《紅字》的象征意義--

1、【標(biāo)題】紅字的象征意義【作者】王增歡【關(guān)鍵詞】象征主義；紅字a；主要人物；場(chǎng)景【指導(dǎo)老師】賈艷娜【專業(yè)】英語【正文】i introductionnathaniel hawthrone was born in salem in 1804. his father, a sea captain, died of yel1ow fever in dutchguinna, when he was only four years old his mother was so sad that she kept herself in her bedroom and rarely came out during

2、 her remaining years. the boy and his sister lived in almost complete isolation from their mother and from each other few years later, he left salem and entered bowdoin col lege. after graduating from the college, he returned to his home tow n where he 1 i ved in sol i tude from 1825 to 1836.there w

3、as little in his own actual experiences to serve as literary material, so he gathered his material by observing and listening to others. he listened to all works of people, such as, old sailors on the docks, famers from the town, men clustered in taverns, and the old wives of the town at the market.

4、 coversions wi th these peopl e provi ded him wi th rich material s for his 1 at er literary creation. however, he realized that these materials were not enough for the creation of great 1 iterary works, and the soi 1 of this ground could not provide him with new materials, so he left his home to wn

5、. for a time in the 1830s, he edited a magazine in boston, and later worked at he customs office. then he 1 ived for a few mouths at brook farm, where some remarkable people gathered. this expericence provided the material for his later novel the blithedale romancein 1841 he married sophia peabody a

6、nd lived in the house called the old manse, where he created the great story cal 1ed mosses from an old manse. besides the customs office position in boston, he also accepted political appointments. these expericences also provided him with background to create novels, for example the marble faun. a

7、 chango of administration liberated him to write the scarlet letter. it is generally considered to be hawthrone，s best work and the use of symbolism reaches the summit in this novel< it has strong appeal until today and it is one of the enduring masterpieces in american literaturethe scarlet lett

8、er concerns the sin of adultery and the moral, emotional, and psychological effects of the sin on the mind of the people in general and those main characters in paticular. hester prynne, the heroine, wasfound guilty of adultery. she was publicly exposed on the scaffold and condemncd to wear the scar

9、let letter “a” , which stood for adultery, on the breast of her gown throughout her lifetime however, she refused to reveal the adulterer, minister dimmesdale. hester prynne， s husband chillingworth concealed his true identity to investigate minister dimmesdale. when he found that dimmcsdale was the

10、 adulterer, he made up a cruel plan of revenge-to torture the minister mentally till his death. after the punishment, hester pryrrne lived a solitude life for seven years, at last she agained a new life. minister dimmesdale suffered from the physical and spiritual torture because he concealed his gu

11、ilt. at last, he stepped on the scaffold and revealed his guilt and died of double sufferingthe scarlet letter is the finest example to show hawihrone， s unique gift for the creation of str on gl y symbol ic stories which touch the deepest roots of mar/ s moral nature- by the description of the char

12、acters' ideological conflicts and life experiences to discuss the problem of social evils. by the description of the tragic love story of the hero and the heroine to show the destruction of human mind and the oppression of human nature made by the religion. it reflects the darkness of the purita

13、n colonial rule.tl different meanings of the searlet letter “a”symbolism is a literary device with which the authors can indirectly expresss their thought and feeling by virtue of con crete images or objects, such as color, sound, plant, animal and so on. the scarlet letter “a" is the biggest s

14、ymbol of all. as a key to the whole novel, the letter "a” takes on different layers of symbol ic meanings as the plot develops. at first it is a token of shameful adultery, then it has been changed into aloneness and alienation, and at last it signifies able, angelic, and admirable qualities pe

15、ople come up with different interpretations and they do not know which one is definite. the scarlet letter "a” is ambiguous and ambiguity is one of the prominent characteristics of hawthrone' s art.a. adulteryat first, hester prynne wears the scarlet “a” on her breast for her betrayal of he

16、r hushand. it is a puritanical way to treat a woman who is disloyal to her husband. the scarlet letter "a” on her breast is a token of shame and makes hester feels unwanted. when hester walks through the streets, all the people are far away from her and look down upon her as if she is some sort

17、 of demon from hell that has commited a terrible crime. people often say some words that hurt hester deeply, such as, one female cries:“ this woman has brought shame upon us al i, and ought to die isthere not 1 aw for it?” 1 hester, who is brave to go after happiness, is regarded as a floozy. people

18、 in the town let her to suffer the shame of the scarlet letter “a” through her lifetime it means that she is not a true woman in the eye of the people but a unforgiving evil and an endless agony.the scarlet letter "a” signifiesevil, and the evil "a” brings a deep brand and a heavy burden t

19、o hester. "tt is too deeply branded. ye cannot take it off. and would that i might endure his agony, as well as mine! v 2 to her the scarlet letter “a” on her breast is a exposed crime. but hester chooses to face what she should face not to flee from bos to n and seek a place where nobody knows

