[红字]中象征手法的运用

廊坊师范学院

本科生毕业论文

题目：《红字》中象征手法的运用

姓名：马丽娜

指导教师：安晓红

系别：英语系

专业：英语教育

年级：02接本

完成时间 2004年5月20日

Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

Ma Lina

Prof: An Xiaohong

Submitted to the B.A. committee in partial

fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the English Department of Langfang Teachers College.

2004/5/20

题目：《红字》中象征手法的运用

摘要: 霍桑是一位伟大的浪漫主义小说家，同时也是19世纪美国杰出的象征主义先驱。他用三年时间完成的《红字》充满了华丽的语言和奇异的想象。作品不仅在美国而且在世界文坛都很著名。小说的主题是挖掘人性的罪恶。通过描写海丝特和丁梅斯代尔的爱情悲剧，表现了霍桑对清教徒主义和加尔文主义的反抗。为了显现主题，象征主义起了重要的作用，这也是霍桑著名的艺术特征之一。有些象征是明显的，有些是模糊的，但无论怎样，都是通过作者深思熟虑过的。如果没有象征主义，小说的主题就不会表达的如此生动感人。这篇论文主要集中于象征主义，小说围绕着红色的“A”的象征性展开描写，除了“A”，小说中的环境也有象征性。此外，四个主要人物的名字也有象征性：海丝特，丁梅斯代尔，奇林沃思，珠儿。《红字》是一部极具象征性的小说。象征手法的成功运用，使得这部作品显得隐晦、意义含糊、模棱两可，但毫无疑问，在很大程度上，也正是这一艺术表现手法的成功运用，大大增添了这部名著的神秘与魅力，使得这部小说成为霍桑的杰作，令人回味无穷。

关键词：象征；环境；模糊性

Title: Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

Abstract: Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great romantic novelist as well as distinguished forerunner of symbolism in the nineteenth century in America. With his beautiful language and fanciful imagination, he wrote his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter in three years’ efforts, which made him well-know not only in American but also in world literature .The theme of the novel is to unearth the sin and evil in human’ heart. Through the tragic love between Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne shows his rebellion against Puritanism and Calvinism. In order to display the theme, symbolism plays an important role. Some of the symbols are obvious while some obscure, but no matter what they are, they are all out of the author’s deliberate imagination .So without the symbolism, the theme of the novel cannot be expressed so vividly and impressively. This thesis mainly concentrates on symbolism. The novel revolves around one major symbol: the scarlet letter. Besides, some other environments that are described in the novel have their symbolic meanings. Moreover the names of the four major characters’: Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Pearl also have their symbolic meanings .The Scarlet Letter is a much symbolic novel. Hawthorne’s applications of symbolism dose arouse some confusion, and give the book a certain air of mystery. However have just lies in the everlasting charm of the book.

Key words: symbolism; environment; ambiguity

Contents

I. Introduction ····················································································6 II. Symbolic “A” ··················································································

1. 7

Adultery ·················································································7

2. ···············································································

Alienation8

3.Ability, Angel, Admiration ··················································8

III. Symbolic Natural Environment ·················································10

1. Prison and Scaffold ·····························································10

2. Rose-bush ·············································································10

3. Forest and Stream ································································10

4. Light and Darkness ·····························································11

IV. Symbolic Names of Characters’ ·················································12

1. Hester ····················································································12

2. Dimmesdale ·········································································13

3. Chillingworth ·······································································14

4. Pear ·······················································································15

V. Conclusion ······················································································18 Notes ····································································································19 Bibliography ·························································································20

I. Introduction

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 natural environment and symbolic four characters’ names meanings.

II. Symbolic “A”

In the novel, the scarlet capital letter “A” changes its meaning many different times, so it’s ambiguous. This change is significant. It shows growth in characters and the community in which they live. The letter “A” begins as a symbol of sin. It then becomes a symbol of solitude and alienation, and finally it becomes a symbol of the word “Able”, “Angel”, and “Admirable”.

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.” [1] 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.

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. “It had been 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.” [2] Hester’s social life is virtually eliminated as a result of her shameful history:

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 expressed, 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. [3]

Hester has no friends in the world, and little Pearl is the only companion of her lonely life, so the scarlet letter “A” is also a symbol of the words “Alone” and “Alienate”.

