An Analysis of Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter
By
Tang Guaiguai
Under the Supervisor of
Zhu Liping
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
English Department School of Foreign Languages
Lanzhou Jiaotong University
June 2015
摘要
纳桑尼尔.霍桑是美国19世纪浪漫主义小说家.处在美国文艺复兴时期的霍桑，崇尚民主与自由,而同时又不能完全摆脱心灵深处清教思想的束缚。
因而他既是一个清教势力的批判者，又是清教思想的继承者。
《红字》是霍桑长篇小说的代表作。
其突出的艺术特色是其丰富的象征主义，因此被称为第一部象征主义小说. 小说中各种事物的象征寓意都呈现出多义性、系统性、和隐晦性。
本文拟从小说红字“A”,这一贯穿全文的意象，主要人物的名字以及场景描写等这三方面来探讨其多重的象征主义。
通过分析作品中的各种象征主义来揭示作者的创作意图,从而更好地理解小说的主旨。
第一章主要介绍了霍桑和《红字》及相关研究，并简单解释了象征主义及其作用。
主体部分分为三部分，第一部分分析红色字母A随着故事情节发展而具有的不同的象征意义即通奸—痛苦—能干—天使。
第二部分详细阐述了四个主要人物名字的象征意义，美丽直率的海斯特，孤僻忧郁的丁梅斯代尔，冷漠无情的奇灵渥斯，以及阳光女孩珠儿。
第三部分主要对作品中描述的意象的象征意义具体分析。
结语部分总结全文。
关键词：霍桑；《红字》；象征主义
Abstract
Nathaniel Hawthorne is a famous American romantic novelist in nineteenth century. As in American Renaissance, Hawthorne advocates democracy and freedom, but at the same time, he is bounded and cannot completely get rid of the deep influence of Puritanism. Therefore, he is a critic of Puritanism, and is the successor of Puritanism. The Scarlet Letter is the masterpiece of Hawthorne’s long novel. The prominent artistic feature of The Scarlet Letter is its rich symbolism; therefore it is called the first symbolism novel. The symbolism meanings of all kinds of objects in the novel show the polysemy, motility, and even contradictory.
This paper will explore the multiple symbolic meaning from the scarlet letter “A”, the names of t he main characters and objects that described in the novel. Through the analysis of various symbolisms, we can reveal the composing intention of author, and better understanding of the novel's theme. This paper consists of the three parts including introduction, main body and conclusion.
The introduction part mainly introduces Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter and the related researches. The main body includes three parts. The first part chiefly analyses the different symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter “A” that changes with the development of the story. The second part expounds the symbolic meaning of the four main characters’ names. Beautiful and candid Hester, unsocial and gloomy Dimmesdale, cold and detached Chilingworth and sunny girl Pearl. The third part mainly describes the symbolic meaning of the images that written in the novel, such as prison, scaffold, and rose-bush and forest. The final part is conclusion.
Key words: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, symbolism
Contents
摘要 (I)
Abstract ........................................................................................................................ I I Contents (III)
Chapter One Introduction (1)
1.1 Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter (1)
1.2 Literature Review (2)
1.3 Significance of the Study (3)
Chapter Two The Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet letter “A” (4)
2.1 Adultery (5)
2.2 Anguish (5)
2.3 Able (6)
2.4 Angel (7)
Chapter Three Symbolic Meaning of the Main Characters’ Names (8)
3.1 Hester Prynne (8)
3.2 Arthur Dimmesdale (9)
3.3 Roger Chillingworth (10)
3.4 Pearl (11)
Chapter Four The Symbolic Meaning of the Objects and Settings (13)
4.1 The Prison (13)
4.2 The Scaffold (13)
4.3 The Rose bush (14)
4.4 The Forest (15)
Chapter Five Conclusion (16)
References (18)
Acknowledgments (19)
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne is a famous American novelist and short story writer. He is the most important American romantic representative in the late nineteenth century, and also one of the greatest novelists in the history of American literature. Hawthorn's works belong to romanticism or, more specifically, dark romanticism. Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England, combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and biography. His later writings also reflect his negative view of the Transcendentalism movement.
