红字a的象征意义英文

红字a的象征意义英文

【篇一：红字a的象征意义英文】

according to original work, a in fact means adultory, however, at the night when the governor dies, the

letter a appearing in the sky is regarded as angel and as hester gains a strange influence, some

people relate a with able.

【篇二：红字a的象征意义英文】

symbolism of the letter a throughout the scarlet letter a 方蒂蒂

江西农业大学 2004 届毕业生 fang didi class 2004 jiangxi

agriculture university abstract: there have been a lot of

arguments over the diversity of symbol over the past years.

however, nathaniel hawthorne is successful in employing

symbolic techniques and lays great emphasis on the diversity

of symbol. the scarlet letter written by nathaniel hawthorne is

undoubtedly been considered as his masterpiece, is praised as

one of the greatest novels and regarded as the first symbolic

novel in american literature. this novel includes many

profound and important symbols, and the author s symbolic

style has the rich flavors of emotion and conforms to no

conventional pattern. hawthorns symbolism, especially the

symbolic letter a helps make the keynote of the story clearer

and the characters to the life. the changing symbolic meanings

throughout the novel are the best expressed by the letter a .

this paper attempts to discuss the diversity of symbolism in

this novel, i.e. the changing symbolic meanings of the scarlet

letter a , and their manifestations. key words: nathaniel

hawthorne; the scarlet letter; symbols; symbolism; the

diversity 象征的多义性曾引 起过不少争议, 然而纳撒尼尔 霍桑却出色地运用了 象征主义手法和成功地突出强调了 象征的多义性. 红字

无庸质疑地被认为是霍桑最杰出 的作品, 也被赞誉为美国文学上最出

色小说, 同时也是美国第一部象征小说. 这部小说包含了 很多意味深远而且重要的象征, 作者的象征手法具有浓郁的感情色彩, 不拘于传统形式. 作者通过象征手法, 尤其是具有象征意义字母 a 使得文章主线清晰, 并且给人物注入了 生命力. 字母 a 作为最具代表的例子是其在小说中含义的变化. 本文试从红字 a 象征意义的多义性， 讨论《红字》 中的字母 a 的象征手法. : 纳撒尼尔 霍桑; 《红字》 ; 象征; 象征主义; 多义性 the introduction to nathaniel hawthorne and his

intention of writing the scarlet letter. nathaniel hawthorne was

born in an impoverished noble new england s family, the

descendent of a long line of puritan ancestors. among his

ancestors, 2 generations were big wheels in organs of power

of unite of religion and politics in colony areas. they

persecuted heterodoxy by zealot of puritan. lonely childhood

branded his personality with melancholy and taciturn. after his

father was lost at sea when he was only four, his mother

became overly protective and pushed him toward more

isolated pursuits. his childhood left him overly shy and

bookish, and molded his life as a writer. hawthorne turned to

writing after his graduation from bowdon college. though

hawthorne attacked the harmful religious zealots and stifling

religious doctrines of garvin, he viewed on the world with

religious sense of good and devil in his deep heart. he

summed up the social contradiction, which he didn t

understand and was caused by the development of capitalism

as abstract evil . as he said, the source of social evils

contradictions among individuals phenomenon of crime were

not in the material social life, but were caused by intrinsic evil

in inner world of man. so hawthorne wrote that the resolution

to social problems started with the omnipresent evil . he said

that once the internal world was purified, many sin loafing

about external world would disappear. his focusing on the

abstract evil decided his writing trend mostly. he preferred

describing trans-natural, weird, horrible scenes or dark,

unusual psychological activities in order to explore the roots

of all kinds of social hidden evil . he said himself only loyal to

the truth of heart, comprising the heart to a winding and

extending cave and the writing to driving actively in our

common human nature . so he usually analyzed a person s

psychology cutting off social conditions peeled off the evil

existing in everyone s heart layer off layer. hawthorne focused

on the problem of guilt cared for the deeper psychology and

his major novels generally dealt with sensational material, like

poisoning, murder, adultery, and crime, because he was

ambitious to explore the result of sin, the effect on human

conscience of guilt, pride, egotism, and isolation. his

exploration of the soul resulted from his skeptical attitude

toward the limited social reality that was characterized by a

rapid change in almost all aspects of social life, and from his

seclusion of thinking. the central subject of hawthorne s major

works was the human soul. according to him, there is evil in

every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps, through

the whole life; but circumstances may rouse it to activity. so in

almost every book he writes, hawthorne discusses sin and evil.

