On-the-Symbolism-in-The-Scarlet-Letter--论《红字》中的象征主义.doc

1． 论文采用A4复印纸单面打印。上、下、右边距为25mm；左边距为30mm，其中10mm供装订。

本科生毕业论文二号，宋体

On the Symbolism in汉语和英文的题目拐行时都要考虑意群，按意群拐行。英文不宜超过10个单词，汉字不宜超过15个。
The Scarlet Letter英语书名斜体
一号字，加粗，Times New Roman

论《红字》中的象征主义一号，宋体，加粗

姓　　名
梨花
学　　号
[在此处键入学号]
专　　业
[在此处键入专业名称]
指导教师
[在此处键入指导教师姓名和职称]

2016年5月20日

On the Symbolism in
The Scarlet Letter一号，Times New Roman，加粗
英语书名斜体

A Thesis Submitted to
School of Foreign Languages of
Henan University of Economics and Law in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Bachelor of Arts小三，Times New Roman

By
XXX论文作者名字，拼音，不用汉语

Supervisor: XXX导师名字，拼音，不用汉语

May 20, 2016

Abstract二号，Times New Roman， 加粗
摘要应反映论文全貌（包括研究课题的内容、方法、观点及所取得的成果和结论。

The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s most important symbolic novel, which is the best work of Hawthorne and one of the indubitable masterpieces of American Literature. And it is this novel that makes Nathaniel Hawthorne known all around the world. This thesis studies the symbolism that is so skillfully in the usage of this novel. It enhances the artistic effects of his work greatly. In The Scarlet Letter, symbolism runs through the whole novel. The most important symbol is the scarlet letter itself. Not only does “A” manifest in various forms, but also it has changing meanings from “adultery” to “able”, even “angelic” in the novel. Besides, the name of the four major characters in the novel: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and Pearl also have their own symbolic meanings. Some other objects and natural surroundings that are described in the novel such as the jail, the forest, the rose bush and so on are all endowed with a deep symbolic significance. The author of the thesis will explore the usage of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter from the three aspects mentioned above and analyze Hawthorne’s skillful use of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter英文摘要350单词左右
.

Key关键词与摘要之间空一行。
Words: the scarlet letter；symbolism；Hester Prynne；Pearl关键词之间使用分号，以3-5个为宜，不得少于3个。

（在正文之前使用小写罗马数字页码）

摘 要二号，宋体，加粗

长篇小说《红字》是霍桑重要的象征主义代表作品，无疑也是美国文学浪漫主义时期最著名的作品之一。也正是这部巨著使得霍桑誉满全球。
本文主要研究在这部作品中的象征主义手法，及通过象征主义如何加强作品的艺术效果。整篇作品象征主义手法贯穿始终。其中，最重要的要数红字“A”本身的象征意义。它不仅以各种各样的形式出现，并且其象征意义不断变化，从“通奸”到“有能力的”甚至“天使般的”。此外，本文还研究了小说中四个主要角色：海丝特,丁梅斯代尔，齐灵沃斯,珠儿也都有其各自的象征意义。小说中描述的景物和场景，例如监狱、森林、玫瑰花园等等也都寓意深刻。本文正是从以上这几个方面着手，探究作者在小说《红字》中对象征主义手法的巧妙运用中文摘要400字左右
。

关键词: 红字；象征；海丝特·普琳；珍珠

Acknowledgement三号，Times New Roman,加粗
s

This thesis is the product of the author and the supervisor’s three months of efforts. It has been repeatedly revised under the guidance of Professor XXX. It was the joint efforts of both the author and the teachers in Foreign Languages Department. The author指论文的作者，不能用I， we
would like to express his/her男生用he, 女生用she.
heartfelt thanks to Professor XXX and the teachers who have helped him/her in the process of the thesis writing. The author will also give his/her thanks to his/her classmates and friends who have helped him/her revise the thesis. Last but not least, the author will give his/her heartfelt thanks to his/her parents who have always been supporting and encouraging him/her.