The Scarlet Letter is the representative work of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s long novel, which focuses on the performance of the author’s thought and artistic features. When this book was published, it achieved a success. Hawthorne used symbolism widely in The Scarlet Letter and made four major figures together skillfully with the only word “A”. The use of symbolism in the story is full of mystery that enriches the ideological content of the works, and also increases the novel’s artistic charm. It leaves imaginative space and infinite aftertaste to readers. The Scarlet Letter’s biggest success is the skillful use of symbolism and the excellent control ability. Hawthorne’s rich and unique symbolism opened a symbolic novel as an independent literary variety precedent. Hawthorne became one of founders of modern literature of symbolism, also makes the scarlet letter became the first American’s cross-border book, and won the world reputation in literary works.
1.2 Literature Review
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most influential American romantic novelists in the nineteenth century. Because of Hawthorne’s moral ambiguity, his rich visual imagination, his deep exploration of the dreams capes of individuals, communities, and the nation, and especially his “power of blackness” as Melville called it, his works keep intriguing great interests and huge passion of the critics of different times and different perspectives.
The Scarlet Letter is considered as one of the greatest works in American literature. The reasons why it is so famous are that its ambiguous connotations, delicate representations, mystical imaginations, thrilling moral implications as well as its ambiguous attitude towards women. Critics study it from different angles and levels, but all the critics gave the highest evaluation to The Scarlet Letter. In recent years, there are many domestic and foreign academic attics which are writing the scarlet letter, for example, Bianjun has studied the psychological description in the scarlet letter; Yang Xiaomei has analyzed Hawthorne’s ambivalent attitude towards women in the scarlet letter; Jin Xiaowei has studied Hawthorne’s Christian thoughts, and so on.
However, another attraction is Hawt horne’s skillful use of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter. Symbolism is one of the most important writing skills, which endows the concrete images with abstract meaning to enlighten the reader’s imagination and to express a deeper meaning. If we want to explore the deeper significance through the surface, it is not a simple thing. It must involve in many disciplines and theoretical problems, so this paper will study the symbolism of The Scarlet Letter.
1.3 Significance of the Study
The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s representative work. Hawthorne used skillful symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, which made The Scarlet Letter became the first symbolic novel in the world. Hawthorne expresses super space, and super material for "another world" through the symbolism that consciousness cannot achieve, and put the infinite meaning in the finite things.
This paper mainly analyzes the significance symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter “A”, the main characters’ names and the objects described in the nov el. Through the study of the symbolism of The Scarlet letter,it can not only make the symbolism significance of characters clearer to the readers, but also shed light on the symbolic significance of objects. At the same time, the history of the America at that time will be clearly shown to readers. And then, it broadens readers’ horizons. By the research of the symbolism of the Scarlet letter, it will provide a new view to readers about symbolism. It helps people to further understand Hawthorne’s opinion a nd his other works. It also helps people learn to use skillful symbolism in their own writings. Meanwhile, readers can find the themes of the novel in different aspects, and then understand the novel completely.
Chapter Two The Symbolic Meaning of the Scarlet letter
“A”
Symbol, a kind of artistic creation, mainly depends on the specific things to express the abstract meaning, in order to induce the reader’s imagination and association, so as to achieve an ideological realm to afford much food for thought. It ranges from the most obvious and substitution of one thing for another, to massive, complex and perplexing creations. Characters, names, scenes and even events can be used symbolically.