20、 of her sin. she shows a lot of strenghth and interity. when hester has a chat with her lover in the woods, youth, vigor, and beauty come back to her if the scarlet letter “a” departures from her breast however, she will feel unnamed depressed and strong upset when she wears the scarlet letter "

21、;a” again. even the childish children regard her as a heteromorphism, a disaster, a shame.b. aloneness and alienationthe scarlet letter "a” , which means adultery at the beginning of the story, stands for different things with the development of the plot when hester， s term of imprisonment was

22、over, she does not flee but on the outskirts of the town finds a smal1 house, "which 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 al ready m

23、arked the habits of the emigra nts. " 3 hester and her daughter, pearl, are isolated from the people and have no social 1 ife. she and pearl are excluded from the people and abandoned by the society. people often laugh at them indifferently:there was nothing that make her feel as if she belonge

24、d to it. every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came to contact, impl ied, 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 huamn kind s

25、he stood apart from moral interetsseemed to be the sole portion that she retained in the universal heart. 4she lives a very lonely life, and she has no friends in the world< “l(fā)onely as was hester" s situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she, however, incurred ev

26、er, no risk of want. ” 5 pearl is her only spiritual support. in order to get rid of the shameful token, hester silently suffers from the inhuman treatment, careful 1y raises the social foundling in the abandoned corner.c ability, angelic and admirable qualitiesthe scarlet letter “a” on hester"

27、 s breast stimulates her to repent earlier, and makes her remember her sin. and al so the "a” gives her a lot of hope for future and strengthen her belief in the pursui t of ture love. in order to raise hester, she has to look for a way to make a living. so she gives much of her attention to ne

28、edlework. she sows for the rich and make some pure and no ble money, now she can support a susta in able and st able 1 ife. her needle work is very del icate"by degrees, nor very slowly, herhandiwork became what would now be termed the fashion. ” 6hester is kind, helpful, and diligent. although

29、 she is poor, she tries her best to help the poor, to care paticnts, to help others look after chi ldren. hester delicates herself to help others, she always appears in the places where people most need help, then she 1 eaves quietly day after day during the seven years. “ such helpness was found in

30、 her-so much power to do and power to sympathise-that many people rafused to interpret the scarlet “a” by its original signification. they said that it meant able; so strong was hester prynne, with a woman' s strength. ” 7 it seems that people have already forgotten the relationship between a an

31、d aduitery.people tend to accociate “a” with ability and angelic quality. hester never feels lonely, she wins the appreciation from the people she is not only the able woman who always helps others but also an angel who gives support to others in their spirit and soul. "do you see that woman wi

32、th the embroidered badge? tt is our hester-the town，s own hester-who is so kind to the poor, so beautiful to the sick, so comforting to the afflicted! ” 8 the badge is not the symbol of sin, and hester grows to be quite admirable among the people of the townthe three changes of the symbolic meanings

33、 of the scarlet letter “a” are important: they show the progressive possession of her sin, her ion el y life, and her ability< in the whole story the fate of the characters is deeply associated with the “a” the dimness of the symbolism and paradox give a lot of space to think for readersiii. the

34、symbolic meanings of the four main characters' namesnathaniel hawthrone is a romantic novel ist, whose works are filled wi th rich imagination and strong subjective colors. in the preface of the house of the seven gables, he claims that his novels are not in the pursuit of the trueness that the

35、details are loyal to the ture life, but in the pursuit of the trueness that details are loyal to the human heart. therefore, the characters he moul ded are not very much abundant and compl ex, but they often imply profound symbolic meanings< the majors characters in the scarlet letter have diffcr

36、ent symbolic meaningsa. hester prynnehester prynne is the heroine of the novel. she is found gui1ty at the beginning of the story and is completely excluded from the community. however, she insists on the struggle against the fate and gradually she wins back acceptance and respect from the villagers

37、 by honest and hard work, and her warm helps to others as a di 1 igent, brave, and unbcnding woman, she is once a sinner and later turns to be a figure with high virtue.the word hester has two meanings, at first the reader tend to associate her with zeus' s sister hestier, who is a very beautifu

38、l goddess working at a fireplace this gives us a sense that hester is a passionate beautiful woman in nathaniel hawthrone，s discription, “the young woman was tall, a figure of perfect eleganee on a large scale. she had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a glearn, a

39、nd a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes ” 9 and fire implies a sense of warmth, which is the purpose of hawthrone to name the heroine. hester often gives warmth to people aro

40、und her. she makes a living by needlework, and raise pearl by herself- even though she always makes every effort to help the poor and the people who needhelp "hester' s nature showed itself warm and rich; a well-spring of human t enderness, unfailing to every real demand, and in exhaustible

41、 by the largeest. ” 10 she adds much warmth to the cold society. second hester sounds very much like hastier, which makes the reader confused. of course, hester" s love is hasty. she marries an old scholar who cannot satisfy her love in her young age whon she meets arthur dimmesdale, a young mi