Contents小二，Times New Roman， 加粗

Introduction 1
1 Various Symbolic Meanings of the Scarlet Letter “A” 3
1.1 The Change of the Symbolic Meanings of the Scarlet Letter “A” 3
1.1.1 Adultery 3
1.1.2 Aloneness and Alienation 4
1.1.3 The Able, Admirable and Angel 4
1.2 The Scarlet Letter and the Strictness of Puritan Society 5
2 The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Main Characters 5
2.1 Hester Prynne 5
2.2 Arthur Dimmesdale 6
2.3 Roger Chillingworth 7
2.4 Pearl 9
3 The Symbolic Meanings of the Objects in the Novel 11
3.1 The Light and the Darkness………………..………………… ……………….12
3.2 The Prison and the Rose Bush………………...……………………………….13
3.3 The Forest and the Armor…………………...…………………………………14
Conclusion 15
Bibliography 17

（一级标题加粗，二级标题不加粗）
17

Introduction小二，Times New Roman, 加粗.
正文采用首段缩进5个字符。
Introduction部分需要写明：1. 选题意义；2.对作品或作者的介绍（语言学方向这部分可省略）；3.文献综述；4.本论文研究框架。

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great romantic novelist in America in the 19th century and is considered to be the first greatest American fiction writer in the moralistic tradition. Hawthorne is outstanding in literature skill, especially in handling symbolism. His work — The Scarlet Letter is notable for its symbolism and is regarded as the first symbolic novel in American literature.
Nathaniel正文内容写法要求：1.单词不可以用缩写。2避免用第一人称和第二人，除非是直接引语。3.两位数以内的数字用英文拼写，两位以上的可以用阿拉伯数字标出即可。E.g. Twenty-two years, thirty dollars, 124 years, 5261 voters。4. 标点符号后空一个字符。

Hawthorne was born in Salem in 1804. He was born in a prestigious New England family closely related with Puritan church; his ancestors attended the persecution of people belonging to different churches, such as Quakers. When he was born, his family declined. He was aware of his ancestors’ misdeeds and thus “blackness of Hawthorne” formed. He thought that the reason of his family’s decline is his ancestors’ misdeeds. And he didn’t agree with the optimism held by Transcendentalists towards human nature. He wrote lots of works on everlasting evil side in human nature.
Hawthorne’s masterpiece includes his short story collections: Twice-Told Tales; Moses from an Old Manse and novels: The Scarlet Letter; The House of Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; The Marble Faun论文中英语书名用斜体字。
.
Hawthorne’s writing skills can be summarized as follows: Hawthorne seems to be influenced a lot by the sin and evil in his sense. He believes evil exists in human heart all the time. For example, in the novel The Scarlet Letter, the minister Dimmesdale tries to pretend how pure and pious he is. He wants to cover up the evil in his mind. Not only Dimmesdale wants to do like this, but also all the people in the world, because we are only human beings. And the evil just likes a mark that exists in our mind when we are born. And in Hawthorne’s mind, people who commit a crime must be punished, because people can get experience from this way. And also he supports people to tell the truth and not to offend.
The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, which is under Puritan command. The husband — an old and ugly scholar, sends a young woman, named Hester Prynne, ahead to America. However, for many years, he himself doesn’t arrive. Obviously, it is possible that he has been lost in the sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester and a young local minister called Arthur Dimmesdale fall in love with each other. They commit adultery secretly. Because of Hester’s Pregnancy, the secret is finally discovered. Hester and Dimmesdale love each other. But their love is forbidden in that strict society. It is sinful. Due to this fact, Hester is punished by society with a letter “A” on her chest, which is considered to be an evil, a shame.
Hester is brave enough to face the cruel society. She is always with a mind of courage. She has been alone with her child for so long a time, with little communication. Hester has to wear the letter “A” day by day, seven years as for punishment and ill fame. However, Hester is a kind-hearted woman and is always ready to help other people in the community without expecting any thanks. Later, people in the town no longer view the scarlet letter A as a punishment, but rather as representing her great strength and bravery and they say it means “Able”.
But Arthur Dimmesdale, his sin against Hester and Pearl is that he will not acknowledge them as his wife and daughter in the daylight. He is too weak to admit his sins. He suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. What’s worse, he is an advisor to the townspeople about their sins.
After Mr. Dimmesdale’s death, no one changes more in appearance than Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy has been used to harm his patient. This unhappy man has made his aim in life to add to the suffering of the young minister. When the evil old man no longer has such a purpose, the devil takes him back to the hell.
The Scarlet Letter is a cultural allegory, in which the author indirectly tells the future of Puritanism. The Scarlet Letter is a sample in which American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism.
The researches on The Scarlet Letter, both at home and overseas are quite flourishing: from its contents, writing skills to rhetorical devices, from its sin and sorrow to the destinies of the protagonists; interpreted by many a literary theory, it has been explored from the perspectives of polyphony, psychoanalysis, mythical prototypes and so on. In oversea academia, especially the American academia, since 1932 there has been studies on Nathaniel Hawthorne. At home, many scholars have discussed the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter. There are many studies about the Scarlet Letter “A”, such as Yang Yin’s The Different Symbolizing Meaning of A in The Scarlet Letter, which points out the letter A’s implied meaning changes as the theme develops. Jia Yan and Wang Lijuan make a study about the symbolism of the four major characters’ names in their paper, On the Symbolizing Meanings of The Main Characters in The Scarlet Letter. They think the heroine’s name Hester Prynne contains the meaning of beauty, passion, rash, hasty, desire, purifying the soul, and so on. While the hero, Arthur Dimmesdale, whose initials AD, which also stands for adultery. And the research on the symbolism of the objects in the settings has been studied by Zeng Yanbo, in his essay On Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, settings become one of major elements of symbolism, such as the scaffold, which is the dominating point at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the story. Zhang Julan makes a profound discussion about the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, and reveals the significance of symbolism in the novel. Besides, she also discusses the crime of the nature and the redemption of the God in the novel. In these articles, critics research the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter and the great significance of symbolism only from their special perspective. Therefore, a comprehensive and systematic study of the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is very necessary. This thesis will focus on the symbolism in detail based on above research results.
This thesis consists of three parts. The first part mainly discusses the symbolic meanings of the scarlet letter A. The scarlet letter A is the most important symbol in the book which changes its meaning gradually from beginning to the end. The second part illustrates the symbolic meaning of the four characters. Each character represents different moral aspects which also reflected through their names. The third part focuses on the other symbols and images used in the book, such as the prison and the rose bush which is also very help to build up the symbolic world of Hawthorne.