In the 19th century, with the fast developments of the economy, American has stepped into a new stage, while the traditional Puritanism still influenced thoughts of people. Furthermore, 19th century is also the time of culture renaissance; the Transcendentalism and the Mysticism are very popular at that time. Influenced by Puritanism, Transcendentalism and Mysticism, Hawthorne is motivated to make a much deeper exploration on human nature and cause his ambiguity and conflicts in inner heart. On one hand, he realizes that the strict Puritanism destroy the freedom and happiness of people, on the other hand, he cannot eradicate the tradition thoughts such as “ original sin” from his mind since he was born. Such struggle and conflicts make him feel ambiguous and confused about life and world. He cannot find a good way to change this world and reveal his ideal; as a result, he chooses symbolism to show his plight and dilemma. The reason why he chooses it is that symbolism can make his intention have more than one meaning, so that he can reveal his contradictory thoughts.
“A” has rich symbolic meaning and mystery color, and it almost appears in every scene of this novel and links every character skillfully. It is sewn on Hester's coat, carved on her tombstone after her death, mystically tattooed on Dimmesdale’s chest, even miraculously appeared in the sky during the development process of the story. The scarlet letter “A” has the richest symbolic meaning in the novel. But the symbolic meaning of “A” is not immutable and frozen; it will change with the story developing an d the anther’s basis on the point. Now I will analyze the symbolic meaning from the
romantic angle of modern people.
2.1 Adultery
The scarlet letter “A” is a symbol of adultery when it first appears in the story. “A” is the first letter in the English a lphabet. “First” is “origin”, firstly it means beginning. According to the Christian doctrine, “origin” means degenerate, and it is the original sin that no one could avoid, and it is also the original degeneration of human’s ancestors. In this work, the s carlet letter “A” is a symbol of Puritan punishment, and it represents the shamed adultery. According to the request of puritan doctrine at that time, a woman who has adultery must adorn the scarlet letter that embroidered on her gown as a punishment, in order to show her crime to people. Let people that a little crime will pay a heavy price, in order to set a good example to execute one as a warning to others. Hester fall in love with minister Dimmesdale without knowing her husband live or not, that beyond the bottle line of morality. Finally it is known by others because the birth of Pearl. Then Hester is judged by ministers at Scaffold, even though the ministers alternate between coercion and temptation to force her to tell who Pearl’s father was, Hester never ever says that. Therefore, Hester is punished to adorn the scarlet letter “A” in her whole life, to show her crime to people, so at the beginning of this story, “A” means adultery.
2.2 Anguish
“A” also stands for anguish, which can be found from the two main characters. Firstly, it is Hester. She loves life, has high prospect and great expectation for love. However, finally she marries an old pedant Chilingworth who is incapable of giving her any happiness, and he has ugly appearance and physical deformity. This is her first step into the deep suffering. After she immigrates to the new world, she meets her true lover—Dimmesdale. However, because of limitation of marriage and exigency of puritan doctrine, even though they fall in love with each other under those pressures, they bring endless pain to both of them. Hester had bear the scarlet letter “A” in her
whole life, no matter how many meanings does the “A” have, the primary meaning is adultery, and finally she brings it into her grave. In order to protect her lover from affront, she is willing to endure all of sufferings in silence and it last for seven years. In spite of such sacrifice, this poor and persistent woman never wins the beautiful love that she has been looking forward to.
Another anguish person is Dimmesdale, the pain he born does not come from the outside world, but himself. The scarlet letter “A” Hester adorned is a symbol of shame, but it is also a beautiful decoration. But for D immesdale, “A” is an invisible brand, and a painful suffering. Having no courage to admit his crime, Dimmesdale became Hester’s inquisition faintheartedly. However, even though his crime is not been exposed, the pain buried deeply in his heart does not have spiritual comfort. He is contradicted and complicated, and he wanders between confessing his crime and his clergyman status. All of those pains depresses him breakdown.
