《红字》中字母A的象征意义(英文).doc

Symbolism Of The Letter “A” Throughout The Scarlet Letter红字中字母“A”的象征意义方蒂蒂江西农业大学2004届毕业生Fang didiClass 2004Jiangxi Agriculture UniversityAbstract:There have been a lot of arguments over the diversity of symbol over the past years. However, Nathaniel Hawthorne is successful in employing symbolic techniques and lays great emphasis on the diversity of symbol. The Scarlet letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is undoubtedly been considered as his masterpiece, is praised as one of the greatest novels and regarded as the first symbolic novel in American literature. This novel includes many profound and important symbols, and the authors symbolic style has the rich flavors of emotion and conforms to no conventional pattern. Hawthorns symbolism, especially the symbolic letter “ A” helps make the keynote of the story clearer and the characters to the life. The changing symbolic meanings throughout the novel are the best expressed by the letter “ A”. This paper attempts to discuss the diversity of symbolism in this novel, i.e. the changing symbolic meanings of the scarlet letter “A”, and their manifestations. Key words: Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Scarlet Letter; symbols; symbolism; the diversity 摘要:象征的多义性曾引起过不少争议,然而纳撒尼尔霍桑却出色地运用了象征主义手法和成功地突出强调了象征的多义性.无庸质疑地被认为是霍桑最杰出的作品,也被赞誉为美国文学上最出色小说,同时也是美国第一部象征小说.这部小说包含了很多意味深远而且重要的象征, 作者的象征手法具有浓郁的感情色彩,不拘于传统形式.作者通过象征手法,尤其是具有象征意义字母“A”使得文章主线清晰,并且给人物注入了生命力.字母 “A”作为最具代表的例子是其在小说中含义的变化.本文试从红字 “A” 象征意义的多义性，讨论红字中的字母 “A” 的象征手法.关键词: 纳撒尼尔霍桑; 红字; 象征; 象征主义; 多义性The introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his intention of writing The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in an impoverished noble New Englands family, the descendent of a long line of puritan ancestors. Among his ancestors, 2 generations were big wheels in organs of power of unite of religion and politics in colony areas. They persecuted heterodoxy by zealot of Puritan. Lonely childhood branded his personality with melancholy and taciturn. After his father was lost at sea when he was only four, his mother became overly protective and pushed him toward more isolated pursuits. His childhood left him overly shy and bookish, and molded his life as a writer. Hawthorne turned to writing after his graduation from Bowdon College. Though Hawthorne attacked the harmful religious zealots and stifling religious doctrines of Garvin, he viewed on the world with religious sense of good and devil in his deep heart. He summed up the social contradiction, which he didnt understand and was caused by the development of capitalism as abstract “evil”. As he said, the source of social evils contradictions among individuals phenomenon of crime were not in the material social life, but were caused by intrinsic “evil” in inner world of man. So Hawthorne wrote that the resolution to social problems started with the omnipresent “evil”. He said that once the internal world was purified, many sin loafing about external world would disappear. His focusing on the abstract “evil” decided his writing trend mostly. He preferred describing trans-natural, weird, horrible scenes or dark, unusual psychological activities in order to explore the roots of all kinds of social hidden “evil”. He said himself “only loyal to the truth of heart, comprising the heart to a winding and extending cave and the writing to “driving actively in our common human nature”. So he usually analyzed a persons psychology cutting off social conditions peeled off the “evil” existing in everyones heart layer off layer. Hawthorne focused on the problem of guilt cared for the deeper psychology and his major novels generally dealt with sensational material, like poisoning, murder, adultery, and crime, because he was ambitious to explore the result of sin, the effect on human conscience of guilt, pride, egotism, and isolation. His exploration of the soul resulted from his skeptical attitude toward the limited social reality that was characterized by a rapid change in almost all aspects of social life, and from his “seclusion” of thinking. The central subject of Hawthornes major works was the human soul. According to him, “There is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity.” So in almost every book he writes, Hawthorne discusses sin and evil. For example, in another his novel Endicott And The Red Cross, he describes a pretty woman also wears a scarlet letter on her cloth. Humans characters are complex and elusive and difficult to see through. So its no right to define the humans character good or evil simply and cleanly. Just because of the complexity of the human character and the difference of the standards of good and evil, these literatures are so readable and fascinating magnetically. Just because he lived in an age when the dynamic influence of Puritanism was gone and the impact of romanticism and Transcendentalism was large felt among the intellectuals, and thus his view of man and human history originates, to a great extent, is Puritanism. The sensibility led to his understanding of evil being at the very core of human life, which is typical of the Calvinistic belief that human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence, they should obey God to atone for their sins. Just as I mention above, in many of his stories and novels, the Puritan concept of life is condemned, or the Puritan past is shown in an almost totally negative light, especially in his The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne is attracted in every way to the Puritan world, even though he condemns its less humane manifestations. In this particular novel, Hawthorne does not intend to tell a love story nor a story of sin, but focuses his attention on the moral, emotional, and psychological effects or consequences of the sin on the people in general and those main characters in particular, so as