Later the scarlet letter “A” also stands for Hester’s ability and virtuous hearts. So the scarlet letter “A” changes its meaning into being “Able”, “Angel”, and “Admirable”. Hester is skillful in her beautiful needlework. The scarlet letter first shows her terrific skill. She stitches a large A onto her dress with gold tread, giving the letter an air of elegance. And her excellent needlework for the rich allows her to maintain a fairly lifestyle. Furthermore she tries her best to help the poor and the

sick although she is really poor too:

The letter was the symbol in her…so much power to do, and

power to sympathies…that many people refused to interpret the scarlet letter “A” by its original signification. They said that is meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength… [4]

Gradually, people begin to regard Hester as a diligent kindhearted and able woman. “Do 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 comfortable to the afflicted!” [5] Till now Hester becomes a highly respected person in puritan society by overcoming one of the harshest punishments, the scarlet letter. This object on her bosom, however, does the exact opposite of that which it was meant for. Eventually, Hester inverts all the adds against here due to her courage, pride and effort. Hester went beyond the letter of the law and did everything asked for here in order to prove that she is able. At last, Hester became quite a popular seamstress, admired all over the town of Boston for her work. Thou, the letter “A” meant “Angel” in their eyes.

The changes in The Scarlet Letter are significant. They show the progressive possession of her sin, her lonely, and her ability. Hester is a strong woman who goes through more emotional torture than that of most people go through in a lifetime.

III. Symbolic Natural Environment

In The Scarlet Letter, most of the environments that are described have many

symbolic meanings.

The novel begins with the description of the prison “wooden jail was already marked with weather stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front.” [6] The rusting iron on the prison creates an overall appearance of decay. It symbolizes “the civilization of the society.” In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold is viewed more as a place of judgment. “Meagre…was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, form such bystanders, at the scaffold.”[7] The twenty-four chapters of The Scarlet Letter are closely knitted together by means of the scaffold scenes that appear three times, almost symmetrically, in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the book, each time bringing the four major characters. (Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Pearl) Indeed, the prison and the scaffold are the symbols for the puritanical severity of law. It shows the rigorous enforcement of law and the inability to break free of them.

In the first chapter, “on one side of the portal, and roots almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush…in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.”[8] The rosebush is a symbol of passion. Hester’s sin is one kind of passion, thus her crime is linked to the image of the rosebush. The rosebush in full bloom indicates that Hester is at the peak of the passion. And Hawthorne comments that the rosebush may serve as a “moral blossom.” Compared to the child Pearl.

It is in the forest that Hester and Dimmesdale had met for several times, so the forest also has its symbolic meaning. The forest represents love or the wildness where the strict morals of the puritan community cannot apply. Thus Hester always meets with Arthur and later she makes her home on the outskirts of the city, directly

on the edge of the woods. It shows that Hester does not live under the strict puritanical moral code, but rather tries to live in a place of limbo between the moral and the immoral universe simultaneously. The stream in the forest also has its special meaning. In the chapter nineteen, Pearl refuses to cross the stream on the other side of the boundary, even though her parents think they can run away. “I have a strange fancy, that this brook is the boundary between two worlds, and that thou canst never meet thy Pearl again.”[9] This brook is the boundary of two world—the child and the parents; And it shows that the two lovers an never really meet their daughter.

As the author mentioned earlier, The Scarlet Letter is pervaded with symbolism. Some prominent and complex symbols have already been revealed. However the novel also revolves around two other major symbols: light and darkness and the scarlet letter A!

The novel is filled with light and darkness symbols because they represent the most common battle of all time, good versus evil. When Hester and her daughter are walking in the forest, Pearl exclaims: “Mother, the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. Now See! There it is, playing a good way off. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet.”[10] At that time Hester tries to stretch her hand into the circle of light, but the sunshine vanishes. This short scene actually represents Hester’s daily struggle in her life. The light represents what Hester wants to be, which is pure. The movement of the light represents Hester’s constant denial of acceptance. Hester’s lack of surprise and quick suggestion to go into the forest, where is dark, shows that she never expected to be admitted and is resigned to her station in life.

