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关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 --毕业论文

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关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 --毕业论文关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 --毕业论文 【标题】关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 【作者】向学萍 【关键词】刑台;建筑物;植物;象征主义 【指导老师】赵洪尹 翟赫 【专业】英语 【正文】 I. Introduction A. A Brief Introduction to The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem. His ancestors were from a prestigious family...
关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读   --毕业论文
关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 --毕业论文 【标题】关于《红字》中意象的象征意义解读 【作者】向学萍 【关键词】刑台;建筑物;植物;象征主义 【指导老师】赵洪尹 翟赫 【专业】英语 【正文】 I. Introduction A. A Brief Introduction to The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem. His ancestors were from a prestigious family. Five generations before him, John Hawthorne was one of the three Judges in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. Later, his family became poorer and poorer, and in 1808, his father died of yellow fever. When Nathaniel Hawthorne was a boy, he lived in his hometown with his mother, and meanwhile he was influenced by the atmosphere, and formed religious thought. He studied the history of the Puritans. After his graduation from Bowdon College in Maine, he started his writing career and later became a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His short stories included Twice Told Tales (1837), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). His novels included The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Marble Faun (1860). The Scarlet Letter is a famous American novel whose author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is considered the leading American native fictionist of 19th century. The Scarlet Letter told us a story that in June 1642, in the Puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathered to witness punishment. A young woman, Hester Prynne, had been found guilty of adultery and wore a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom as a sign of sin. She refused to name the father of her litter child Pearl. As she looked out over the crowd, Hester noticed an aging, misshapen man, she recognized him as her husband, who was presumed to have died at sea. Then he chose a new name Roger Chillingworth and decided to take revenge on the child’s father. He knows that the much-admired brilliant young clergyman Dimmesdale was the father of the litter child by chance. So Roger became intimately acquainted with him. While tormented by guilty conscience, Dimmesdale could not find courage to tell the truth publicly. Later, Hester decided to ask him to leave the town with them. Before the day they left, Dimmesdale gave his most inspired sermons, and then he climbed on the scaffold and confessed his sin, then died, Roger Chillingworth also died the same year. Many years later, Pearl lived a happy life in Europe, and Hester came back to Boston, when she died, buried near the grave of Dimmesdale and they shared a simple tombstone. B. The Value of this Thesis The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne’s most important symbolic novel. Wu Weiren held a view: “A symbol is anything that is used to represent something other than itself. In literature it is most often a concrete object that is used to represent something broader and more abstract —often a moral, religious, or philosophical concept or value.” 1 Symbols range from the most obvious and mechanical substitution of one thing for another, to massive, complex, and perplexing creations. In literature, the definition of the literary device, symbolism, can simply be defined as being the art of practice of using symbols especially by investing things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or intangible by means of visible or sensuous representatives. Symbolism in literature is also the deepness and hidden meaning in a piece of work. It is often used to represent a moral or religious belief or value. Symbolism is a traditional artistic form. It began as a literary movement that development from Romanticism in France in the second half of the 19th century. In the tragedy of ancient Greece or the symbolic opera in the Middle Ages in Europe, the using of symbolism in the development of literature can be found everywhere. Symbolism is also a major feature of Romanticism. Hawthorne has made one of his most distinctive and significant contributions to the growth of American fiction through his use of symbols. As a famous writer of Romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at the using of it in his work. His work The Scarlet Letter has some originality when he uses the symbolism based on carrying on his traditional art and shows its own distinguishing features. This thesis aims at the exploration of the usage of the symbolism in the novel. It mainly discusses the deep symbolic significance of the scaffold, buildings and vegetation. From the several aspects, we can clearly see that in this novel, each image towards several effects .The Scarlet Letter stems from the fact that the story is highly symbolic. In a word, although the method of symbolism is developed rather than invented by Hawthorne, his unique and systematic use of it makes him the master of this writing technique. II. The Scaffold as the Symbol The scaffold plays an important role throughout the book. Hawthorne uses the scaffold to divide this story into three periods. Whenever the scaffold is mentioned, it is one of the three climaxes of the story. The first scaffold scene presents the humiliation on the scaffold. Hester is alone with her little Pearl in her hands on the scaffold although her lover, Dimmesdale is in the crowd as well. But he does not tell the truth that he is that adulterer owing to his cowardness. Hester Prynne is alone confronting all the humiliation before the people of her community: “there can be no outrage, methinks against our common nature –whatever be the delinquencies of the individual- no outrage more flagrant that to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame.”2 No matter how shameful you fell and willing to lower you head in order to hide the shameful expression, which is impossible. The scaffold signifies the rigor of puritanical law here. The second scene demonstrates for his hesitation on the scaffold in chapter 12,The Minister’s Vigil: And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in the vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain. Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud. 3 Dimmesdale has great difficulty in standing on the platform and confessing his sin. There is intense inner conflict in Dimmesdale’s mind, a struggle between his cowardness and his consciousness. He does it under in the darkness of night for no one can see him, as if he can hide his sin from God. The scaffold is a place for his penitence and acknowledgement of sin. The third scaffold scene presents the atonement on the scaffold. All conflicts in the story are resolved, including the conflict between Hester and Chillingworth, the conflict between little Pearl and her father Dimmesdale, and Dimmesdale’s own inner conflict. Dimmesdale takes Hester and Pearl by the hands and bravely stands on the scaffold to openly confess his sin in the light of day before the crowd. The confession finally gives him a sense of peace. The scaffold is used to show unity when this is done it signifies that Dimmesdale become to triumph over his sin and accept his daughter, so there the scaffold represents a new place for soul free. From the three scenes of the scaffold, although it is the same scaffold, the time and the figures are different .The scaffold has different symbols in different scenes. When Hester and Pearl are humiliated on the scaffold, it is impossible to hide the shameful expression. The scaffold signifies the rigor of puritanical law. At the same time, Dimmesdale can not stand on the scaffold and confess his sin. One night he is alone confess his sin and search inner peace on the scaffold. The scaffold represents the penitence and acknowledgement of sin. At the end of this story, Dimmesdale accepts Hester and his daughter in front of people, so there the scaffold represents a new place for soul free. III. Buildings as the Symbol A. Prison as a Symbol The opening chapter introduces the image prison: “The founders of a new colony what 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 a prison.” 4 The prison serves as the symbol of “the authority of the regime,”5 which will not tolerate deviance. “The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era.”6 The description of the prison indicates that it is cold, rusted, yet strong with an iron-clamped oaken door. This suggests the rigorous enforcement of regime and common people’s inability to break free of them. From ancient times to the present, prison is a place where takes criminal into custody. Hester fells in love with Dimmesdale, the young and handsome clergyman after her husband disappeared inexplicably. Because she conceives a baby, her secret love is exposed and she is put into prison. The prison serves as the symbol of the crime and punishment. B. Cottage as a Symbol After Hester is released from the prison, she finds a cottage in the woods near the outskirts of the town. Her choice of the habitation is crucial to the symbolism within the novel. Firstly, Hester gives full play to her specialty in the cottage. She does needlework to earn money and supply food for her thriving infant and herself. The cottage likes a refuge from the rigor of the Puritanism. Secondly, Hester makes her home on the outskirts of the town directly on the edge of the woods. In the town, Hester is a criminal. She is condemned to wear the scarlet letter “A” in front of her bosom and humiliated by people. We can say that Hester and Pearl live in a place of immoral universe. In the forest, Hester throws away the letter, Dimmesdale feels joy and the forest treats Pearl as a friend. They are like a family in the forest which as a symbol of freedom and happiness. Here we can say that Hester and Pearl live in a place of moral universe. The cottage sits between the woods and the town. Hester is putting herself in a place of limbo between the moral and the immoral universes. Because it shows that Hester does not live under the strict puritanical moral code, but rather tries to live in both worlds simultaneously. As building, the prison and cottage also have rich symbolic meanings. Prison itself as a symbol of the crime and punishment. But when the prison with an “iron-clamped oaken door’’, it serves as the symbol of the authority of the regime. After Hester released from prison, Hester and Pearl live in the cottage which as a refuge from the rigor of Puritanism. But here, the cottage sits between the woods and the town. Heater makes herself in a place of limbo between the moral and the immoral universes. IV. Vegetation as the Symbol A. Forest as a Symbol In The Scarlet Letter, each character embodies a different aspect of the symbolic meaning of the forest. For some the forest may be a place of sinister thoughts and wrong doing, but for others it is a place of happiness and freedom. The first encounter with the forest we have symbolizes just some of the evil that lingers within the darkness of the forest. As Hester and Pearl are leaving governor Bellingham’s estate they are confronted by mistress Hibbins who explains that the witches are meeting in the forest, and then she invites Hester to become more deeply involved in her evil deeds. “Wilt thou go with us tonight.”7 asked mistress Hibbins. Yet Hester refused to sign her name