2.3 Able
The symbolic meanings of red letter “A” are more than “adultery and anguish”. Later, its meaning changes into “able, and admirable”. At the beginning, all people in downtown blamed Hester for committing adultery. However, the red letter “A” showed the ability that she is skillful in needlework, and the virtue that she tries her best to help poor and sick people. Her skill in needlework firstly can be seen from the decoration for the scarlet letter “A”, she stitched the “A” on her gown with gold thread that makes it beautiful and elegant. Hester makes it become a fine art, and it becomes one of her beautiful ornament as time passes. Her skill in needlework also can be seen from the colorful and pretty clothes of her daughter—Pearl. Even Hester herself always worn simple and plain gown, but she always tried her best to make exquisite clothes for Pearl. Hester was so skillful in needle that makes her famous in whole downtown. Even when many people still accuse her of her crime, they begin to ask Hester to make an excellent needlework for them, especially for the rich and the noble. Her outstanding needle works not only allow her to maintain a stable life, but also prove she was very able.
2.4 Angel
With the time going, Hester always helps the poor and the sick without any repaying, and she even does not dare to hope others would accept her. However, after years of Hester’s help, service and showing sympathy to the poor downtown’s people, “A” is gradually regarded as a symbol of “admirable and angle”. “The letter is the symbol of her beautiful characters. Such helpfulness is found in her so much power to do and power to sympathies --- which many people refuse to interpret the scarlet letter “A” by its original signification.” At this time, people realize Hester had a noble character, and she is an admirable woman. “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 comforting to the afflicted!” people in town began to believe that Hester is the angle who gave her love and time to the people who needed it. Finally, Hester use her spiritual innocence and kindness to redeem for her crime, and became an able, admirable angle.
Chapter Three Symbolic Meaning of the Main Characters’
Names
In British and American literature, it is a common writing way to give characters in works the special name. Those names not only help authors to enrich the portrayal of character, but also show readers the relationship between characters and themes. This feature also can be seen from the names that Hawthorne gave to the four main characters in The Scarlet Letter.This special way of naming will make the works more wonderful, and it will centrally reflect the rich symbolic meaning of names, thus it can help readers to grasp the theme of works deeply and comprehensively. In this chapter, we will carefully analyze the symbolic meaning of main characters’ names. 3.1 Hester Prynne
The heroine of story—Hester Prynne, as a poor women who is retaliated by her heartless husband, but she does not lose courage of life. Her inner heart is full of strength and yearning for beautiful life. There is no doubt that the meaning of her name is the reflection of her personality traits, this is reason why the author give this name to her.
The word “Hester” has two main meanings. Firstly, “Hester” put readers in mind of Hesti-a-- sister of Zeus, a goddess who controls the kitchen range. She stands for warmth, so author give this name to the heroine to show his profound meaning. In story, Hester is always happy to others even though she is also in trouble. She not only feeds Pearl by her skillful needle works but also help the poor and the sick. The behavior of Hester makes this chill world warmer. Secondly, Hester sounds like “hastier”, which is the comparative of “hasty”. It means thoughtless and rash, actually, Hester’s marriage is hasty. No matter what reason is it; the decision that she marries old and ugly Chilingworth is so rash that she does not feel happy at all. After she immigrates to the new world, she falls in love with young and handsome minister
Dimmesdale without careful consideration. Her crime is exposed when she gives birth to Pearl. Then she is punished by ministers to wear the scarlet letter in her whole life.
The meaning of Hester’s name makes us cautious deeply about what is author’s intention of creation? On one hand, Hawthorne appreciates highly Hester’s helpful actions; on the other hand, he makes her pay a painful price for her hasty behavior. Why does he let Hester goes into the hole she digs for herself, and then makes her shiny because of her kindness and diligence? It is because the author has been deeply influenced by Puritanism thoughts. He wants to approve of Hester’s behavior, but at the same time, he is afraid for criticism. He feels this kind of behavior goes against the doctrine of puritanism. All of this indicates that the theme of this work is ambiguous, or in other words, it is diversified. You had to admit that the author has great originality in the portrait of Hester Prynne, which highlight the theme convincingly by its rich symbolic meaning.
3.2 Arthur Dimmesdale
The hero of this story is Arthur Dimmisdale who is a well-regarded minister. Dim means dark and weak and dale means valley, so it means Dimmesdale is a “dim—interior” clergyman. Actually, His pain completely comes from himself not the outside world. He is a very hypocritical and cowardly man. He could not resist his lust and impetuosity and do the things he should not to do that go against the god he believed. However, he has no courage to admit his crime, because he is admirable and respectable minister, and he is perfect in the eyes of common people. As a model and good example, his followers even regard him as angle.
