英文题目 On the “ A ” Of the Scarlet Letter
中文题目 浅谈《红字》中的象征手法
论文类型 : 文学评论
On the “ A ” Of the Scarlet Letter
Abstract: The Scarlet Letter makes the writer National Hawthorne known all around the world .In this paper, National Hawthorne known and the type character of the
Scarlet Letter concerned in careful thinking, endow with the scarlet letter and shape, and gives a plenty of meaning for the scarlet letter. The writer uses the symbolism so skillful that it enhances the symbolism in this novel from the following aspects: the changing symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter, the names of the major characters and many objects that are described in the novel to make the symbolism clear to the readers.
Key words: The Scarlet Letter; symbolism
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Different meanings of the scarlet letter “A”:
III. The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Major Characters' Names
IV. The meaning of the Scarlet Letter
I. Introduction
The Scarlet Letter is notable for its allegory and symbolism is regarded as the first

symbolic novel in American literature. The scarlet letter not only as the title of this novel, it also as center symbols this novel. So, this paper researched it is most important. Beside, some other objects that are described in this novel have their symbolic meanings. Moreover, the names of the four major characters: Hester Prynne,
Ardimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and Pearl also have their symbolic meanings.
The scarlet letter is a novel of much symbolic.
II. Different meanings of the scarlet letter “A”:
2.1 The changes of the symbolic meaning of scarlet letter “A”:
In this novel, the scarlet letter “A” changes it's meaning many different times. This change is significant. It shows growth in the characters, and the community in which they live. The letter “A” begins as a symbol of sin. It then becomes a symbol of alone and alienation, and finally it becomes a symbol of able, angel and admirable.
2.1.1 Adultery
The letter “A” worn on Hester' bosom is a symbol of her adultery against Roger
Chillingworth.This is the Puritan way of treating her as a criminal, for the crime of adultery. The Puritan treatment continues, because as Hester walks through the street, 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 Heater feel unwanted.
“Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment…(p74)”. Hester is ashamed of her sin, but she chooses not to show it. She commits this sin in the heat of passion, and full admits it, because though she is ashamed, she also receives her greatest treasure---Pearl, out of

it. She is a very strong woman to be able to hold up so well against what she must face. Many will have fled Boston, and seek a place where no one knows of her great sin. Hester chooses to stay though which shows a lot of strength and integrity. Any woman with enough nerve to hold up against a town, which despises her very existence, and to stay in a place where her daughter is referred to as a “devil child”, either has some sort of psychological problem, or is a very tough woman. 2.1.2 Alone and Alienation
The scarlet letter “A”: also stands for Hester's lonely life in New England. After she is released, Heater 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”.(p75)Heater's social life is virtually eliminated as a result of her shameful history. Hester comes to have a part to perform in the world with her native energy of character and rare capacity.“However, there was nothing that made she 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 along 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…seems to be the sole portion that she retained in universal heart.”(P78) Hester has no friends in the world, and little Peale is the only company of her lonely life, so the scarlet letter “A” also is a symbol of the words “alone” and “alienate”.
2.1.3 Able, Admirable and Angel

Later, the scarlet letter “A” changes its meaning into being able, angel and admirable.
The townspeople who condemned her now believe the scarlet letter to stand for her ability to her beautiful needlework and for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick.“The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness is found in her so much power to do and sympathize---that many people refuses to interpret the scarlet letter “A” by its original signification.”(P148). At this point, a lot of the townspeople realize what a noble character Hester possesses.
“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 comforting to the afflicted!”(P149) The townspeople soon begin to believe that the badge served to ward off evil, and Hester grows to be quite admirable amongst the people of the town.
Hester overcomes the shame of her sin through the purity and goodness of her soul.
Unselfishly offering her time and love to those who need her most proves that she is not worthy of fate which has been dealt to her.
The three changes in the scarlet letter “A” are significant: they show the progressive possession of her 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.
3. The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Major Characters' Names:
What the scarlet letter stands for? The author never explains in detail, but making the reader understand carefully. According to traditional notion,“A” is undoable sinned mark of adultery, but he gives very colorful significance in deep level. It pervades many plots in the novel, especially; it much closely connected with four major