for example, in another his novel endicott and the red cross,

he describes a pretty woman also wears a scarlet letter on her

cloth. human s characters are complex and elusive and

difficult to see through. so it s no right to define the human s

character good or evil simply and cleanly. just because of the

complexity of the human character and the difference of the

standards of good and evil, these literatures are so readable

and fascinating magnetically. just because he lived in an age

when the dynamic influence of puritanism was gone and the

impact of romanticism and transcendentalism was large felt

among the intellectuals, and thus his view of man and human

history originates, to a great extent, is puritanism. the

sensibility led to his understanding of evil being at the very

core of human life, which is typical of the calvinistic belief that

human beings are basically depraved and corrupted, hence,

they should obey god to atone for their sins. just as i mention

above, in many of his stories and novels, the puritan concept

of life is condemned, or the puritan past is shown in an almost

totally negative light, especially in his the scarlet letter.

hawthorne is attracted in every way to the puritan world, even

though he condemns its less humane manifestations. in this

particular novel, hawthorne does not intend to tell a love story

nor a story of sin, but focuses his attention on the moral,

emotional, and psychological effects or consequences of the

sin on the people in general and those main characters in

particular, so as to show us the tension between society and

individuals. as a man of literary craftsmanship, hawthorne is

extraordinary. the structure and the form writings are always

carefully worked out to cater for the thematic concern. with his

special interest in the psychological aspect of human beings,

there isn t much action or physical movement going on in his

works and he is good at exploring the complexity of human

psychology. so his drama is full of mental activities. thought

propels action and grows organically out of the interaction of

the characters, as we can find in this novel. the general

introduction of symbolism just as characterization and

dialogue and plot work on the surface to move the story along,

symbolism works under the surface to tie the storys external

action to the theme. early in the development of the fictional

narrative, symbolism was often produced through allegory,

giving the literal event and its allegorical counterpart a one-to-one correspondence. symbolism operates on the level of the

unconscious. this does not mean that the author himself is

unconscious of the process of creating symbolism -- merely

that we, as readers, accept its input without really

understanding how it works. symbolism, therefore, is an

integral component of fiction, because it enriches the narrative

by pulling its message down to the level of our

unconsciousness and anchoring it there. developed in the late

19th century, symbolism is an art movement characterized by

the representation of the inner life of people through spiritual

symbols and ideas. it began as a rejection of the purely visual

realism of the impressionists, and the rationality of the

industrial age, in order to depict the symbols of ideas.

traditionally modeled pictorial depictions are replaced or

contrasted by flat mosaic-like surfaces decoratively

embellished with figures and design elements. symbolism in

literature is the deepness and hidden meaning in a piece of

work. it is often used to represent a moral or religious belief or

value. without symbolism literature is just a bunch of

meaningless words on paper. n. hawthorne successfully uses

the symbolism device in his novel and makes his novel the

scarlet letter become an immortal famous work. in the scarlet

letter he uses the concept of nature such as the jail, burdock,

pig-weed, apple-peru, wild rose, scaffold, forest etc. and four

major characters names: hester prynne, asher dingmeistale,

roger chillingworth, pearl to show symbolism. but the most

significant symbol that is shown throughout the novel is the

scarlet letter a . the letter a represents different things to each

of the characters and the town s people. this paper will focus

on the important role the letter a plays and how it changes its

meanings throughout the story. the diversity of symbol

symbol and symbolism in dictionary, a symbol is a one-term

comparison. for example, if we compare a hat to a cloud, the

cloud is the symbol replacing the hat as its perfect substitute.

as a result, symbols can be interpreted both those in dreams

and those brought about by free associations or coming from

cultural and spiritual representations. symbolism is the

systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted

representations of concepts or objects and the distinct

relationships in between, as they define both context and the

narrower definition of terms. in a narrow context, symbolism is

the applied use of any iconic representations. on the diversity

of symbol from the content of the scarlet letter the letter a

totally appears about 150 times in this novel. in chapter 2: on

the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an

elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread,

appeared the letter a. is the first time the letter appears. then it

comes out more. especially in chapters 5 and 8, the scarlet

letter frequently appears. the letter is throughout the novel

besides the chapters 1,9 and 20. from this pinot, we can see

why the novel is called the scarlet letter. in this novel, we can

see the scarlet letter a is just like a magnet which connects

with all the people and each setting, details. according to

puritanism, the scarlet letter symbolizes a shame, sin of

adultery. in addition, the description of the characters makes

the symbolic meanings of the letter a reflected to the full.

hester prynne she is a heroine in the scarlet letter. the writer

gives her much symbolic meaning by giving her this name.

hester sounds like hestier, a beautiful goddess in greek

mythology. this gives people a sense that hester is a

passionate beautiful woman. in the novel, she is the symbol of

the truth and the beauty. she is the one who dares to love, to

pursue her love. her own strong will helps her to come through

all the difficulties. arthur dimmesdale he is one major character

in this novel. he is a revered minister. from the name of arthur

dimmesdale, people can get ad as the first letters. in this way,

we can see clearly that ad is stands for adultery .the writer tells

us he is the partner of hester obviously. the word dimmesdale

also has symbolic meanings. dim means dark and weak, and

dale means valley, so the dimdale here is actually a symbol of

the dim-interior of the poor clergyman. he is the partner but

her dares not admit the fact. he was hypocritical and coward.

