The Symbolic Meaning of“A”in The Scarlet Letter and Its Function 英语专业毕业论文.doc

the symbolic meaning of“a”in the scarlet letter and its functionthesis statement:the scarlet letter“a”as a main symbol, which has different symbolic meanings according to different peoples views and different periods, shows great significance in developing and elaborating(详细阐述) the theme of the book, the scarlet letter.a brief introduction to the scarlet letter1.nathaniel hawthorne (1804-1864), the author, is a great writer in american literary history.2.the main plot of the scarlet letter is a tragic live story in the colonial times in boston.3.the theme of the novel is the conflict of the human heart with itself and how to deal with the sin on ones act and the sin on ones soul.symbols in the scarlet letter.1.the scarlet letter“a”,the main symbol in the scarlet letter ,was endowed with plentiful meanings.2.in the scarlet letter, there are many other symbols.a. the rusty prison-door means the darkness of that times.b. rose-bush, fragrance and fragile beauty stand for the light of hope in america.ca deformed man has abnormal soul.different interpretations of the symbol “a”.1.different periods have different meanings.a. at the beginning, the letter“a”stands for“adultery”or“adulteress”.b. after many years of hard work, the letter“a”means“angel”. c. for hesters kindness and honesty, the letter“a”means“angel”.2.different people have their own ideas on the symbol “a”.a. to hester, it is the moral sin in a public way.b. to dimmensdale, it tortures his soul and his heart.c. to chillingworth, it indicates his shame and he can get unlimited power for his revenge.3.pearl is more of a symbol than a character. to a great extent, she is a living “a”.a. to hester, she is the fruit of human love and physical passion.b. to dimmensdale, she is a reminder of his sin.c. to chilingworth, she is an unforgettable shame and the motivation（动机） to take his revenge. the symbol has its great significance.1. symbolism is a literary device which is wed frequently to indicate the authors opinion.2. the use of symbols can make the characters more lively and understandable.3. it can let the readers become imaginative and stimulate their interest.4. it is very helpful to develop the theme and give deep impression on readers mind. conclusion. plentiful meanings of the scarlet “a” expresses the intention of writing and gives readers more space to imagine.the symbolic meaning of“a”in the scarlet letter and its function.introduction nathaniel hawthorne(1804-1864) is one of the most famous, interesting, ambivalent（矛盾的） writers in american literature of romanticism period. he is also a productive novelist with an inquiring（询问的，打听的） imagination, an intensely meditative（冥想的，沉思的） mind. some of his great works are familiar to us, such as the house of the seven gables, young goodman brown ,the scarlet letter etc. in most of his novels, they are full of the description of sin and evil. and in his eyes,“everyones heart has his sin ”1“the sin of heart and soul is more general than that of body”2therefore,when you read his novels, you can feel his pessimistic life manner and his intention of preaching, especially in the scarlet letter. the scarlet letter, always regarded as the best of his works, was published in 1850.as the first symbolic novel in american literary history, it has been influencing american literature deeply and significantly. the story took place in new england in 17th century. it told us a simple but very moving story in which four people living in a puritan community were involved in and affected by the sin. hester prynne, the heroine, was found out to have committed adultery. she was punished before the public and condemned to wear the scarlet letter“a”in front of her bosom throughout her life time. when the mad throng roared to her to demand the name of the man with whom she committed adultery, she refused simply because she loved the man and cherished his life more than her own. the baby, pearl, to whom she gave birth, was baptised by arthur dimmensdale, the parishioner who was actually the babys father. different from hester, dimmensdale dared not admit openly the sin but was constantly tortured by a sense of guilt. doctor chillingworth, hesters husband, discovered who was the adulterer and made up a cruel plan of revenge to torture（折磨，拷问） the minister（牧师） mentally till his death.in the end, hester regained her dignity and even respect from the community. dimmensdale was mentally tortured to death by his own sense of guilt plus chillingworths vicious（恶毒的） plan and only in the last minute of his life he revealed his sin. in this particular novel, hawthorne explores into“the conflict of the human heart with itself”3 and deals with the theme of sin and guilt. just through describing hesters sorrowful（悲伤的，伤心的） fate（命运）, it severely criticizes the injustice and cruelty of the puritan way of life. in order to get this point, he used many writing skills, especially the rhetoric（修辞） device, symbolism.symbols in the scarlet letter the scarlet letter“a”as the main symbol, it is endowed(赋予) with plentiful meanings. according to different peoples views on the letter “a”and different periods, hawthorne have depicted（描画，描述） a vivid picture of the puritan community. in this novel, however, there are many other symbols except for the scarlet letter“a”.some examples will be given first in the following two paragraphs. the rusty（生锈的，腐蚀的） prison-door was the symbol of that time which was dark and cruel. in this environment, there was no true love but hypocrisy（虚伪，伪善） of human beings. because of this symbol, the whole novel was based on the tone of sadness. for the sake of giving readers little hope, the author had to have the aid of rose-bush and its fragance（芳香）. just as the author said:“let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom(开花，兴旺), that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty（弱点） and sorrow.”4 another one is chillingworth, an old slightly deformed（畸形的，丑陋的） man with the left shoulder a trifle higher than the right, who was an unveiled devil in the novel. at the beginning, he was an innocent victim and liable to pity and sympathy. as a cold-natured physician, however, he designed an inhumane scheme of cold revenge and finally became the most hardened sinner, an embodiment of merciless revenge, vicious schemes and cold-blooded hatred. at last, his deformed body symbolized his abnormal soul which damaged himself.the symbolic meaning of “a” from beginning to end in the novel, the most typical symbol is the scarlet letter“a”as a key to the whole novel, the letter“a”takes on different layers of symbolic meanings as the plot develops and people come up with different interpretations. 1.different periods have different meanings at the beginning, the scarlet letter“a”is a symbol of sin and guilt. it means“adultery”or“adulteress”. at that time, hester had no choice but to wear the scarlet letter on her breast, which gradually became her special sign. and for this scarlet letter, she was separated from her original community.