to show us the tension between society and individuals. As a man of literary craftsmanship, Hawthorne is extraordinary. The structure and the form writings are always carefully worked out to cater for the thematic concern. With his special interest in the psychological aspect of human beings, there isnt much action or physical movement going on in his works and he is good at exploring the complexity of human psychology. So his drama is full of mental activities. Thought propels action and grows organically out of the interaction of the characters, as we can find in this novel. The general introduction of symbolismJust as characterization and dialogue and plot work on the surface to move the story along, symbolism works under the surface to tie the storys external action to the theme. Early in the development of the fictional narrative, symbolism was often produced through allegory, giving the literal event and its allegorical counterpart a one-to-one correspondence. Symbolism operates on the level of the unconscious. This does not mean that the author himself is unconscious of the process of creating symbolism - merely that we, as readers, accept its input without really understanding how it works. Symbolism, therefore, is an integral component of fiction, because it enriches the narrative by pulling its message down to the level of our unconsciousness and anchoring it there. Developed in the late 19th century, symbolism is an art movement characterized by the representation of the inner life of people through spiritual symbols and ideas. It began as a rejection of the purely visual realism of the Impressionists, and the rationality of the Industrial Age, in order to depict the symbols of ideas. Traditionally modeled pictorial depictions are replaced or contrasted by flat mosaic-like surfaces decoratively embellished with figures and design elements. Symbolism in literature is the deepness and hidden meaning in a piece of work. It is often used to represent a moral or religious belief or value. Without symbolism literature is just a bunch of meaningless words on paper. N. Hawthorne successfully uses the symbolism device in his novel and makes his novel The Scarlet Letter become an immortal famous work. In The Scarlet Letter he uses the concept of nature such as the jail, burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, wild rose, scaffold, forest etc. and four major Characters Names: Hester Prynne, Asher Dingmeistale, Roger Chillingworth, Pearl to show symbolism. But the most significant symbol that is shown throughout the novel is the scarlet letter “A”. The letter “A” represents different things to each of the characters and the towns people. This paper will focus on the important role the letter “A” plays and how It changes its meanings throughout the story. The diversity of symbolSymbol and symbolism In dictionary, a symbol is a one-term comparison. For example,if we compare a hat to a cloud, the cloud is the symbol replacing the hat as its perfect substitute. As a result, symbols can be interpreted both those in dreams and those brought about by free associations or coming from cultural and spiritual representations. Symbolism is the systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted representations of concepts or objects and the distinct relationships in between, as they define both context and the narrower definition of terms. In a narrow context, “symbolism” is the applied use of any iconic representations. On the diversity of symbolFrom the content of The Scarlet LetterThe letter “ A” totally appears about 150 times in this novel. In chapter 2: “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.” is the first time the letter appears. Then it comes out more. Especially in Chapters 5 and 8, the scarlet letter frequently appears. The letter is throughout the novel besides the Chapters 1,9 and 20. From this pinot, we can see why the novel is called The Scarlet Letter. In this novel, we can see the scarlet letter “A” is just like a magnet which connects with all the people and each setting, details. According to Puritanism, the scarlet letter symbolizes a shame, sin of Adultery. In addition, the description of the Characters makes the symbolic meanings of the letter “A” reflected to the full.Hester PrynneShe is a heroine in The Scarlet Letter. The writer gives her much symbolic meaning by giving her this name. Hester sounds like Hestier, a beautiful goddess in Greek mythology. This gives people a sense that Hester is a passionate beautiful woman. In the novel, she is the symbol of the truth and the beauty. She is the one who dares to love, to pursue her love. Her own strong will helps her to come through all the difficulties.Arthur DimmesdaleHe is one major character in this novel. He is a revered minister. From the name of Arthur Dimmesdale, people can get AD as the first letters. In this way, we can see clearly that AD is stands for Adultery .The writer tells us he is the partner of Hester obviously. The word Dimmesdale also has symbolic meanings. Dim means dark and weak, and dale means valley, so the dimdale here is actually a symbol of the dim-interior of the poor clergyman. He is the partner but her dares not admit the fact. He was hypocritical and coward.Chillingworth He is another major character in this novel. He is an ugly man who gives his best years to knowledge caring nothing for Hester. Not having any common ideology with her. His name-chillingworth, is compound with chilling and worth. Chilling means cold, and indeed, he is cold in his mind. He shows no love to his wife, not to mention others. What is worth to him? Have finding out the Arthur Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, he begins to avenge on the former. To him, avenge is the only thing which is to doing in the world.PearlShe is an illegitimate child of Hester and Arthur, The writer describes