characters.
3.1 Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne is one of the major character in The Scarlet Letter .The writer gives her much symbolic meaning by giving her this name. Hester sounds like Heartier, Zeus' sister in Greek mythology, who is a very beautiful goddess. This gives us a sense that
Hester is a passionate beautiful woman. In this novel, she is the symbol of the truth, the goodness and the beauty. National 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 glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes…”(p50)For so many years, Hester refuses to speak out the name of her partner in sin, but takes over all the punishment by herself. Instead of running from the hostile colonists, Hester withstands their insolence and pursues a normal life. She proves her worth with her uncommon sewing skills and provides community service.
Hester's own sin gives her“sympathetic knowledge of the sin in other hearts.” Even though the people she tries to help “often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them.” She continues her services because she actually cares. At last, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as “the cross on a nun's bosom”, which is not small accomplishment.
Also, Hester is the homophone of the word haste. At first, she gets married to Roger
Pyrenean 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 love with Arthur hastily and gives birth to Pearl, for which she is condemned to wear on the breast of her gown the scarlet letter “A”, which stands for adultery. But Hester's adultery haste is nothing but a very natural thing to do. In the
Holy Bible, Adam and Eve, the very ancestors of human being, who live in the
Garden of Eden, eat the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden tricked by the serpent. After that, they begin to know good and evil, and also they begin to know sex.Adultery is nothing but the original sin of human being . God's punishment to them is just sending then forth from the Garden of Eden. But in The Scarlet Letter,
Hester is tortured physically and mentally for her sin. Hester says to Dimmesdale in the forest later,“what we did had a consecration of its own, we felt so!”(P179) In essence, their sin is no worse than Adam and Eve's. The punishment of puritan society is somehow too hard on a woman who is led by human instinct.
3.2 Arthur Dimmesdale
Arthur Dimmesdale is a well-regarded young minister, whose initial are AD, which also stands for adultery. The author obviously tells us Arthur Dimmesdale is the partner in sin of Hester by giving him this name.
The word Dimmesdale also has many symbolic meanings. Dim means dark and weak, and dale means valley, so the dim dale 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 can only show his passion for her in the forest or in darkness. His response to the sin is to lie .He stands before Hester and the rest of the town and proceeds to give a moving speech about how it would be in her and the father's best interest for her to reveal the father's name. 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”.(P63) He concedes his guilt for seven years, at the same time; he is tortured by his sin soft so many years. He punished himself by believing that he can never be redeemed. He feels that he will never been seen the same in the eyed of
God's, and that no amount of penitence can ever return him to God's good graces. He hates his hypocrisy to sin, but dares not tell the truth that he is the fellow-sinner of
Hester. When he finally decides to expose the truth and tell his follows of how he deceives them, his fixation on his sin has utterly corroded him to the point of death.
The only good that comes out of conceding his guilt is that he passes away without any secrets, for he is already too far gone to be able to be saved.
At the end of the story, the writer put the morals which press upon the readers from the poor minister's miserable experience into one sentence,“Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, If not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”(P236)
3.3 Roger Chillingworth
Roger Chillingworth,like all of Hawthorn's main characters, is complex and difficult to see through. The words “chilling” and“worth” compose the surname
Chillingworth. Chilling comes from the word “chilly ” , which means this man is a merciless avenger. He is calm in temperament, kindly, but keep evil intentions. Being a man already in decay and misshapen from his birth hour, he married Hester, a woman with youth and beauty, deluding him with the idea that intellectual gifts might

evil 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. It is he that has destroyed Hester's flower like youth, and indirectly leads to Hester's tragedy. After he discovers that his wife bore another man's child,
Roger gives up his independence. He used to be a scholar, who dedicates his best years “to feed the hunger ”dream of knowledge,“but his new allegiance becomes finding and slowly punishing the man who seduces his wife. He soon becomes obsessed with his new mission in life, and when he targets Reverend Dimmesdale as the possible parent 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 ninth keen pleasure .he searches the minister's thoughts; he causes the poor minister's dim interior gore a long time, and turns over many precious a tread, and as wary an outlook, as a theft 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 .”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 also means that the avenger's life is worthless. When he finds his wife betrays him, he dedicates all his time to seeking revenge .He gives up his identity, living with the minister and being by his side all day, every day .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 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 slithered up, shriveled away, and almost varied from mortal sightline an uprooted weed that ilea willing in the sun.”
Chillingworth dies less that a gear later because he has nothing left to live for the poor for loran creature is more wretched than his victim is ---the avenger had devoted himself.
3.4 Pearl
Pearl is one of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book, the daughter of Hester Prynne, Pearl, throughout the story, develops into a dynamic symbol -one that is always changing. Pearl was a source of many different kinds of symbolism. From being a living scarlet, to a valuable thing with high price then to the moral in this novel, She was a kind of burden yet love for Hester.
The most significant symbolic meaning of Pearl in the novel is her association 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 dress.”(p50)“ 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…(p50)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 the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom.
” (P93). 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 passionate moment.”(p93)The Bible says,“the kingdom of heaven is like merchant in search of fine pearl; On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”(Matthew13-14)
Hester named the infant “pearl”, as being of great price---purchase with all she had
---her only treasure! If Pearl had never been boom, Hester would have never been found guilty of adultery, and thus never would have had to wear that 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 and 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 permission to still keep Pearl at her side, Mistress Hibbins 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 home, and keep watch over my little Pearl .Had they taken her from me, I would willing have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man's book too, and that with mine own blood!”(P98) It is
Pearl that saves Hester from Satan's snare.
Pearl also serves as moral in this novel. The moral she is meant to teach is that Hester and Dimmesdale should fully commits their sin and then take responsibility for their sin. The first thing Pearl see in her infancy is the scarlet letter on her mother's bosom.
As a baby, she even reaches up and touches the letter, causing her mother intense