chillingworth he is another major character in this novel. he is

an ugly man who gives his best years to knowledge caring

nothing for hester. not having any common ideology with her.

his name-chillingworth, is compound with chilling and worth.

chilling means cold, and indeed, he is cold in his mind. he

shows no love to his wife, not to mention others. what is worth

to him? have finding out the arthur dimmesdale is the father of

pearl, he begins to avenge on the former. to him, avenge is the

only thing which is to doing in the world. pearl she is an

illegitimate child of hester and arthur, the writer describes

pearl as an effective and dynamic character; she is the living

symbol of the scarlet letter, acting as a constant reminder of

hester s sin. from her name pearl , people can see that a pearl

is a beautiful object found inside an ugly oyster. she is her

mother s treasure, the source of her survival. she is just like

the sunshine to her mother. without her, hester would have

died. from the pattern of the structure of narrative the pattern

of the structure of narrative novel itself is a symbol. in this

novel, there are two main chains. able the 1st: a (adultery)

angel admirable the 2 nd: concealment uncover at the

beginning of the story, the letter is a symbol of adultery. as the

story goes, because of hester s kindheartedness and her virtue,

the letter a is becoming the symbol of able , angel , and

admirable . meanwhile, there is a scarlet letter inside of arthur,

when tortures him much. he is self-condemned from time to

time. in the misery of 7 years, he decides not to conceal the

secret anymore. the diversity of the letter a the historical

setting in 1920, a boat filled with more than one hundred

people sailed across the atlantic ocean to settle in the new

world, this religious group had began to question the belief of

the church of england and they wanted to separate from it.

those people are so called pilgrims. the pilgrims settled in

what is the state of massachusetts. there, they developed

puritanical religion. before the 18th century, puritans had set

up the theocratic politics in ma. in the scarlet letter, life was

centered with a rigid, puritanistic-structured society in which

one is unable to divulge his or her innermost thoughts and

secrets. every human being needed the opportunity to express

how he truly felt, or the emotion is bottled up until it becomes

volatile. unfortunately, puritan society did not permit this

expression, so people had to seek alternate means in order to

relieve themselves. luckily, at least for the four main

characters, hawthorne provides such a sanctuary in the form

of the mysterious forest. the gist of the scarlet letter in the

early 1600s, in boston, a young woman named hester prynne

was found to be guilty of adultery. because of this crime, she

was forced to wear a scarlet letter a on the breast of her gown.

she also had to stand on the stocks for three hours with her

baby in her arms so all the people could see her shame. some

people said she would have been condemned to death if the

kind reverend arthur dimmesdale hadnt spoken on her behalf.

as she stood on the platform, a strange-looking man came out

of the nearby forest. hester appeared upset, and the man put

his finger to his lips as a sign of silence. hester was known in

the community to be from a good family in antwerp, belgium.

she had married an old scholar and had been sent by him to

the new world. her husband was to follow shortly, but his ship

was lost at sea. she had lived quietly in boston until the time of

this disgrace. now, standing on the stocks, the local

dignitaries called on her to name the man who shared her guilt.

reverend dimmesdale spoke to her the most about this.

nevertheless, she refused. she was taken back to prison. in

prison, hester became very disturbed. a call sent out for a

doctor, and a man who called himself roger chillingworth came

forth. he told the jailer hed just arrived in town after living with

indians for a year. he was the one hester had seen while she

stood on the scaffold, and she found out the man was her

missing husband. he wanted hester to speak out the name of

the childs father, but she refused. he swore hed found out

something for himself, and he asked her not to reveal that he

was her husband. she agreed. hester finally settled down with

her daughter in a small cottage near the town. she called the

little girl pearl, and she dressed her colorfully. she earned her

living doing needlework, and always she wore the a on her

breast. pearl was a spry and lively child, and some church

members wanted to take her away from hester, whom they saw

as an unfit mother. when hester went to the governor to ask

him to help her keep pearl, reverend dimmesdale spoke on her

behalf. the governor agreed to let them stay

ile, roger chillingworth and arthur

dimmesdale were living in the same boarding house, and they

became very close. as chillingworth got to know the reverend

better, he discovered that the reverend suffered greatly from

guilt. most people thought the reverend was only being

righteous, but chillingworth suspected that dimmesdale

himself might be pearls night dimmesdale couldnt

sleep, so he went for a walk. when he got to the stocks, he

climbed up to find out what it felt like. just then hester and

pearl walked by, and the reverend called them to join him.