In order to protect his honor and status, he had to conceal his crime. However, he is very anguish in his inner heart because of moral torment, spiritual self-accusation and the devotional respect of his congregations. Such contradictory that the outside and the inside are not in agreement make him feel utmost pressure and depressed. In the end of this work, in order to avoid unbearable pressure, the minister stands in the scaffold and throws back his clothes to show his crime to the world. The scarlet letter “A” on his breast is bared under the sun. However, how could this world appears on
his breast? Is it the minister who branded the letter by himself in order to confess his sin? Or is it the god who marks this letter to punish his crime? Despite Hawthorne does not tell readers how this letter comes, it strengthens artistic appeal of this work and make readers have free imagination.
The initials of Arthur Dimmesdale are AD, which stands for Adam. It proves that the crime that Hester and Dimmesdale commits just like the Adam and Eva. Adam is attracted by Eva, and then eats the Forbidden Fruit. Finally they annoy the god and are driven out of the Garden of Eden. As a noble minister, Dimmesdale also do the things that he should not do, and he is finally abandoned by gods because of his crime, so then propels him towards the road of death. In short, the author makes readers learn the destiny of Arthur Dimmesdale from his name, how wonderful it is!
3.3 Roger Chillingworth
Roger Chillingworth is one of the main characters in this work. He is the representatives of intellectuals, but he is old, ugly and physical deformity. Actually, he is the man who commits the unforgivable crime. For a long time, he goes against his conscience, and lives alone relying on his crazy revenge on Dimmesdale and Hester.
His name Roger sounds like rogue, obviously, it shows that he is a hoodlum and in immoral behavior in the work. He marries Hester not because he loves her but he needs someone to light the household fire in his lonely and chilly heart. He cannot satisfy young and beautiful Hester’s good expectation for the true love. Such miserable marriage destroys He ster’s youth and leads to Hester’s tragedy directly. From this aspect, it is Roger chillingworth that attributes to the scarlet letter and the later crime.
When he escapes from the Indians and comes back to the new world, he sees his wife is criticized for adultery by chance. At this time, he loses his sense completely and plans to revenge crazily. Even though he does not love Hester, he does not let her go to find her love but forces her to tell who is adulterer. After Hester refuses to tell him the truth, he decides to find the man by himself. He neither intends to help Hester get rid of troublesome life, nor consoles her in the mental. After he knows that the
adulterer is Arthur Dimmesdale, he pretends to be a doctor and tortures the young minister crazily. In this moment, Chillingworth has lost his human nature completely, and his heart is full of hatred. The man who lives with animosity usually does not have good end, when he destroys others, he also destroys himself too.
His surname Chillingworth is made of chilling and worth. Chilling comes from the word “chilly”, which means the man is cold and merciless. Hester pleads him many times to stop his revenge to Dimmesdale, but he never gives up. He has crazily tortured Dimmesdale for seven years, finally makes the young minister’s mental breakdown. After Dimmesdale dies, Chilingworth loses courage and hope of life because for a long time, he has lost himself and just lives for revenge, so soon he dies too.
3.4 Pearl
Firstly, Pearl is the beautiful daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale, and she is the only sunny person in the novel. The word “pearl” is originated from the Bible stories and it means the very previous things. Even though the birth of Pearl explores the secret between Hester and Dimmesdale , and makes them pay the high price for their crime, Pearl still is a priceless treasure in their heart.Moreover, Pearl is the only spiritual sustenance of Hester and encourages her to face with the unbearable humiliation an d blame. Just as the description in the work “she named the infant ‘Pearl’, as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother’s only treasure!” Hawthorne compares Pearl to many beautiful things. She is a beautiful flower, a brilliant sunbeam, and most importantly, she provides an emotional anchor for Hester. The existence of Pearl conciliates Hester’s heart and makes her forget the suffering she bearing.