42、nister, she fal 1 s in love with him immediately. woman is more prudent than man in the matter of sex from both moral standards and psychological viewpoint, however, hester is more hastier than dinimesdale. so far the implied meanings of hester make us confused about hawthrone' s purpose of crea

43、tion on the one hand, he wants to tel 1 us that hester is a woman who can give people much warmth, on the other hand he thinks that her behaviour is hasty prynne has three meanings: first prynne is simi1 ar to prurient inpronunciation. hester" s old and weak husband can not give the love that d

44、iinniesdale gives to her. it is the reason that hester falls in love with dimmcsdale indiscreet 1y thus she commit a crime of adultery. when people find her sin, she is punished to wear the scarlet letter "a” on her breast. hawthrone uses the pryrrne which is simi1 ar to prurient in pronunciati

45、on to show the root of hester" s lifetime suffering. second prynne is similar to prune in pronunciation. by using this name hawthrone points the reason of the crime that hester commits. more imprtantly, hawthrone bel i ves that hester can stand up again in future. afer re leas ing, hester never

46、 abandon herself and look down upon herself, but bravely face the cold society, actively harmonize her with the community, and zealously immerses in the cold society she makes a living by sewing, raise pearl, and help others. at last, she wins back the acceptance and respect from the community. last

47、 the first syllable of prynne means pry. the author tries to pry into the evi 1 side of human through hester，s life. hester is always thinking about her sin during her iongly life, at the same time she realizes that “ there is evil in every human heart, which may remain latent under the cover of the

48、 pure appearanee. ” 11therefore it is the theme of the novel to reveal the evi 1 of humaru all in al 1, the name prynne hester i s endowed wi th abundant symbol i c meanings, and strengthens the theme of the novel-b. arthur dimmesdalethe hero, dimmesdale, is a young minister readers cannot help asso

49、ciatig arthur with adam who committed original sin. arthur dimmesdale the initial 1 etters are ad, which is the initial 1 etter of adultery. dimmesdale is a sinner who commits the adultery. although he is a minister, he is still a human, and cannot resist the temptation of natural instinct of human

50、he loves hester deeply, but he can only show his passion for her in the forest or in darkness. he is conquered by the tempation.the word dimmesdale also has many symbolicmeanings“dim” moans"dark and weakn and "dale”means "valley” in hawthrone? s eyes, dimmesdale commits an unforgivabl

51、e crime, which is the reason of his tragedy 51 ike hester, he conceals this sin in his heart and suffers. he internalies his guiit for seven years; at the same time, he is constantly tortured by his sin. he punishes himself by believing that he can never be redeemed. he hates his hypocrisy toward si

52、n, but dares not to tel 1 the truth that he is the fel lows in ner of hester. when hester gradual ly wins back acceptence, he is stepping to death. the death is caused by himself.at the end of the novel, the writer puts the morals which press upon readers while observing the poor minister" s mi

53、serable experience into one sontence, ” be true! be true! be true! show freely to the world, if not worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inf erred! ” 12 what hawthr one int ends to show is that honesty, directly facing one" s own fault, and social communication are the best principles

54、 for one to survive in the society. c roger chillingworthroger chi 1 lin gworth, hester pr ynne，s husba nd, is a nan tagonist, a scholar, a symbol of wisdom he is a sinner who commits an unforgiving crime and leads a ionely life. roger i s si milar to rogue in pronunciation. tn the novel, he is also

55、 an immoral man. although he knows that he cannot satisfy hester" love, he still marries her and destorys her youth, which cause the tragedy the the word roger makes us remember jolly rogeran avenging pirate. chill ingworth al so wants to revenge whe n he knows his wife commi ts adultery. alt h

56、ough he does t love his young beautiful wife, he still tries his bes t to find out that man. he discovers that dimmesdale is the adulterer, so he pretcnds to be a doctor to draw near to dimmesdale and constantly torture him.his name chillingworth consists of two parts: chilling and worth. chi 1 ling

57、 evolves from chi 1ly, which implies chi 1lingworth' s coldbloodedness- he tortures dimmesdale for seven years to collapses- during the seven years, chillingworth hands his soul to the demon. his life becomes meaningless and "all his strength and energy-al1 his vital and intellectual force

58、seemed at once to desert him; in so much that he positively withered up, shriveled away, and almost varied from mortal sight, 1 ike an unprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun” 13 after his enemy" s death. and he dies a year later with nothing left to live for worth moans there is some worth

59、while quality in his character he induces dimmesdale to tell the truth, during which progress he reveals the hypocrisy of religion. all in al 1, the chill ingworth impl ies mul tiful symbol i c meanings, such as immoral, coldblooded, and revengeful. these symbolic meanings enrichs the image of the c

60、haracterd. pearlpearl, the daughter of lies ter and dimmesdale, is the only sunshiny charac ter in the novel. first, the word pearl comes from the bible which means "very precious objects" the bible says, “the kingdom sends a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it ” 14 h