1 Various Symbolic Meanings of the Scarlet Letter “A”小二，Times New Roman, 加粗
各一级标题之间连续排版,不另起页.

1.1 The Change of the Symbolic Meanings of the Scarlet Letter “A”二级标题用三号字，加粗

In this novel, the scarlet letter “A” changes its meanings for many times. This change is very significant. It shows growth in the characters, and the community in which they live. At the very beginning, the letter “A” is regarded as a kind of sin or evil. Then with the development of the story, it becomes a symbol of alone and alienation of the female character Hester. Finally, it becomes a symbol of able, admirable and angel.
1.1.1 Adultery三级标题用四号字，加粗

In the novel, the letter “A”, worn on Hester’s bosom, is a symbol of her adultery against Roger Chillingworth. Putting the letter “A” on her bosom and letting her show to the public is the puritan way of treating her as a criminal, for the crime of adultery. Hester is 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. This is the common way to explain the symbolic meaning of the letter. The color of scarlet is the symbol of blood and desire. Hester and Dimmesdale cannot control their love for each other and become the criminals of God. A woman loses her purity and a holy minister is punished for bringing shame to his holy occupation. Red should be regarded as the symbol of love and life, but under the control of the Puritan strictness, Hester has to wear the scarlet letter “A” in order to be regarded as a symbol of shame and punishment.
“Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment…” (Brown 23不超过四行的引文写法：作者姓氏+空格+引文页码，如果引文中已经给出作者姓名，只需括号加注内页码即可。和正文后面的参考文献一致。
).句点放在括号之后。
Hester is ashamed of her sin, but she chooses to face the reality rather than escape from it. Many people may choose the way of leaving for some other places where nobody knows of her sin. However, Hester is brave enough to continue to live her life, which shows great strength and integrity of her.
1.1.2 Aloneness and Alienation
The scarlet letter “A” also symbolizes Hester’s lonely life in New England. Hester’s social life is virtually eliminated as a result of her shameful past. She has to live in such a community regardless of others’ ironical words and with great courage and ability. “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.” Hester comes to have a part to perform in the world with her native energy of character and rare capacity” (Chase 45). 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 little Pearl is the only companion of her lonely life. In other people’s eyes, Hester is a criminal and most of them regard communicating with her as a shameful thing. Therefore, the scarlet letter “A” is also a symbol of alone and alienation.
1.1.3 The Able, Admirable and Angel
“The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness is found in her so much power to do and power to sympathize — that many people refuses to interpret the scarlet letter “A” by its original signification” (Rubinstein 68). We can see that the meaning of the scarlet letter “A” changes from adultery to being able, angel and admirable. At the beginning, people living in the town looked down upon the woman because o