The Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s unique gift was for the creation of strongly symbolic stories which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. The finest example is the recreation of The Scarlet Letter. It is a representative one of his ideal and artistic style and is regarded as the first American symbolic fiction and is one of the few books that is remarkable, because it deals with alienation, sin, punishment, and guilt, or the emotions that will continue to be felt by every generation. The scarlet letter “A”, which covers through the whole novel, was given a variety of symbolic meanings. He expressed his feelings, emotions, will and concept through the scarlet letter” A”, some natural scenery, and some of the major characters. The use of symbolism gives romantic thoughts and great subjective ideals to readers. This paper researches the symbolism in the novel from the following aspects: the changing symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter “A”, the colors, prison, the forest, the names of the major characters described in the novel to make the symbolism clear to the reader.

Key words: The Scarlet Letter, symbolism, sin

摘要

霍桑创作象征主义小说的独特天赋触及人类的道德的最深根源，其代表作是《红字》。 它也是最能代表其思想和艺术风格的杰出作品，被视为美国第一部象征主义小说。它是少数卓有建树的作品之一，因为它涉及疏远，罪恶，惩罚及内疚，或是那种使一代一代人们所感受的感情。在《红字》中那个牵动着读者内心的鲜红字母“A”贯穿全篇，并被作家赋予了丰富的象征涵义。霍桑通过鲜红的字母“A”，通过大自然中的一些景象，表达出了自己的某些感觉、情思、意志和观念，使作品充满了丰富的浪漫主义想象和强烈的主观色彩。本文主要从以下几方面研究《红字》中的象征主义: 红色字母A、颜色、监狱、森林的象征意义在文中做出阐述。

关键词: 红字 象征意义 罪恶

第二篇：呼啸山庄英文影评

If you've seen other films by Jacques Rivette, you might wonder, just as I do, what this Victorian novel adaptation was all about. If you've seen other films by this unique director - especially "Celine and Julie go boating" or newer ones like "Secret Defense" and "Histoire de Marie et Julien" - this mid-eighties try just doesn't fit.

Take the 1974 masterpiece "Celine and Julie" for comparison. In it, two very open-minded young women (both practitioners of different kinds of "magic") get tangled in a mysterious old-fashioned love triangle story, taking place in a archetypal haunted (Victorian) house. When they figure out that the 10-year old daughter of the house-owner is going to get murdered out of love madness, they decide to sneak into the house and rescue her.

The thing is, you know from the beginning that the pathetic melodrama in the haunted house is not real in the sense that Celine and Julie are. It's rather they invented the whole story just to kill time & have some fun with out-dated storytelling. It's essentially a illustration of what is called "deconstruction". The melodrama just serves as something that can be manipulated or even laughed at. Rivette (respectively, Celine and Julie) play very freely with a kind of narrative that doesn't seem to work anymore.

Unfortunately, "Hurlevent" has just the feeling of the haunted house sequences of the earlier movie - and that means, the characters are not likable, seem like marionettes, bloodless, dull. It completely lacks the light-hearted (though very intellectual) sophistication that made "Celine and Julie" so enjoyable. Maybe Rivette wanted it just like that. Even if this is so, it doesn't make sense for me.