a lifetime.Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 2 A.adultery The letter ”A“, worn on Hester's bosom, is a symbol of her adultery against Roger Chillingworth.This is the puritan way of treating one as a criminal, for the crime of adultery.The puritan treatment continues, because as Hester walks on 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...(霍，2000: 74)“ Hester is ashamed of her sin, but she chooses not to show it.She commits this sin in the heat of paion, and fully admits it because, though she is ashamed, she also receives her greatest treasure.Pearl.She is a very strong woman to be able to hold up so well against what she must face.Many will have tied from Boston, and seek a place where no one knows of her great sin.But Hester chooses to stay there, which shows a lot of strength and integrity.格式不知道修改一下吗
尤其是这里面的引号
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B.alone and alienation The scarlet letter ”A“ also stands for Hester's lonely life in New England.The letter separates her from the common circle of her neighborhood, since children find it offensive;strangers consider it queer while community people frown upon it.After she is released, Hester lives in a cottage near the outskirts of the city.”It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remotene put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants.”(霍，2000: 75)Hester's social life is Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 3 virtually eliminated because of her shameful history.Hester comes to realize that she is no longer part of the world.“However, there was nothing 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 expreed, 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 moral interests...seemed to be the sole portion that she retained in the universal heart.”(霍,2000: 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 ”alone“ and ”alienate“.C.able, admirable and angel Later, the scarlet letter ”A“ changes its meaning into being able, angel and admirable.Because she intends to do good for the colony that once banishes her, more for her clear conscience than for the purpose to return to the society.”The letter was the symbol of her calling.Such helpfulne is found in her so much power to do and power to sympathizethe town's own Hester-who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comforting to the afflicted!“(霍,2000: 149)The townspeople soon begin to believe that the badge served to ward off evil.In sorrow and seclusion Hester grows stronger.Her charity to the poor, her comfort to the broken-hearted, her brave presence in times of trouble most prove that she is not worthy of the fate which has been dealt to her.Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 4 Ⅱ.The symbolic meaning of the four major Characters’ names
A.Hester Prynne 1.Hester Prynne is one of the major characters in the The Scarlet Letter。
The writer gives Hester Prynne much symbolic meaning by giving her this name.And her name reflects her characteristic.Firstly, Hester sounds like Hester, Zeus' sister in Greek mythology, who is a very beautiful godde.This gives us a sense that Hester is a paionate beautiful woman.In this novel, she is the symbol of the truth, the goodne and the beauty.Nathaniel Hawthorne describes her in Chapter Two like this: ”The young woman was tall, a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale, she had dark and abundant hair, so gloy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richne of complexion, had the impreivene belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes...“(霍,2000: 50)Due to the adultery, Hester is compelled to wear the infamous letter A, to move to the edge of the community, and worst of all to be alienated from the society.But her sin leads her to a moral growth.Instead of running from the hostile colonists, Hester withstands their insolence and pursues a normal life.She proves her value with her uncommon sewing skills and provides community service.At last, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as ”The cro on a nun's bosom“, which is not small accomplishment.2.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 in love with Arthur hastily and gives birth to Pearl, for which she is forced to wear the disgraceful scarlet letter ”A“ on her dre, which stands for adultery.Besides, Prynne also has its symbolic meaning.Prynne is the homophone of the word purifying.The author not only explores the root Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 5 of Hester's sin.but also believes that she can purify herself.After releasing from prison, she has the chance to move to another place.But she still chooses to live in the place where she committed sin.Finally, the town people even think her as the symbol of angel.B.Arthur Dimmesdale Arthur Dimmesdale is a well-regarded young minister, whose initials arc AD, which also stands for adultery.The author obviously tells us Author Dimmesdale is the partner in sin of Hester Prynne by giving him this name.The word Dimmesdale also has many symbolic meanings.Dim means dark and weak and dale means valley, so the Dimmesdale here is actually a symbol of the ”dim-interior“ of the clergyman.He loves Hester deeply, and he is the father of Pearl, but he is a coward.Dimmesdale is not courageous enough to tell the town that he was the one who committed adultery with Hester and the one who deserved to stand in the scaffold with Hester and Pearl while they are being punished openly by the town-people's stares and whispers.In contrast he tries to be a double-dealer, the honorable minister in the daylight and only show his paion for her in the forest or in darkne.The punishment for him is not as obvious as that of Hester's—it's the remorse rooted in his own conscience and the torture sinuously imposed by the malicious revenge Chillingworth.The interior remorse and the exterior torture lead to the psychological and physical destruction of the hypocritical minister.In this sense, ”Dimmesdale suffers as much as Hester did;for a paionate yet illicit love, Hester loses all her happine and fame, while Dimmesdale his life“(刘,2009:76)C.Roger Chillingworth Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, like all of Hawthorne's main characters, is complex and difficult to see through.He is a small and thin old man with dim eyes, a wrinkle face and deformed shoulders, and what is more, he is hypocritical.As for his name, the words ”chilling“ and ”worth“ compose the surname Chillingworth.Chilling Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 6 comes from the word ”chilly“, which means this man is a mercile avenger.In the first place, he appears with the identity of a victim.But in fact, the hurt he suffers does not come from other people, but from the secret evil deep in his soul.Firstly, lie 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.Then, when he discovered his wife's adultery, he visits Hester in prison and pleaded for her not to reveal the fact that he is her husband.He has been ashamed to marry a disgrace woman.Instead of standing out, he soon becomes obseed with his new miion in life, and when he targets reverend Dimmesdale as the poible partner, he disguises himself as one trust friend of the minister, attaching himself to him as a parishioner.For seven years, he digs into the minister's heart with keen 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,”(霍,2000: 119)When he finally found the scarlet letter “A” on the bosom of the minister, he busted out a ghastly rapture.When he docs these, he is turning from a victim to a sinner.Chillingworth also means that the avenger's life is worthle.When he finds his wife betrays him, he spends all his time on revenge.He gives up his identity, and his largest sacrifice is his own life.After spending so much time dwelling on his revenge, Chillingworth forgets that he still has a change to lead a life of his own.So 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 varied from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun.”(霍, 2000: 236)Chillingworth dies le than a year Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 7 later because he has nothing left to live for.The poor forlorn creature is more wretched than his victim is the avenger had devoted himself.In all, Chillingworth is a horrible man of revenge and is also the symbol of evil.D.Pearl Pearl is one of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book.Pearl, is the human symbol of the sin of adultery in the fact that she leads her mother, Hester Prynne, and Arthur Dimmesdale to accept and admit to their sin.Pearl is the beautiful daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale.She is the living symbol of the scarlet letter and has unique traits that make her sometimes appear as a demon.The most significant symbolic meaning of Pearl in the novel is her aociation with the scarlet letter “A”.When Hester stood fully revealed before the crowd, it is her first impulse to clasp Pearl closely to her bosom;“not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dre.”(霍,2000: 50)“In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm...”(霍,2000: 50)Hester embroidered the scarlet letter with gold thread fantastically, and she had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full playing contriving Pearl's garb, “and, indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom.(霍,2000: 93)Pearl really was the scarlet letter, the scarlet letter in another form: the scarlet letter endowed with life.Pearl is a girl of rich and luxuriant beauty.”There was fire in her and throughout her;she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a paionate moment.”(霍,2000: 93)Hester named the infant “pearl”, as being of great price, purchased with all she had,—her only treasure!If Pearl had never been born, Hester would have never been found guilty of adultery, and thus never would have had to wear that Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 8 burden upon her chest.Without that burden, Hester would have led a much better life than the one she had throughout the novel.Although Hester has so much trouble with Pearl, she still feels that Pearl is her treasure.Pearl is really the only thing that Hester has in her life.Once a while, Pearl will bring joy to Hester's life and that helps her to keep on living.If Pearl isn't in Hester's life, Hester will almost surely have committed suicide.This can be proved in Chapter 8, The Elf-child and the Minister.After Hester gets the permiion to still keep Pearl at her side, Mistre Hibbing invites her to go to the forest to meet the Black Man together with her.But Hester refuses and says, with a triumphant smile,“ I must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl.Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man's book too, and that with mine own blood!”(霍,2000: 98)It is Pearl that saves Hester from Satan's snare.Pearl is equally a symbol for Dimmesdale.In Pearl's eyes, until Dimmesdale acts like her father she will not accept him in her life.In order to act like a father, Dimmesdale must accept his sin and come open to the public.'“But wilt thou promise, 'asked Pearl,' to take my hand and mother's hand, to-morrow noontide?'”(霍, 2000: 105).In this quote Pearl is asking Dimmesdale to stand with them, and come open to the public.“'Doth he love us?' said Pearl, looking up with acute intelligence into her mother's face.„Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into town?”'(霍, 2000: 145).Pearl is again implying that she wants Dimmesdale to come out in the open with his love and sin.In the end, he bravely stands on the scaffold, and publicly confees his sin in the light of day.The confeion finally gives him a sense of peace.Pearl is transformed at the end of the novel when Dimmesdale stands with her on the scaffold and makes his confeion.It is obvious that the child has longed for his love and acceptance in the open public.When he asks her for a ki this time, she willingly gives it.Her sense of human identity is established in her acceptance of Dimmcsdalc's paternity.As a result, she cries with real human emotion for the first time in the book, foreshadowing that her past is put away and she will be able to live a normal life in the future.“Pearl kied his lips.A spell was broken.The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies: and as her tears fell upon her Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 9 father's check, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it”(霍, 2000:233).In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl symbolizes Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale's connection in more ways than one.Pearl is truly the human symbol for the sin of adultery.Not only is she a symbol for Hester, but for Dimmesdale also.More importantly Pearl leads Hester and Dimmesdale to accept their sin and purify their sinful soul.