红字的评论

The Scarlet Letter

简析《红字》中红字A在海斯特身上的象征意义

摘要

《红字》是十九世纪美国浪漫主义小说家霍桑的代表作，红字中字母A在不同人物上有不同的象征意义，本文主要分析了字母A在女主人公海斯特身上的象征意 义。

关键字：红字 纳撒尼尔霍桑 象征意义

Analysis the symbolic meaning of letter A on Hester in The

Scarlet Letter Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American romantic novelist in the 19th century; his masterpiece is The Scarlet Letter. The letter A has different meanings in different people, this article mainly analysis the symbolic meaning of letter a on the heroine of Hester.

Key words: The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolic meaning

Analysis the symbolic meaning of letter A on Hester in The

Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romantic novelist in the 19th century in America. In the scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, with meticulous of psychological analysis and profound analysis of the symbolism of the human sin root .the heroine Hester was sent for adultery and she has to wear A scarlet letter in her whole life. Even so she still refuses to name the man responsibly and carries the burden of their sin on herself. However, through seven years’ punishment, Hester eventually given a new life and finally made the scarlet letter into the symbol of virtue.

There are full of symbolic meaning and mysterious through the red word A which almost throughout each of scene in this novel. The Scarlet Letter first appeared in the second chapter of the novel when Hester was pushed to the scaffold by the prison guard on public \"on the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A”. At that time, Hester was required to wear a red letter A which means “Adultery”. The Scarlet Letter has become synonymous with \"evil\". Under the evil, the scarlet letter brings a hot heavy burden on her. However, once time, when Hester talked with the priest in the forest, she took the letter A from her bosom, throw it into a distance among the withered leaves, it suggests that her resistance to the social moral and ethical. “As long as there is a chance she immediately recognized the feeling of her

sisters and human”. At that moment, the letter A has become the meaning of “Amazon”. It shows that her resistance against the unfair of the society.

For atoning her sin, in the next seven years, she makes a living by make handiwork and brings up Pearl by herself and she usually does social welfare, she came to the people who suffered disaster and enveloped by gloom, not as a guest, but as a relatives to bring them sunlight. In other places that letter is a sign of evil, but in here it has become candlelight for those who needed help. At that time, some people begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token ,not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds. Then the symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter is not \"evil\\"competent,\" or even \"Angel\" (A ngel).

Moreover, as the years passed, Hester devoted herself to help others in every possible way so that the scarlet letter is no longer the mark of contempt and irony of shame, but as the symbol of “Awe” (A dm irab le: the sign of admirable).

All in all, the author used the symbolic meaning of the letter A on Hester to illustrate good and evil, also, it can shape the theme better, all of these left us a deep expression of this novel.

Bibliography

[1] Hawthorne,Nathaniel.1994.红字.Oversea Publishing House出版社. [2] Yu Shihua[于世华]，2000，《红字》。北京：外文出版社。 [3] Yao Naiqiang[姚乃强]，1996，《红字》。上海：译林出版社。 [4] Zhu Hong[朱虹]，1984，《英美文学散论》。北京: 三联书店。

[5] Gan Wenping[甘文平]，2006，惊奇的回归—《红字》中海斯特·白兰形象解读,《外国

文学研究》，第三期。