Secondly, Pearl sounds like purl, which means the author wants to compare little Pearl to a clear murmuring stream. Pearl is not only the reminders of Hester and Dimmesdale’s crime, in other words, she is a mirror or an alarm bell for their crime; but also she is the soul sanctifier of Hester and Dimmesdale, which supervise and urge them to correct their errors and make a fresh start. There are relevant descriptions
in the work: Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the brook and Pearl in other side, even though they are close to each other, Pearl never crosses the stream and comes to them. Just as the m inister says “the stream is the boundary of two worlds”. If the stream is the boundary of innocence and evil, then Pearl is the little demon on the other side.
Among the four main characters, only Pearl is perfect in the moral, and innocent in the heart. As a symbol of beauty and innocence, there is no doubt that her existence is a power of aspiration, which make us believe that life and society are beautiful and hopeful.
Chapter Four The Symbolic Meaning of the Objects and
Settings
In the novel, except for the symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter “A” and four main characters’ names, the objects and settings that are described in the work also have the rich symbolic meaning, such as the prison, the scaffold, the rose bush, and the forest.
4.1 The Prison
At the beginning of this story, the prison is introduced firstly in chapter one as “the founders of a new colony, whatever 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 prison”. It shows that the old, rusted, yet strong with an “iron—clamped oaken door” prison represents the harshness and sacrosanct authori ty of puritan society. Prison should have been the production of human civilization to punish the evil. However, in the novel, prison is the black flower of civilized society, and it is the symbol of puritanical severity and frightfulness. The traditional moral idea has warped the mind of human beings; the good and evil have been distorted. Actually, prison has been the shackles of human nature. The door of prison was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes. Such oak door and sharp spikes represents the rigorousness and restraint, ignorance and brutality, stubbornness and decay of this religious customs.
4.2 The Scaffold
The scaffold plays an important role in the entire work, and it is the symbol of judgment of god. The scaffold appears many times in the work; it not only represents the strict moral code of Puritan community but also is the place where people admit their crime and atone for their crime. In chapter three “The recognition”, Hester
stands on the scaffold with holding Pearl in the arms for three hours to accept the question of ministers and the rebuke of the general public. Dimmesdale cannot bear the torture and stands on the scaffold in the deep night under illusion that he takes Hester and Pearl to confess his crime to the world. He wants to gain the redemption; however, his penance in the deep night is meaningless. He must confess his sin in the day in public; he can get the remission of the sin in the heart. At the end of story, Dimmesdale calls up all his courage to stand on the scaffold with taking the Hester and Pearl by the hands and confess his sin in the light of day before a crowd of people.
Finally, the confession gives him the sense of peace and ends his pain and suffering. He accepts his love and his daughter eventually. The scaffold is a symbol of crime and public humiliation, and it is a means of punishment. Besides, the scaffold is also a place of atonement as well, it gives the guilty people an opportunity to get redemption and born again. So scaffold is the symbol of acknowledge of the sin, only in here, can Hester and Dimmesdale admit their sin and finally set themselves from the inner bitterness.
4.3 The Rose bush
“But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush! Just as the author describes in the novel, before the ugly prison, a beautiful rose-bush is in full bloom. This rose-bush represents human beings’ original natural desire and tenacious vitality, and it is the symbol of beauty and kindness. No matter how harsh and prison is, but the ideal human nature never ends, just like the wild rose-bush blooming. Meanwhile, rose-bush shows the blazing passion of Hester, which results to her sin, and she gives birth to Pearl as the peak of her passion. Hawthorne compares the Pearl to the rose-bush, and criticizes the flower as the “moral blossom”. The fruit of this flower is the child of Hester and Dimmesdale, that is to say, Pearl will serve to provide the moral of the story.
The author is much cautious about the source of the rose-bush, whether is it grows naturally in there or another rebellious woman lefts it when she is put in jail. In。