Ⅳ.The Symbolic Meanings of the Objects that are described in the Novel In The Scarlet Letter, most of the objects that are described have many symbolic meanings.Light and darkne, sunshine and shadows, noon and midnight, are all manifestations of the same images.Likewise, colors—such as red, gray, and black—play a role in the symbolic nature of the background and scenery.But, similar to the characters, the context determines what role the light or colors play.The Scarlet Letter‟s first chapter ends with an admonition to “relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” with “some sweet moral bloom.” These opposites are found throughout the novel and often set the tone and define which side of good and evil envelop the characters.Colors play important roles in the novel.One of the predominant colors is red, seen in the roses, the letter, Pearl‟s clothing, the “scarlet woman,” Chillingworth‟s eyes.At night and always with the physician, the letter is aociated with darkne and evil;in the other aociations, it is a part of nature, paion, lawlene, and imagination.The context determines the meaning.Black and gray are colors aociated with the Puritans, gloom, death, sin, and narrow path of righteousne through the forest of sin.As an adulterous, Hester is showed at the scaffold and that is the first time we come to know the scaffold.And in the novel, there are three scaffold scenes which have different symbolism.In the first scaffold scene, Hester was alone with her little Pearl in her hands on Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 10 the scaffold although her lover, Dimmesdale was in the crowd as well.But he did not tell the truth that he was that adulterer owing to his cowardne.Hester Prynne was alone confronting all the humiliation before the people of her community.In the second scaffold scene when Dimmesdale sits upon the scaffold during the night.He thinks of the sin that he has committed, and regrets that he did not standing on the scaffold seven years ago when Hester was accused.The thoughts are so the third scaffold scene, all conflicts in the story were resolved, in unbearable that he screams.So this time the scaffold symbols public sin.“Including the conflict between Hester and Chillingworth;the conflict between Dimmesdale and the result of Dimmesdale‟s own inner world struggle”(聂，2005：1).Dimmesdale finally confeed the truth.Hester and Dimmesdale were finally together facing the people while little Pearl kiing her father seems to break a spell.The first time we know Hester is when she is leaded out from the prison.The prison represents several different symbols.Foremost it is a symbol for the Puritanical severity of law.The description of the prison indicates that it is old, rusted, yet strong with an “iron-clamped oaken door.” This represents the rigorous enforcement of laws and the inability to break free of them.The prison also serves as the symbol of the authority of the regime, which will not tolerate crimes.The rose bush is a symbol of paion.As will later become obvious, Hester Prynne‟s sin is one of paion, thus linking her crime to the image of the rosebush.Hawthorne also indirectly compares Hester with Ann Hutchinson via the rosebush.and again makes the same parallel in Chapter 13, Another View of Hester, Hawthorne cleverly links the rosebush to the wilderne surrounding Boston, commenting that the bush may be a remnant of the former forest, which covered the area.This is important, because it is only in the forest wilderne where the Puritan‟s laws fail to have any force.Thus the image of the rosebush serves to foreshadow that some of the paionate wilderne, in the form of Hester Prynne, may have accidentally made its way into Boston.The rosebush in full bloom indicates that Hester is at the peak of her paion.This parallels the fact that Hester has just born a child as a result of her paion.The child is thus comparable to the blooms on the rosebush.Hawthorn‟s Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 11 comment that the rose may serve as a “moral bloom” in the story is therefore actually saying that Hester‟s child will serve to provide the moral of the story.Then after releasing from the prison, Hester chooses to live in the forest.In the novel, the forest is also a symbolic place where withers gather and represents love and wilderne.It is nature but not man that dominates the forest.People are more the creature of the nature than the society.The society‟s rules do not apply there.Thus misbehavior is allowed there.When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest, they should not keep distance and conceal their love to each other, they become happy young lover again.Dimmesdale, who is tortured by the worldly vexations, get strength and peace in the forest.Conclusion Symbolism is a traditional artistic form;it also a major feature of Romanticism.As a famous writer of romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at the using of symbolism in his works.The various usage of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter makes the novel a work of the world.In an effort to better understand the novel;this eay has explored the use of symbolism in the novel from the following three aspects: the changing symbolic meaning of The Scarlet Letter, the name of the major characters and many objects that are described in the novel.The whole novel takes The Scarlet Letter “A” as the clue and the meaning of The Scarlet Letter has changed with the development of plots.In addition, we can see that the writer holds different attitude toward the three sinners in the story.Hester, as a heroine, is presented as a beautiful and brave woman as well as a kind and sympathetic lady, who in the end win a new life and freedom.Dimmesdale is presented as a coward and hypocrite as well as a victim.Chillingworth is presented as a devil.Through the story, Hawthorne saw so much sin in men and the world.He told us that people should be true, honest and ever ready to show one‟s worst to the outside world.He believed that men‟s sinfulne could not be altered.Graduation Thesis of University of Science and Technology，Liaoning
Zhu 12
Bibliography [1].The Scarlet Letter Christian Inquirer, 25 May, 1850 [2].Henry James: Hawthorne, New York, 1879 [3].Darrel Abel: Hawthorne, College English, 13(March, 1952).[4]Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter2000 [5]甘文平 《外国文学研究》 2003 第3期
[7]魏江华 《宁夏大学学报(人文社会科学版)》 2003 第4期 [8]金晓琳 《西南民族大学学报（人文社科版）》 2004 第5期