agony at the shame it generated in her. Later, she plays a game when she throws flowers at her mother and jumps around in glee every time. She hits the scarlet letter.
She also makes her own letter“A” to wear. When she finds Hester removes the scarlet letter from her chest in the forest, Pearl starts screaming and convulsing and 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 the punishment of her wrong deed. Moreover, Pearl is the person who eventually makes Dimmesdale admits his crime. She constantly asks why the minister keeps putting his hand over his heart, and figures out it is for the same reason that her mother wears the scarlet letter. Her role as a living scarlet letter is to announce to the whole world that the guilt parents are. After Dimmesdale manages to keep the mother and daughter together in the governor's hall, Pearl responses amazingly. She takes his hand and places her cheek against it. This simple gesture is full of meaning, because it implies that Pearl recognizes Dimmesdale as being connected to her. Meanwhile, Pearl's stand of urging the minister to commit his sin is firm. When Dimmedale stands on the scaffold where Hester suffered her public humiliation several years before, he meets Hester and Pearl, who have been at
Governor Winthrop's deathbed, taking measurements for a robe, he invites them to join him on the stand. When all three hold hands, Pearl asks Dimmesdale,“Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, tomorrow noontide?”(P140) Dimmesdale answers,“Not so, my child, I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day, but not tomorrow.”(P141) Pearl laughs and attempts to pull away her hand until the minister promises to tale her hand and her mother's hand at “ the great judgment

day.
” When they later meet in the forest, Hester says to Pearl, “ He loves thee, my little Pearl,
玲珑 16:13:01 and loves thy mother too. Wilt thou love him?” Pearl says ,“Doth he love us ?” Then asks, “Wilt he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?” The answer is “not now.” So when Dimmesdale impresses a kiss on her brow before they leave the forest,“Pearl broke away from her mother, and ,running to the brook, stooped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off…”(p194)At the end of the novel ,when the minister climbs up the scaffold with the help of Hester and Pearl, confessing his sin to his followers, Pearl kisses his lips.
She accepts her father finally. Pearl's role as the living scarlet letter is over, and
Dimmesdale, who finally takes responsibility for his sin, has learned the moral, which she is meant to teach.
3 The meaning of the Scarlet Letter
In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne endowed some meaning of symbol to everyone, act and scene. For example, the ugly large building, great burdock, puncture vine and poisonous weeds symbolized all evil in society. The prison symbolized “the black flower in the civilization society.” A wild rose symbolized a good nature and dauntless vitality and the fragrant heavy perfume moral flowers. The darkness, gloomy color symbolized the atmosphere of tragedy in the whole story .On the other hand, it also exemplified the human's weakness and the society's morbid state.
Hester stands for human nature, symbolized tireless pursue lovely and happy life.
Arthur is speaker in Puritanism and victim. Although, Chillgworth is learned and to

take vengeance for happy, becoming people who didn't forgive in the world. Pearl symbolized happy and future. She led a happy life when she grows up. The spring, brook, scarf, mirror, turbans, sunshine and forest all are having the meaning of symbolism.
Hester was sentenced to all life with the letter “A” on her gown to demonstrate her adultery sin. The writer had though-out methods to change the letter A, as magician making it appearance, but it is appeared, it is the felicitously best emphasized subject and strengthened the story's influence.
The title of the story named the Scarlet Letter, the plot of the story began the letter and ended the letter: On a field, Sable, the Letter, and Gules.
Symbolism is a traditional artistic form; it also is a major feature of Romanticism .As a famous writer of romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at the using of symbolism in his works. The several of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter make the novel a famous work of the world.
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