in the black man’s book on that night. She explains that the only reason she does not sign is because Pearl is still in her life. Here we can see that the forest is a symbol of the world of darkness and evil. But in The Scarlet Letter the forest symbolizes more than that. At this time the forest itself is an access to love and freedom for both Heater and Dimmesdale. It is a place where the letter on their bodies can no longer have an effect on them. In the forest Dimmesdale feels joy: Do I feel joy again! cried he, wondering at himself. Methought the germ of it was dead in me! O Hester, thou art my better angel! I seem to have flung myself-sick, sin-stained, and sorrow-blackened-down upon these forest leaves, and to have risen up a made anew, and with new powers to glorify him that hath been merciful! This is already the better life! Why did we not find it sooner?8 As a symbol of freedom and happiness, Hester throws away the letter and undoes her hair. Appropriately, a flood of sunshine illuminates the forest, dispelling the darkness: Her sex ,her youth, and the whole richness of the beauty, came back from what men call the irrevocable past, and clustered themselves, with her maiden hope and happiness before unknown, within the magic circle of this hour. And, as if the gloom of the earth and sky had been but the effluence of these two mortal hearts, it vanished with their sorrow. 9 For her this is really freedom. In Pearl’s eyes the forest has a totally different concept. To Pearl the forest is like a best friend. The animals do not runaway at her every move, the partridge clucks to her, the pigeon utters a sound as greeting , the squirrel chatters at her and flings down a nut upon her head, the fox looks inquisitively at her , even the wolf just comes up and smells Pearl’s robe. To Hester, Dimmesdale and Pearl, they are all freedom and happiness in the forest.Forest treats them as if they are one of its own. B. Rosebush as a Symbol Hawthorne directly challenges this notion by mentioning the name Ann Hutchinson into the opening page. Hutchinson is a woman who disagreed with the puritanical teachings and as a result is sentenced to death by the puritan church. Hawthorne claims that it is possible the beautiful rosebush growing directly at the prison door sprang from her footsteps: This rosebush by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally over-shadowed it-or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door-we shall not take upon us to determine. 10 This implies that the puritanical authority may be too rigid to the point of obliterating things of beauty. Yi Lixin once wrote in a book that the rosebush was a symbol of passion. 11 Part of Hester Prynne’s sin arise from her passion, thus linking her crime to the image of the rosebush. Hawthorne also indirectly compares Heater with Ann Hutchinson via the rosebush and again makes the same parallel in chapter13, Another View of Hester. Hawthorne cleverly links the rosebush to the wilderness surrounding Boston, commenting that the rosebush may be a remnant of the former forest, which covered the area. This is important, because it is only in the forest wilderness where the puritans’ law fails to have any force. Thus the image of the rosebush serves to foreshadow that some of the passionate wilderness in the form of Hester Prynne may have accidentally made its way into Boston. The rosebush in full bloom indicates that Hester is at the peak of her passion. This parallels the fact: “Hester has just born a child as a result of her passion. The child is thus comparable to the blossoms of the rosebush.” 12 As vegetation, the forest and rosebush in this novel also have their different symbolic meaning. The forest is not only as the world of darkness and evil, but also as a symbol of happiness and freedom. And linking Hester’s crime to the image of the rosebush, it is a symbol of passion. V. Conclusion Symbolism is a traditional artistic form. It also is a major feature of romanticism. As a famous writer of romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at using of symbolism in his works. The various usage of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter makes the novel a work of the world. Every image in The Scarlet Letter has symbolic meaning which displayed through the scaffold, the building and the vegetation. Exactly speaking, when Hester and Pearl are humiliated on the scaffold, it signifies the rigor of puritanical law. When Dimmesdale is alone confess his sin and search inner peace on the scaffold at night, the scaffold as a symbol of the penitence and acknowledgement of sin. At the end of this story, Dimmesdale accepts Hester and his daughter in front of the crowd, the scaffold represents a new place for soul free. Prison itself as a symbol of the crime and punishment. But when the prison with an “iron-clamped oaken door’’, it serves as the symbol of the authority of the regime. After Hester released from prison, Hester and Pearl live in the cottage which as a refuge from the rigor of Puritanism. But here, the cottage sits between the woods and the town. Heater makes herself in a place of limbo between the moral and the immoral universes. As vegetation, the forest is not only as the world of darkness and evil, but also as a symbol of happiness and freedom. And linking Hester’s crime to the image of the rosebush, it is a symbol of passion. Through the study of the strongly symbolic story, we can conclude that Hawthorne’s works has much depth of thought, which is not separated from his growing surroundings. The Scarlet Letter is considered by many to be the greatest accomplishment of an author hailed as the master of the American short story. It is often considered as the first American psychological novel. In summary Hawthorne is really a great symbolic novelist.
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