“it(the scarlet letter)had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.”5from the day she wore the scarlet letter on, there was nothing to hester but ridiculous, hopeless and unbearable loneliness. at first, she was so frightened that she could not know how to do. but eventually, she began to realize: it was no use of worrying, evading. as brave and firm she was, she faced the fact and did what she could do to change this situation. in order to ameliorate the relation with community, she changed herself a lot and led a hard, insipid life. as time went on, she won back acceptance and respect from the villagers of various background through hard-working.“such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do, and power to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarletaby its original signification .they said that it meant able.”6 therefore, in peoples minds, the scarlet letter had changed its original symbol to a new meaning-able. with regard to the society which had deserted her and the villagers who had hurt her before, hester had no hatred feeling but mercy, honesty and generosity.“none so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty.”7“none so self-devoted as hester, when pestilence stalked through the town.”8 because of her persistence、endeavor and constancy, many people had been touched and began to accept the new hester. till this moment,“the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nuns bosom”.9 hester was not a sinner but an angel. the scarlet letter then was given another interpretation-the symbol of an angel. 2.different people have their own interpretations of the symbol“a” as far as hester was concerned, the scarlet letter“a”was an external manifestation of sin she had committed. just for the sign of her shame, hester had strong willing to overcome all the difficulties and tried to be kind to everyone. and also, it made hester more bravery and faithful. hence, we can be sure it creates a new hester while it tortures her. meanwhile,“the scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dare not tread.”10 hester became a woman with full of the spirit of rebelling the reality which let her as a pioneer of a new era. to dimmensdale, although he didnt wear the scarlet letter openly, his heart had been withstanding great pain. he kept his guilt in secret and it made him sad, worried and disappointed. the scarlet letter in his heart like a bloody scourge tortured him until his last confession.“in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium of celestial illumination,but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance.”11 but no matter how hard he was ,he could not receive a momentary calm of his guilty soul.“herein is the sinful mother happier than the sinful father.”12so when he met with hester and told her “happy are you, hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly worn your bosom! mine burns in secret!”13 last but not the least, the scarlet letter like a shame sign warned chillingworth to take revenge on the minister. he became more and more cruel and got boundless power from the scarlet letter. the faster he revenged, the deeper he blundered. at last, he did become a real devil. when dimmeasdale was dying, he swore:“thou, too, hast deeply sinned!”14 in this work, there is another important and striking character, pearl. it is said more rightly and exactly that she is more of a symbol than a character. on the one hand, pearl, as the daughter of hester and dimmensdale, was a sign of disgrace.“it(pearl)was the scarlet letter in another form, the scarlet letter endowed with life!”16 she had the same influence as the scarlet letter“a”when hester stood on the gallow. she wanted to hide the scarlet letter with the baby(pearl),“in a moment, wisely hiding that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another.”17 but on the other hand, pearl was different from the scarlet letter“a”.she was the fruit of love and the only property hester had.“see ye not, she is the scarlet letter only capable of being loved”18 just because of the existence of pearl, hester gained plentiful power and courage to live better. pearl was her only living hope. to dimmensdale, she was a reminder of his sin. he loved her but much more frightened by her.“i have even been afraid of little pearl”19“that this dear child, tripping about always at thy side, hath caused me many an alarm!”20 therefore, pearl like a spirit, gave him happiness but more sadness and unforgiven guilt. to chillingworth, she was an unforgettable shame. every time he saw her, he thought of the adultery between hester and dimmensdale. and in order to save his face and “dignity”,he took his revenge plan and got more and more power from the living letter“a”pearl.significance of“a” maybe someone will ask“why had the scarlet letter been spread so widely and profoundly?”it is because of not only his literary grace but of his style of writing, symbolism. symbolism is a literary device with which the author deliberately make concrete objects evolved into some abstractions, usually moralistic or philosophical .it can make abstraction concrete, generality specific, ideology material. all of these features do contribute to the readers comprehension and can let them accept to the characters easier. as regards using symbolism, there are at least three advantages. firstly, symbolism can let the readers become imaginative and stimulate their interest. when hester was forced to wear the scarlet letter“a”,some questions may be raised in readers minds.“what does it stand for?”“why must hester wear the scarlet letter?”“who is the other sinner?”ect. in order to find the answer, readers are willing to read further and become more and more carefully. and some of them will express their own ideas on the symbol of “a”. from then on, readers are attracted by this wonderful and moving love story. secondly, the use of symbol can make the characters more lively and understandable. lets take pearl for example. pearl was a symbol of the living“a”.she was innocent, lovely, vigorous, but sometimes, she also had a few absurd ideas in her little mind ,like a spirit, especially her showing a great interesting in the meaning of“a”.when the minister saw her, he was very glad at first and then frightened. in his eyes, she was a reminder of his sin. he tried to accept her but failed again and again. so we can learn the character of dimmensdale was timid, indecisive; all of these caused him sorrowful fate. lastly, it helps to develop the theme and give deep impression on readers minds. by using pearl as a thematic symbol, hawthorne emphasizes the consequence the sin of adultery has brought to the community and people living in the community. we are impressed by her living, wild flow of spirits. it is like a wish not only for hester but also for new america as a whole. when we finish reading the novel, there are many people like hester, dimmensdale etc. still in our minds. we can memorize them clearly all because of the special symbol sign“a”，of their unfortunate destiny.conclusion the paper h