when all three stood there, dimmesdale cried out in shame that

he was indeed pearls father. chillingworth, in the shadows,

watched the entire scene. hester recognized that dimmesdale

was very sick, and she believed that chillingworth was driving

him ever deeper into ill health. when she encountered her

former husband in the forest, she begged him to leave the

reverend alone. he refused, so she told him shed tell

dimmesdale of her relationship with chillingworth. when she

did this, dimmesdale made plans with her to leave the colony

together, with pearl, in secret. they would leave in four days

and would return to europe. the day they were to sail, hester

learned that chillingworth had also made plans to leave and

would, in fact, be on the same ship. hester was filled with

despair. after the reverend gave what would be his final

sermon, he weakly left the church with others of his

congregation. they proceeded down the street until they

approached hester and pearl, who were standing near the

stocks. dimmesdale then took them by the hands and climbed

upon the scaffold. there he confessed all in front of the entire

town, and he tore off his ministers band. he sank to the

platform, dying. some said they noticed a scarlet a on his

exposed breast. chillingworth also died shortly afterward, and

he left much money to pearl. hester left the colony for a while,

but years later she returned. she moved back into her cottage

and continued to wear the scarlet letter. now, however, the

letter was a symbol of her goodness rather than her shame. in

old age, she asked that the only mark on her tombstone be the

letter a. the letter a and its obvious manifestations the

symbolism of the letter a changes a lot in this novel. those

changes are significant. the following is an analysis of the

changes. adultery adultery is an original meaning of the letter

a . according to a puritan way of punishing a criminal of

adultery, the criminal should put a letter a on his/her clothes as

a sign of adultery. the puritan treatment continues, because 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. hester is ashamed of her sin, but

she decides not to show it. she is a very strong woman to be

able to hold up so well against what she must face. others may

have left this place and found some other place where no one

knows their past. she chooses to stay though, which shows a

lot of strength and integrity. she dares to accept the fact that

she made a blunder. alone and alienation the letter a also

stands for hesters lonely life in new england. after she is

released, she lives in an abandoned and remote house with her

child. every one there takes her as a pestilence, and the story

about her can be heard everywhere, every time when people

stared at the letter a on her bosom, it hurts hester. hesters

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 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. hester has no friends

in the world and no one understands her, in other words, no

body wants to make friends with her or to be close to her as

she is a woman with sin. only little pearl is the only companion

of her lonely life, so the letter a is also a symbol of the words

alone and alienate . agony agony is another symbol of the

letter a . for hester and dimmesdale, the scarlet letter stands

for agony which hester shows in her secluded life and which

dimmesdale shows in his diminishing health. the two poor

lovers can t be together even though they love each other so

much. when dimmesdale, the reverend dale is on

behalf of the reverend and the governor to persuade

hester to tell the name of the father of the child. he is looking

down steadfastly into hester s eyes and asks her to say the

name. if you 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 the fellow-suffer! heaven hath granted thee an pen

ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph

over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without . who knows

how agonal he is when he makes such a dialogue to hester?

only hester knows that he is in deep self-condemnation. hester

shows her loyalty to love: it is too deeply branded. ye cannot

take it off. and would that i might endure his agony, as well as

mine. able, angel, admirable the main and the most important

symbol of the letter a is able , angel , admirable . how does it

change the meaning into being able, angel and admirable? as

we know hester makes her living by handwork. by degrees, nor

very slowly, her handiwork became what would now be termed

the fashion her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the

governor; military men wore it on their scarf, and the minister

on his hand; it decked the baby s little cap; it was shut up, to

be mildewed and moulder away, in the coffins of the dead.

have you ever seen a woman like her? how much was she

undertaken? even a man can hardly start a new life in such a

condition. but she does a living well. she comes through all the

difficulties. hester is like a wild rose, and it braves the storm

no matter how terrible it is, rose shows us her indomitable

mind and strong life. after the storm, it blossoms a beautiful

flower. yes, she is a wild rose, she survives in the storm, and

the letter a on her bosom tells us it means able . what s more,

hester s life is a thrift one but she often helps others willingly.

none is so self-devoted as hester is. she is like an angel whom

the god send to the world. there red the embroidered letter,

which comfort in its unearthly ray the letter was the symbol of

her calling. such helpfulness was found in her- so much power

to do, and the power to sympathize-that many people refused

to interpret the scarlet letter a by its original signification. they

said that it meant able; so story was hester prynne, with a

woman s strength. the rulers, and the wise and learned men of

the community slowly recognize her virtue day by day, even

for some individuals in private life had forgiven hester prynne

for her frailty. they have begun to look upon the scarlet as the

token, not the sin. those people often say to strangers: 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! 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 townspeople soon begin

to believe that the badge serves to ward off evil, and hester

grows quite admirable amongst the people of the town. hester

overcomes the shame of her sin through the purity and g