Another way light and darkness is used in symbolism is in the way Hester and Dimmesdale’s plan to escape is doomed. Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the shadows of the forest with a gloomy sky and a threatening storm overhead when they discuss their plans for the future. The gloomy weather and shadows exemplify the fact that they can’t get away from the repressive force of their sins. It is later proven when Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold, instead of leaving with Hester and going to England. A final example occurs in the fact that Hester and Dimmesdale cannot acknowledge their love in front of others. When they meet in the woods, they feel that: “No golden light had ever been so precious as the gloomy of this dark forest.”[11] This emotion foretells that they will never get together openly because their sin has separated them far from normal life.

IV. Symbolic Names of Characters’

In pursuit of symbolism, Hawthorne is deliberate to choose Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Pearl as the four main characters’ names.

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”[12] 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.

Dimmesdale, Hester’s secret lover and Chillingworth’s victim, is a well-regarded young minister in puritan prey’s mind. Arthur Dimmesdale’s initials are AD, which also stands for adultery. The author obviously tells us Arthur Dimmesdale is the partner in sin of Hester Prynne by giving him this name. The word Dimmesdale also had many symbolic meaning. “Dim” means obscure, unclearly seen, and “dale” means valley. He loves Hester deeply, and he is the father of Pearl, but he can only love her in the darkness of woods, and hide his guilt in the darkness of his heart. Though he never actually says that he is not the other partner, he implies it by talking of the father in third person, such as: “if thou feelest it to be for thy soul’s peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be

made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer.”[13] In his whole life, he endures the guilt with unbearable pain but dare not speak out the truth and stand together with Hester to confess their sin. As Dimmesdale cannot confess his sin and afraid lose the love and admiration of his parishioners, his life’s work has been dedicated to God, and now his sin has tainted it. He feels that he is a fraud and is not fit to lead the people of the town to salvation. Dimmesdale punishes himself by believing that he can never be redeemed. He feels that he will never been seen the same in the eyes of God, and that no mount of repentance can ever return him to God’s good graces. He hates his hypocrisy to sin, at the same time he has tortured by his sin for so many years. Finally, he admits that he committed adultery with Hester and that Pearl is his daughter. After it is done, he dies in Hester’s arms, freed from the debilitating burden of his secret. Dimmesdale undergoes the tragic experience of physical and spiritual disintegration. He dies as an honest man, but dies in part of his own hand. Dimmesdale with his hand continually over his heart is the living embodiment of a guilty conscience. The only good that comes out of conceding his guilt is that he passes away without any secrets.

Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, like the two other main characters, he is both a victim and a sinner. The word “chilling” and “worth” compose the surname Chillingworth. Every time Chillingworth appears, he often gives the impression: chilling, cold, unbearable. According to those, the author tells us this man is a merciless avenger. He commits the unpardonable sin—the violation of the human heart. After he discovers that his wife bore another man’s child, Chillingworth gives up his independence. He used to be a scholar who dedicated his best years to “feed the hungry dream of knowledge” but his new allegiance

becomes finding and slowly punishing the man who seduced his wife. He soon becomes obsessed with his new mission in life. Once he targeted Reverend Dimmesdale as the possible parent, he disguises himself as one trust friend of the minister, attaching himself to him as a parishioner. In seven years, he digs into the minister’s heart with keen pleasure. He searches the minister’s thoughts. “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 purse to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eyes.”[14] When he finally found the scarlet letter “A” on the bosom of the minister, he busted out a ghastly rapture, when he does these; he is turning from a victim to a sinner.

Chillingworth also means that the avenger’s life is worthless. Vengeance is also one of the reasons that Chillingworth gives up his identity. He lives with Dimmesdale and by his side all day, every day. In order to seek revenge, his largest sacrifice is by far, his own life. After spending so much time dwelling on his revenge, Chillingworth forgets that he still has a chance to lead a life of his own. So according, after Dimmesdale reveals his secret to the world, Chillingworth dies less than a year later because he has nothing left to live for. Chillingworth’s life depends on Dimmesdale’s.

Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, is one of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the novel. Pearl, throughout the story, develops into a dynamic symbol—one that is always changing. Pearl was a source of many different kinds of symbolism. She changes from being a living scarlet letter, to a valuable thing with high price, then to the moral in this novel. She is a kind of burden, yet live for Hester. Besides, Pearl is a child of nature, a rosebush and

sunshine.

Initially, Pearl symbolizes the shame of Hester’s punishment for adultery. Then as Pearl grows older, she symbolizes the decimation of Hester’s life and mental state by harassing her mother over the letter A that embroidered on her dress. Although Hester has so much trouble with Pearl, she still treats Pearl as her only treasure. Without Pearl, Hester will feel no joy in her life. In another aspect, Pearl symbolizes God’s way of punishing Hester for adultery and is the readable letter A. If Pearl had never been born, Hester would have never been found guilty of adultery. “She is my happiness! She is my torture; nonetheless Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too!”[15] Pearl is her burden, but Hester loves she deeply. So Pearl is not only her mother’s only treasure, she also her mother’s only source of survival.

Pearl also serves as moral in this novel, the moral she is meant to teach is that Hester and Dimmesdale should fully confess their sin and then take responsibility for their sin. The first thing Pearl sees in her infancy is the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom. As a baby, she even reaches up and touches the letter. That causes her mother intense agony. Later, she plays a game she throws flowers at her mother. When she sees the flowers hit the scarlet letter, she jumps around in glee. She also makes her own letter “A” to wear. Finding that Hester removes the scarlet letter from her chest in the forest, Pearl begins to scream and convulse, and then refuses to cross the stream until Hester reattaches the letter. She is really a constant mental and physical reminder to Hester of what she has done wrong. With Pearl at her side, Hester will never escape from the punishment of her wrong deed.

Pearl is also a symbol of rosebush. Being from nature she is familiar with nature’s trees and flowers with her innermost feeling. Several times, the author

notes the red rosebush. The rosebush first shows up while describing the terrible prison door, “on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush.”[16] At the governor’s hall, there is also the description of the red rosebush. Pearl refuses to answer clergyman Wilson’s question but declares that: “she had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by prison-door.”[17] Here Pearl is described as a rosebush, which is lawless, proud and unyielding. Pearl is the flower of prison. She symbolizes freedom under the high pressure of society. Pearl is also sunshine, which is the source of life, so in Pearl’s nature, there is nothing but this eternal energy that makes her so impressive. This is just what author wants to bestow on Pearl.

V. Conclusion

In closing, one of the most important reasons that The Scarlet Letter is so well known is the way Hawthorne leaves the novel open to be interpreted several different ways by his abundant use of symbolism. This background, together with a believable plot, convincing characterization, and important literary devices enable Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter develop the theme of the heart as a prison. Hawthorne describes the purpose of the novel when he says: “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worse, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”[18] The theme is beneficial because it can be put into term in today’s world. The Scarlet Letter is one of the few books that will be timeless, because it deals with alienation, sin, punishment, and guilt, emotions that will continue to be felt by every generation to come. At the same time, through the tragic love between Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne gives us the deep meaningful lesson: marriage should be based on pure love with aim to make both

men and women feel happy in their relationship. So Hawthorne is no doubt a quite famous symbolism. In The Scarlet Letter, the abundant and unique symbolism has a great influence on the theme of the novel. This eventually leads to different interpretations of the novel, which though sometimes caused differently to the reader, helps a lot in making this novel. Hawthorne’s masterpiece and a rewarding work to read even today. Hopefully, this thesis will help, to some extent, some confused readers of The Scarlet Letter to develop a better understanding of Hawthorne’s novel.

(4241words)

Notes

1.王惠君，王惠玲译. 红字（英汉对照全译）（奎屯：伊犁人民出版社，2001）54.

2. Ibid. 54.

3. Ibid. 60.

4. Ibid. 186.

5. Ibid. 188.

6. Ibid. 1.

7. Ibid. 4.

8. Ibid. 2.

9. Ibid. 265.

10. Ibid. 222.

11. Ibid. 243.

12. Ibid. 10.

13. Ibid. 33.

14. Ibid. 43.

15. Ibid. 134.

16. Ibid. 105.

17. Ibid. 104.

18. Ibid. 173.

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