【标题】关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 【作者】向学萍
【关键词】刑台；建筑物；植物；象征主义 【指导老师】赵洪尹 翟赫 【专业】英语
【正文】
I. Introduction
A. A Brief Introduction to The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem. His ancestors were from a prestigious family. Five generations before him, John Hawthorne was one of the three Judges in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. Later, his family became poorer and poorer, and in 1808, his father died of yellow fever. When Nathaniel Hawthorne was a boy, he lived in his hometown with his mother, and meanwhile he was influenced by the atmosphere, and formed religious thought. He studied the history of the Puritans. After his graduation from Bowdon College in Maine, he started his writing career and later became a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His short stories included Twice Told Tales (1837), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). His novels included The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Marble Faun (1860).
The Scarlet Letter is a famous American novel whose author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is considered the leading American native fictionist of 19th century. The Scarlet Letter told us a story that in June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathered to witness punishment. A young woman, Hester Prynne, had been found guilty of adultery and wore a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom as a sign of sin. She refused to name the father of her litter child Pearl. As she looked out over the crowd, Hester noticed an aging, misshapen man, she recognized him as her husband, who was presumed to have died at sea. Then he chose a new name Roger Chillingworth and decided to take revenge on the child’s father. He knows that the much-admired
brilliant young clergyman Dimmesdale was the father of the litter child by chance. So Roger became intimately acquainted with him. While tormented by guilty conscience, Dimmesdale could not find courage to tell the truth publicly. Later, Hester decided to ask him to leave the town with them. Before the day they left, Dimmesdale gave his most inspired sermons, and then he climbed on the scaffold and confessed his sin, then died, Roger Chillingworth also died the same year. Many years later, Pearl lived a happy life in Europe, and Hester came back to Boston, when she died, buried near
the grave of Dimmesdale and they shared a simple tombstone. B. The Value of this Thesis
The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s most important symbolic novel. Wu Weiren held a view: “A symbol is anything that is used to represent something other than itself. In literature it is most often a concrete object that is used to represent something broader and more abstract —often a moral, religious, or philosophical concept or value.” 1 Symbols range from the most obvious and mechanical substitution of one thing for another, to massive, complex, and perplexing creations. In literature, the definition of the literary device, symbolism, can simply be defined as being the art of practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representatives. Symbolism in literature is also the deepness and hidden meaning in a piece of work. It is often used to represent a moral or religious belief or value. Symbolism is a traditional artistic form. It began as a literary movement that development from Romanticism in France in the second half of the 19th century. In the tragedy of ancient Greece or the symbolic opera in the Middle Ages in Europe, the using of symbolism in the development of literature can be found everywhere. Symbolism is also a major feature of Romanticism. Hawthorne has made one of his most distinctive and significant contributions to the growth of American fiction through his use of symbols. As a famous writer of Romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at the using of it in his work. His work The Scarlet Letter has some originality when he uses the symbolism based on carrying on his traditional art and shows its own distinguishing features. This thesis aims at the exploration of the usage of the symbolism in the novel. It mainly discusses the deep symbolic significance of the scaffold, buildings and vegetation. From the several aspects, we can clearly see that in this novel, each image towards several effects .The Scarlet Letter stems from the fact that the story is highly symbolic. In a word, although the method of symbolism is developed rather than invented by Hawthorne, his unique and systematic use of it makes him the master of this writing technique. II. The Scaffold as the Symbol
The scaffold plays an important role throughout the book. Hawthorne uses the scaffold to divide this story into three periods. Whenever the scaffold is mentioned, it is one of the three climaxes of the story.
The first scaffold scene presents the humiliation on the scaffold. Hester is alone with her little Pearl in her hands on the scaffold although her lover, Dimmesdale is in the crowd as well. But he does not tell the truth that he is that adulterer owing to his cowardness. Hester Prynne is alone confronting all the humiliation before the people of her
community: “there can be no outrage, methinks against our common
nature –whatever be the delinquencies of the individual- no outrage more flagrant that to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame.”2 No matter
how shameful you fell and willing to lower you head in order to hide the shameful expression, which is impossible. The scaffold signifies the rigor of puritanical law here.
The second scene demonstrates for his hesitation on the scaffold in chapter 12,The Minister’s Vigil:
And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in the vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain. Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud. 3
Dimmesdale has great difficulty in standing on the platform and confessing his sin. There is intense inner conflict in Dimmesdale’s mind, a struggle between his cowardness and his consciousness. He does it under in the darkness of night for no one can see him, as if he can hide his sin from God. The scaffold is a place for his penitence and acknowledgement of sin. The third scaffold scene presents the atonement on the scaffold. All conflicts in the story are resolved, including the conflict between Hester and Chillingworth, the conflict between little Pearl and her father
Dimmesdale, and Dimmesdale’s own inner conflict. Dimmesdale takes Hester and Pearl by the hands and bravely stands on the scaffold to openly confess his sin in the light of day before the crowd. The confession finally gives him a sense of peace. The scaffold is used to show unity when this is done it signifies that Dimmesdale become to triumph over his sin and accept his daughter, so there the scaffold represents a new place for soul free. From the three scenes of the scaffold, although it is the same scaffold, the time and the figures are different .The scaffold has different symbols in different scenes. When Hester and Pearl are humiliated on the scaffold, it is impossible to hide the shameful expression. The scaffold signifies the rigor of puritanical law. At the same time, Dimmesdale can not stand on the scaffold and confess his sin. One night he is alone confess his sin and search inner peace on the scaffold. The scaffold represents the
penitence and acknowledgement of sin. At the end of this story, Dimmesdale accepts Hester and his daughter in front of people, so there the scaffold represents a new place for soul free. III. Buildings as the Symbol A. Prison as a Symbol
The opening chapter introduces the image prison: “The founders of a new colony what utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.” 4 The prison serves as the symbol of “the
关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 毕业论文