Pearl as an effective and dynamic character; she is the living symbol of the scarlet letter, acting as a constant reminder of Hesters sin. From her name “Pearl”, people can see that a pearl is a beautiful object found inside an ugly oyster. She is her mothers treasure, the source of her survival. She is just like the sunshine to her mother. Without her, Hester would have died.From the pattern of the structure of narrativeThe pattern of the structure of narrative novel itself is a symbol. In this novel, there are two main chains. AbleThe 1st: A (Adultery) AngelAdmirableThe 2 nd: Concealment Uncover At the beginning of the story, the Letter is a symbol of adultery. As the story goes, because of Hesters kindheartedness and her virtue, the letter A is becoming the symbol of “able”, “angel”, and “admirable”. Meanwhile, There is a scarlet letter inside of Arthur, when tortures him much. He is self-condemned from time to time. In the misery of 7 years, he decides not to conceal the secret anymore. The diversity of the letter “ A”The historical setting In 1920, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New world, This religious group had began to question the belief of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. Those people are so called pilgrims. The pilgrims settled in what is the state of Massachusetts. There, they developed puritanical religion. Before the 18th century, Puritans had set up the Theocratic Politics in MA. In The Scarlet Letter, life was centered with a rigid, puritanistic-structured society in which one is unable to divulge his or her innermost thoughts and secrets. Every human being needed the opportunity to express how he truly felt, or the emotion is bottled up until it becomes volatile. Unfortunately, Puritan society did not permit this expression, so people had to seek alternate means in order to relieve themselves. Luckily, at least for the four main characters, Hawthorne provides such a sanctuary in the form of the mysterious forest.The gist of The Scarlet LetterIn the early 1600s, in Boston, a young woman named Hester Prynne was found to be guilty of adultery. Because of this crime, she was forced to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. She also had to stand on the stocks for three hours with her baby in her arms so all the people could see her shame. Some people said she would have been condemned to death if the kind Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale hadnt spoken on her behalf. As she stood on the platform, a strange-looking man came out of the nearby forest. Hester appeared upset, and the man put his finger to his lips as a sign of silence. Hester was known in the community to be from a good family in Antwerp, Belgium. She had married an old scholar and had been sent by him to the New World. Her husband was to follow shortly, but his ship was lost at sea. She had lived quietly in Boston until the time of this disgrace. Now, standing on the stocks, the local dignitaries called on her to name the man who shared her guilt. Reverend Dimmesdale spoke to her the most about this. Nevertheless, she refused. She was taken back to prison. In prison, Hester became very disturbed. A call sent out for a doctor, and a man who called himself Roger Chillingworth came forth. He told the jailer hed just arrived in town after living with Indians for a year. He was the one Hester had seen while she stood on the scaffold, and she found out the man was her missing husband. He wanted Hester to speak out the name of the childs father, but she refused. He swore hed found out something for himself, and he asked her not to reveal that he was her husband. She agreed. Hester finally settled down with her daughter in a small cottage near the town. She called the little girl Pearl, and she dressed her colorfully. She earned her living doing needlework, and always she wore the A on her breast. Pearl was a spry and lively child, and some church members wanted to take her away from Hester, whom they saw as an unfit mother. When Hester went to the governor to ask him to help her keep Pearl, Reverend Dimmesdale spoke on her behalf. The governor agreed to let them stay together.Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were living in the same boarding house, and they became very close. As Chillingworth got to know the Reverend better, he discovered that the Reverend suffered greatly from guilt. Most people thought the Reverend was only being righteous, but Chillingworth suspected that Dimmesdale himself might be Pearls father.One night Dimmesdale couldnt sleep, so he went for a walk. When he got to the stocks, he climbed up to find out what it felt like. Just then Hester and Pearl walked by, and the Reverend called them to join him. When all three stood there, Dimmesdale cried out in shame that he was indeed Pearls father. Chillingworth, in the shadows, watched the entire scene. Hester recognized that Dimmesdale was very sick, and she believed that Chillingworth was driving him ever deeper into ill health. When she encountered her former husband in the forest, she begged him to leave the Reverend alone. He refused, so she told him shed tell Dimmesdale of her relationship with Chillingworth. When she did this, Dimmesdale made plans with her to leave the colony together, with Pearl, in secret. They would leave in four days and would return to Europe. The day they were to sail, Hester learned that Chillingworth had also made plans to leave and would, in fact, be on the same ship. Hester was filled with despair. After the Reverend gave what would be his final sermon, he weakly left the church with others of his congregation. They proceeded down the street until they approached Hester and Pearl, who were standing near the stocks. Dimmesdale then took them by the hands and climbed upon the scaffold. There he confessed all in front of the entire town, and h